Hello James & All,
James makes some excellent points which I will take a little farther.



> a) The quick spread of the disease pathogen within the hive

In the case of nosema ceranae the spread can be very fast. Some beeks are
fighting high nosema ceranae levels every three months. It * seems* ( not
yet known) that fumidil per label is only knocking levels back unlike with
nosema apis when per label provided a easy control.
Dr. Eric Mussen is looking into further.

> b) The lack of symptoms among the remaining bees

I have always had a problem with the above as troubles were found and
documented in all bees in CCD colonies. In research I have read I would have
to conclude that the bees which are considered healthy had plenty wrong
which means in my opinion those bees were sick also but not showing
symptoms.

For some unknown reason some CCD hives can turn around but not often ( my
observations) and I recommend killing off the small queen and clusters left.
In fact a friend Brian McDonald just returned from making nucs in Texas and
he said commercial beekeepers were shaking all dink hives into big screened
boxes to be eliminated. Spreading those bees among your other bees or giving
brood to dinks is not what those beeks recommend doing. They tried three
years ago but found only increased the problem. Not sure what they did with
the brood left.

Also taking all your dinks and making into nucs ( fairly common practice) is
not recommended by those beeks.

bob

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