I strongly disagree with those who 'have not experienced' the horror of  
full-blown CCD and their bad-mouthing of commercial beekeepers, and the  
perpetuation of myths.  Try telling a man who lost 90% of his bees that it  all 
because he doesn't know how to keep bees, or its because he's a commercial  
beekeeper; especially if its a large scale beekeeping operation that has been 
 successfully keeping bees for decades, doing everything by the book, and 
yet the  bees suddenly die.  
 
For example, one local (doesn't migrate) bee operation in CA had good bees  
mid-Dec, lost almost all by Jan 4.  And a large, very well known beekeeper, 
 who is very active in bee organizations, with a migratory bee operation 
had  differential losses depending on which states his bees were in, with a 
total  loss of 50%, or 10,000 colonies.  You can see a picture of the stack of 
 pallets on Kim's Daily Green blog.
 
For any of you whose bees have not had CCD, its just luck.
 
I've just been to CA, looking at and sampling  everything from  
surprisingly strong to fully collapsed bee operations, and I've been talking to  
beekeepers there, and Paul on Vancouver Island.  I also saw collapsing  bee 
operations in Fl after the ABF meeting this year.
 
Vancouver Island is a prime example of reports of strong bees in the  fall; 
now with fully collapsed, empty boxes (NO dead bees on the bottom  boards, 
usually ending with a queen and a small remnant of bees, or nothing at  
all).  
 
That's not overwintering die-off, at least, not as I've seen it.  
 
The descriptions and signs are what I would call CCD,  despite statements 
that CCD has not been confirmed in Canada.  I'll go  by what the beekeepers 
describe - if it walks like a duck, quakes like a duck  ....  They saw it now 
and reported in our 2007 surveys.  I was told by  one official, we don't 
call it CCD because we don't know what it is.  I  would like to point out, 
that's why we (the working group) called it a DISORDER,  not a disease.  
 
As you all know, I was one of the first to look at CCD in 2006/2007, making 
 trips to east coast and then to CA before and during Almond  Pollination.  
The situation in CA  this year is the same, if not  worse, than in 2006/7.  
It just didn't get media coverage.
 
Also, it appears that B.C. and CA are on the same time table; since both  
had problems in 2007, and again in 2010.  Many beekeepers have told me that  
they think there is a three year cycle, and I've seen enough anecdotal cases 
to  make this something to take seriously.
 
And Brian, once again it is NOT solely in commercial beekeeping operations, 
 nor is it only beekeepers who don't control mites and Nosema.  Just 
because  you haven't seen it, nor your neighbors (which I know is not true - I've 
gotten  samples from MN beekeepers, large and small over the years - so I 
don't agree  with your assertions), doesn't mean it doesn't exist, or doesn't 
exist in  smaller bee operations.
 
Nor are any of the sweeping statements true, despite your claims, I can  
assure you that I've seen it first hand in migratory, local, large, small,  
organic, non-organic, and poorly managed, as well as well managed  beekeeping 
operations.
 
I will say, lots of beekeepers won't admit to having it, not to the growers 
 nor to other beekeepers, especially among the mid- to small operations.  
 
The big operations often can't hide it - they need bees to make their  
pollination contracts.  So, when they suddenly start looking for hundred to  
thousands of colonies, people figure out what's going on in a hurry.
 
As per Eric's note, as an old dairy farmer, I know that you can get  more 
milk out of a cow if you feed her an overly rich diet and you can push the  
length of time that you milk her.  But you can't do that for long, and  you 
have to give her a rest before calving, or else she will more or less  burn 
out.  So, yes; you can push an animal past its limits; and maybe we do  some 
of the same with bees.  But that's not necessarily CCD, although it  may 
stress them enough to make them more vulnerable.
 
Eric reminds us that maybe we're pushing bees hard. But, we've been  
practicing some pretty intense migratory beekeeping for some time now; yet  I saw 
some big migratory operations whose bees were really strong - so I'm  not 
ready to say its simply that we over-work the bees.
 
I am beginning to wonder whether we need to provide a 'rest-period' for the 
 combs.  Smoot bees in MT, once again this year, scored lower on mites,  
Nosema, viruses and viral loads than the majority of bee colonies that we have 
 sampled since 2006.
 
The one Smoot practice that stands out is that they start from package  
bees each spring, sell the shakes every fall.  They then clean up the combs  
and boxes and store them from Oct to April in an unheated warehouse.  Any  
pathogen that needs a host, and any pathogen that is sensitive to cold would be 
 gone by spring.  
 
Even though the package bees come with all of the pathogens commonly seen  
on the west coast, by the time the bee populations turn over and expand, the 
 pathogen loads drop in their bees.
 
So, I wonder, is the bee equivalent of drying up a dairy cow before she  
calves - letting the combs go empty of bees for a while? (with a little help  
from the cold?)
 
Jerry
 
 

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