Thanks to all who have written expressing sympathy both on and off list.  I'll reply here with general comments and add to them in personal replies off list as time permits.

Although the loss is disappointing, I'm quite interested by it and am feeling particularly hurt by it.  For one thing, it means I have a lot less work to do this year, and the losses were a learning experience.  

I keep bees for the fun of it and the loss in dollar terms, although significant, is not of any real consequence to me.  I am more sad that all those good looking hives died so quickly and impressed that I have observed the same sort of unusual and sudden loss that has been widely reported.  If we don't have CCD in Canada, I don't know what this was.

I have to say that the loss was not at all unexpected *after* I found that my mite levels were far above the previous years' counts when I checked last fall.  I had become accustomed to being able to stay on top of things by splitting heavily and by using one oxalic treatment in fall, and for whatever reasons, the mites were much more prolific last year.  I had intended to monitor by mite drops, but the hives were too tall to tip back to place the sticky boards under since they were back to back on pallets.

What was peculiar about this loss was that normally, with what was unfolding, I would have expected to have some survivors, and there were none.  

That fact also eliminates the possibility of breeding from the survivors that is so widely promoted as a panacea. Also of interest is that I had obtained various stocks that are supposedly somewhat tolerant to mites and AFB.  Seems that they were were not in this case.

FWIW, I am quite sure that varroa did not kill them, but that some other agent, probably a virus IMO, reaches critical levels when the mites get up in numbers and spreads rapidly through a yard.

As for replacements, I have 10 double hives lined up, but the supplier is also experiencing the same endless winter we are here, and has put off the date for pickup by a month.  I'm not sure how that will work out.  I spend my summers in the East, and so I may have to work around that.

So, at this point, I have a lot of cleanup to do and equipment to store.  I'm hoping that whatever killed these bees does not stay in the equipment.  We'll see.

Again. thanks for the kind words.  I hope my experience illustrates that failure to practice IPM can be quite costly and that anyone who really needs their bees to survive cannot assume anything or take the chances I did.

There is also some real value in my loss in that I also served as a sort of "control" for our Alberta project which aims to improve wintering success by keeping varroa and nosema under control.  My experience demonstrates very clearly what can happen if varroa populations are not kept low and the whole season from buildup to collapse, complete with my imaginings along the way, is quite well documented.

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