Continued elaboration-

Tony Jadczak sent the following which was posted on a local chapters list-

Mortality in ME is the highest I have seen since the late 1980's (tracheal
> mite& associated virus) and again in 1994. Several factors influenced
> mortality such as: last summer's drought, the lack of a fall honey flow and
> very high Varroa populations& associated virus last summer and fall. Put it
> all together and we had many skinny bees with pathogen loads entering winter
> that died prematurely and resulted in hives with small clusters. Last fall,
> was also the first time since 1994 that CCD-like symptoms were documented in
> ME. (populous hives dwindling to no or few bees in a week or more.
>

I inspected my dead outs and they tracked fairly well with the died early
and left small clusters Tony described. There was plenty of honey but
because the clusters were so small, they eventually starved. Lots of Varroa
on the bottom boards.

No bee poop on frames even though there was uncapped honey, both liquid and
granulated (typical of fall honey in Maine). Interesting that the survivor
has dysentery indications on the outside of the hive which would fit with
their still eating fall honey which causes dysentery. They are still alive
so had to tolerate it all winter as opposed to the ones that died early and
never faced the problem. In each dead hive, there was honey over and around
the dead bees, so they never made it to late, much less mid-winter.

Each of the dead hives had strong indications of Varroa, not just with dead
mites on the bottom board, but Varroa feces in cells and stunted bees. There
were no indications of AFB.

I would not rule out CCD, but one would think it would have wiped out all
the bees. I would rule in Tracheal as an added possible problem as it is
still alive and well in Maine. But the way the bees died in one hive, never
leaving the hive like they do with tracheal, indicates their deaths were
fairly quick, more in keeping with a pathogen/virus and Varroa.

Two had signs of mouse damage, but it was isolated and I have never lost a
colony, until now, with mice damage. More of a nuisance than a problem.

In all, the signs point toward early colony death from a combo of Varroa and
virus, which the essential oils are touted to prevent. The colony that
survived was because of the bee, not the treatment, which gets me back to
one of my other axioms, "Good bees make good beekeepers".

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm