I looked at the Bee Culture article by Jim Fischer "Tracking a Serial Killer", and noted in it that he states that Bayer has offered to do imidacloprid analyses for the CCD group.  This immediately brought to my mind a few suggestions:

1.  Some samples of HFCS 55 corn syrup should be sent to Bayer for analysis.   One sample from a batch lot represents a huge amount of corn and is very significant.   I noted in my last post (which no one responded to) that the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency has placed the maximum residue level of imidacloprid in corn at 80 ppb, which is above the lethal dose for bees (LD50).   What I would really like to know is what happens to the imidacloprid in the processing (it is a very stable molecule, with a half life of 288 to over 400 days in soil, depending on the amount of organic material in the soil).  So a sample before and after processing would be helpful.   A few samples taken from different plants (one per batch lot) would indicate the variability in levels from different areas and therefore might explain why one beekeeper would have problems with this feed while another wouldn't.   I have no idea whether this has any connection to CCD,  but I think if they are offering to do some testing it is worth investigating.

2.  Ask Bayer Crop Science for the results of Jim Kemp's sampling of my hives in PEI in 2003.   My hives were on canola following imidacloprid treated potatoes and I asked Jim to sample hives with exactly the symptoms that  Jim Fischer mentioned in his article:   tiny cluster of bees with a laying queen and several frames of abandonned brood, lots of stores.   The brood was often beset with chalkbrood and EFB (naturally, there were no adults to feed them or clean out the mummies) and the queen and few remaining bees would often retreat to a small patch of clean comb.    I am sure that if you do a search of my postings on this list and the right keywords you will find exactly that description of my problems long before anyone was talking about CCD.   

Bayer spent a lot of money funding Jim Kemp and Dick Rogers to study hives here in PEI in 2001.  The results of those tests have been used to claim the safety of the product.  But with all the testing they did for viruses, diseases etc.,  they never came up with any suggestion that remotely came close to explaining those symptoms.   Back then imidacloprid was not used on corn (it was first registered in Canada as an emergency treatment for PEI potatoes!).   I think it worth looking at the level in corn syrup that we feed.

Stan

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