No, Kathy, according to my limited observations.

As some of the list members might recall where I stand regarding feral 
swarms and feral bees, I have been, and still am, passionate about 
rescuing feral swarms and colonies in and around OKC and Shawnee areas; in 
fact, I have taken down a dozen colonies of feral bees this year.  Thanks 
to this year’s record-breaking precipitation, I am getting more bee-calls 
lately.  Here is one such example of someone having a huge feral colony 
living above the living room ceiling, right above the fireplace, which I 
took down from within—-inside the house—-a method I prefer since the bees 
are much calmer in the dark and since I use smoke minimally not to scare 
the queen away:

http://www.news-star.com/stories/051907/new_47935.shtml 

But none has shown any sign of distress, much less any verifiable CCD.  
Our feral bee situation is perhaps unique in that we finally have AHB 
migration since 2004 (DNA verification by Oklahoma State University’s 
Extension Office) although we have not had any massive stinging incidents 
as of yet.  (I am waiting to verify how AHB’s gene pool will get diluted 
through crossing with EHB’s since, they say, the aggressive trait is 
dominant, not recessive) This advent of AHB’s amongst mostly Italian feral 
stocks will give us an interesting spin in all aspects of beekeeping, such 
as aggressiveness, management thereof, honey production, and most 
important, mite-resistant.  

Of the colonies I have taken down this year, I may have encountered one 
AHB colony and one AHB swarm—given their super ferociousness.  But then I 
have also experienced such nasty trait among EHB, especially among the 
first cross between Carniolan and Italian (I think Peter was talking about 
this).  By the way, all the Carniolan colonies will, given time, transform 
themselves into Italians around here.  Although I love Carnies, they will 
drown in this Italian sea.

My untested thoughts on CCD, which I have not yet encountered, stems from 
the simple fact that it is an issue of overcrowding or congestion.  
Keeping this in mind—-that high population density is no good even among 
humans—-I have my bees scattered around, never congesting one yard with 
more than thirty hives (currently under twenty), for I feel that when one 
congests a small area with hundreds of colonies—-with their varying 
degrees of disease-susceptibility and mutated gene pool among the colonies—
-one can anticipate something like the bird-flu in bees.  Of course, I can 
do this since I am not a commercial beekeeper, who must migrate all over 
the country or worse, who must dump behind the dinks in someone’s 
backyard, for they have no commercial value.


Yoon

YSK HONEY FARM
Shawnee, OK

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