Thanks for the frank assessment, Jerry.

The whole CCD thing was all pretty academic to me until the other day when 
I opened some hives.  What I saw made me wonder.  First in New York state , 
then in Swalwell.  I'm not sure I saw anything new, but with all the talk 
lately, I had to measure what I saw against the symptoms.  Should be easy, 
right?

Dave had been posting about his living CCD hives.  We had been over CCD 
pretty well some time back, and I'm told by those who know there is no CCD 
in Canada.  I could be a first (after Dave).

First off, I found out that there are no numbers! and IMO if you can't put 
numbers on something, you just don't understand it.  (Probably my 
engineering background).  No matter, I can be as fuzzy as anyone, but what 
is "rapid"?  There were lots of bees there a few weeks ago and now there are 
not.  Is that "rapid"?  To me "rapid" means like right before my eyes.  I'll 
suspend judgement on that one.  Next...

> "It is also characterized by delayed robbing and slower than normal 
> invasion by common pests such as wax moth and small hive beetles".

Well, I have to think about this term, "delayed" and "slower than normal ". 
What does that mean?  An hour, a day, a week...?  Do scouts checking things 
out negate this criterion?  I need numbers.

Who knows?  Looks to me as if CCD is whatever you need it to be, but not 
what the other guy has.

Do I have CCD?  Does my friend have CCD?  Who knows?  There are no metrics 
as far as I can tell.

I feel a bit rude as a layman saying this is totally unscientific, but then 
who else?  Everyone is making money off CCD or has friends who are.

I'm not.

Move over, Bob. 

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