Hello All,
One of the first business I ran and owned was a speed shop (five years). I 
also worked at an automotive dealership for a year and was sent through the 
General motors training school.

Ways to diagnosis problems were taught. In tests we were presented with 
automobiles with several to many problems and judged on the amount of time 
taken to solve the problems.

The next year my brother won the Kansas State Chrysler trouble shooting 
contest at the high school level (after being schooled by me and still has 
the trophy). I had high hopes for my brother in the world of business but he 
went to school for over a decade and became a corporate 6 figure lawyer and 
vice president of the firm. However having a brother which is a famous 
lawyer and being able to get free legal advice has come in handy the several 
times I have strayed outside the law or been involved in a lawsuit.

When faced with problems you simply start to fix the most glaring first. 
When you fix all the problems then the car runs great. What we were taught 
was that when several problems are the source of the problem then symptoms 
can be very different than a single problem.

In the case of CCD it would be nosema and in my opinion mite control. from 
speaking with beekeepers for my current article these were the two problems 
they worked hard to control in 2006/2007 and all said they had the best bees 
in years. Despite what many on this list have pointed out concerning stress 
( number of moves etc.) and nutrition ( pollen patties etc.) the beekeepers 
I spoke with felt getting control of varroa  and using treatments for nosema 
control could be the reason for their best bees in years.

I know many beekeepers are out of the loop and still use Apistan ( totally 
useless in many areas)for varroa control and say they do not *see* signs of 
nosema ( widespread to almost epidemic in parts of the U.S.) My point is 
that I am asked to help through the year many of these beekeepers. I assure 
the list an hour of discussion with me and their beekeeping will improve.

> If you look at what data has been published so far, BOTH kinds of Nosema
> > have been consistently present in CCD colonies at the same time.

I don't disagree!

 However the spore count is high enough either one alone could have killed 
the colony. As I have said before I am very tired of researchers calling 
bees healthy just because at the time of sample taking the hive appeared 
normal( despite serious nosema and virus issues).

 Also tired of seeing acedemics showing slides of blackened trachea and 
blown out tubules. The trend in 2008 is going to be (conversation with heads 
of many state beekeeping organizations such as georgia) is to bring in 
commercial beekeepers which are NOT having problems with their bees and let 
those beekeepers share what they are doing to keep their bees healthy. I 
have been asked to speak at the Georgia meeting ( which I could not schedule 
be might still show up) and two others. groups are wanting to hear from 
beekeepers like Randy oliver and Michael Palmer.

When I first started writing for BC (two articles pending) and ABJ ( two 
articles pending) you could not get an article published about a non 
registered method of treatment ( even sugar dusting for varroa control or 
blowing tobacco smoke in the entrance_). I advised both editors ( as did 
many others ) that to keep pace with the fast changing world of beekeeping 
these articles need to be published.

The days when Dee Lusby's article on small cell was butchered by acedemics 
is over. The articles of randy Oliver are for beekeepers information.  I 
know from being a friend of randy that he researchs carefully advice he 
publishes. Not all beekeepers are computer literate. In fact I would guess 
most are not BUT almost all serious beekeepers read either one or the other 
of the bee magazines.

Iam very pleased both editors of the bee magazines have seen fit to publish 
many articles. Even some on FGMO which I personally think is a waste of 
time. Beekeepers have come up with more solutions to our beekeeping problems 
than researchers ever have. The FDA moves too slow for many and will not 
accept documented research from around the world.

If your information on beekeeping problems comes only from research papers 
then consider what one bee magazine editor confirmed to me.
quote:
" the beekeeping grapevine is around three years ahead of published data".

I heard tonight of a South Dakota beekeeper  found around fifty percent of 
his hives dead when unloaded in Texas. Nothing new here as happens every 
year in some commercial operations but the only Texas case I have heard of 
and the only one spoke of at the Texas bee meeting last night.

Lets see 2 million hives in the U.S. and 500 have crashed?

No problems (CCD) were reported at the MSBA meeting. Nor at the KHPA 
meeting.

despite what some have said many now are more likely to say in a bee meeting 
they have got CCD because it can mask poor beekeeping and not getting your 
treatments on in time. New mysterious problem is no fault of mine. Used to 
be called winter kill but research has shown bees can handle cold if 
properly prepared and healthy.

The above is my opinion and not based on beekeeping researcher science but 
based on conversations with many many beekeepers over the last several 
months.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison 


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