Hello Mike & All,

>And what would that be, Bob?

First let me say I see no signs of CCD in my bees. The bees are slightly
behind what I would like to see according to when our main honey flow
normally starts (June 1 St.). However June 1st.  is past and the nectar is
not flowing *strong* yet so things are catching up. I actually need the bees
to fill the arches around the brood with honey before putting on my supers.

The beekeeper which said he had possible CCD last year ( said so on survey)
and thinks he is seeing problems now and I have been in contact. I have
looked through his deadouts etc. I found a couple problems which would
explain his deadouts. His deadouts did not fit the CCD description and his
honey supers are on now so all we can do is wait and see.

My plan.
All my hives have been reworked this spring ( 80% 2007 queens /20% 2006
queens). All are equal in strength and building towards hive peak. No supers
are on but will be supered this week( .. Some could have been but have been
opening up brood nests and equalizing brood)  All had brood comb looked at
last week. No problems.

I do intense management of production colonies.

Once supered only random checks on brood will be made.

BROOD COMB IS THE PLACE TO LOOK FOR CCD.

Corn in our area is only at best inches tall. Will produce serious pollen in
late July and into August. Time hives in our area went backwards last year.

I plan to rent an airplane at the local airport after supers are on and fly
over my yards. checking for large areas of row crops within two miles of
each yard. The air is the best way to judge plus to find large areas of
Clover not seen from roads. If I find a large area of bee forage and move
hives into the area it will more than pay for the airplane rental.

Then fly south into cattle country to plot areas in which no row crops are
grown. I plan to find a large holding yard in those areas free of row crops.

I realize having all supers pulled as soon as the main honey flow is over is
not possible. At times I am still extracting in November and this looks like
a big year. So I will pull as many as possible and then move the hives,
supers and all to the holding yard . Away from row crop pollen. Then pull
the supers as needed in the holding yard. I want no pollen from pesticide
treated seed in my hives. I have also been told. ( may or not be true) that
when pesticide treated seed is used the pesticide can stay in the ground and
even non pesticide treated seed the next year will pick up the systemic
pesticide. Does the list know if this is true?
The above plan was given to me by a large beekeeper in another country which
has been through contaminated pollen issues in the past.
He also gave advice on further testing which would be expensive but *may* be
done. He suggested leaving a pallet ( four hives) in each of my yards and
monitor the difference between moving or not moving away from the problem.

This actually would be a huge amount of work and cost as I need a certain
number of hives in a yard to be cost effective. Maintaining and monitoring
many yards with a single pallet is not something I can afford to do at my
busy time of the year. The loss of the hives is not the big concern but the
fuel and labor cost plus the time taken away from other jobs needing doing
is.

The last option and the option agreed on by myself and my beekeeping partner
is to relocate all hives of both operations north into Nebraska to an area
which produced record crops last year , plenty of fall pollen and no CCD
problems.
The problem here is doing a long move in the hottest time of the year. 80F.
even at night. Short moves are not risky but long moves are risky. Also what
to do with hives still heavy with honey supers.

None of the above plans are easy to implement and not costly. A version of
the above is too strip supers and move only the best yards out of harms way
and let the other half dwindle. depopulate and use after supers are pulled
to rebuild in spring.

I have had a large numbers of requests off line for my plans so decided to
publish in hopes other beekeepers find find useful information.  Each
beekeepers situation is different.

What are others planning to do if they start seeing hives going backward in
early fall?

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Missouri


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