On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:35:42 -0000, Peter Edwards <beekeepers@STRATFORD-UPON-
AVON.FREESERVE.CO.UK> wrote:

 On the one hand I read that vast
>numbers of colonies have died and that some new dreadful disease is sweeping
>across the US - then I read comments like 'what current problems?'

We have little real news reporting left in the USA. The same piece of information gets recycled by 
100's of reporters who do little additional legwork, and errors and omissions are rampant in 
almost every article.  Even the bee publications have limited resources and may rely on published 
reports of published reports. The media here is hardly a reliable source of information for a topic 
that is as complex as honeybee losses. 

While there are published reports of a potential new disorder affecting honey bees in the USA 
there is currently no published scientific proof.

I have been in contact with a dozen beekeepers in the Midwest (commercial and non), several 
queen breeders on the west coast, university researchers and other professionals in the bee 
supply industry. No one has said they have any first hand experience with CCD or knows of 
anybody who has.  The spring MN Honey Producers newsletter has no mention of its members 
experiencing CCD like symptoms. There is a reprint of an old article on CCD...thats it.

The spring supply of honeybees in packages or queens appears to have normal demand. During 
the large varrora collapse of 04/05 no bees could be secured by Jan 1st. Thus any losses so far 
are minimal compared to the 04/05 period. 

With that being said, there are real losses occurring that may have left some unusual symptoms in 
the remaining hives.  So the issue at this point cannot entirely be discounted. 

We need to keep it in perspective though that this clearly is NOT some raging epidemic affecting a 
large majority of beekeepers in  North America.

May I suggest that even at $140/hive in pollination fees in CA that if the majority of commerical 
beekeepers were concerned about CCD or the like that they may have kept their bees out of that 
highly concentrated region.  I have NOT heard a single report of that occurring. What does that tell 
us? 

The overwhelming majority of lost hives appears to be from migratory operations which has been 
the trend in previous large losses.  You may wish to draw your own conclusion from that 
information.  

Please listen to the interview in the link below for what I found to be a realistic overview of the 
CDD phenomenom. 

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/03/08/midmorning2/

(FYI: the real player application (free online)  will play this file) 

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