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CCD in Greece

I lost 30 colonies of bees last year  - in over a period of 6 - 8 weeks.
Ten of the queens were one year old, the other twenty from casts and in
nucs. The  new queens appeared to be strong and vigorous, and laid well
and soon had brood on three combs. Then the colonies began to dwindle
and on one visit to an apiary 12 of these nucs were completely empty of
bees and there was just a small patch of brood struggling to emerge.
There was food present in the nucs and some wax moth had soon moved in -
a common occurence here in Greece. I looked at the colonies on two
Langstroth deeps, 2 were empty, three had a small population of bees and
though the queens were present there was no brood - this was in August.
Whilst bees do slow down a bit in mid-summer it is not usual for them to
have populations reduced to just three or four combs of bees. Eventually
these colonies died too. In an apiary just a km away, I lost two out of
seven - and the remaining five are strong this spring. In another apiary
10 km away, no lost colonies, all healthy. 
All apiaries managed  in the same way, no feeding of HFCS, varroa
control  - treatment each autumn with Apiguard. Checking through all the
combs later, in the apiary which was worst hit a cigarette packet size
patch of AFB - the first I have come across in 35 years of beekeeping.
However, I have enough experience to realise that AFB wasn't the problem
- I examine colonies regularly and all brood seemed normal. I promised
new beekeepers some nucs last year to get them started and also promised
some to a beekeeper who lost 130 colonies in a fire last August. It is
quite embarrassing for an experienced beekeeper to tell would-be
beekeepers that the promised nucs have all died. Situations like this
make one feel really helpless. To test the virus theory I could put some
of the frames from deceased colonies (not the AFB one) into the living
colonies, but I have lost enough bees already. Now, can someone tell me
if Milton sterilising solution can kill viruses so that the good combs
which were in the supers could be used again, or is it bonfire time. We
do not have radiation facilities in Greece.

John Phipps

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