I was handed a "Catch the Buzz" CCD update at last night Bee School 
dated April 26th.

It says that some have put the brood boxes of CCD hives on good colonies 
and "in some cases" they soon began to show CCD symptoms. This has been 
reported by "several larger beekeepers" and witnessed by the Florida 
State Apiarist staff.

One group of CCD brood combs was irradiated, one fumigated with acetic 
acid, one left alone, and one was honey supers with no brood comb left 
alone. They were placed on healthy colonies.

All are "doing well"  except the untreated brood comb colony which 
"appears to be declining".

The group suggests that the "prudent choice may be to set this 
woodenware aside" and a "very bad idea" to reuse CCD comb until their 
tests are complete.

The last paragraph says that it may look like a pathogen but there may 
be other factors like "pesticides in the external environment" and the 
investigations are ongoing.

My first reaction to the report was just that, that it it was pathogens.

But I remembered that other reports have some CCD colonies recovering 
quickly after the initial hit so there seems to be a difference here, 
but maybe not since most of what we hear is preliminary or second/third 
hand..

The thing of most interest to me is that CCD supers seemed to be fine 
and only brood comb was involved. Bob's observations of problems with 
old comb that has gone through many miticide applications came to mind. 
I hope the group also looks for both labeled and unlabeled miticide residue.

Many pesticides are broken down quickly when exposed to sunlight and 
air, so you could easily lower the pesticide levels on exposed frames 
with the boxes that were removed and moved for treatment.. Supers are 
not on when miticides are applied, but they seemed to be on when CCD hit 
yet they seemed not to transfer CCD symptoms. If it was an external 
pesticide or pathogen, you would think they would.

The CCD group is proceeding slowly here and that is prudent. If the 
re-use of woodenware and brood comb is not a common problem but isolated 
to a specific area, factors other than CCD could be at work.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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