Bill Truesdell  wrote:

> Add to that my own and others direct observations of those who report
> CCD when it is mites.

Well, now, I don't know that CCD and varroa mites are not the same
thing. Personally, I have seen hives disappear many times over the
years and I always attributed it to getting the treatment on too late.

I always thought what was happening is that the bees were flying off
to rid the colony of whatever mites they could; maybe that's why some
of these hives show low levels of mites.

I have wondered to myself "what would happen if all these mite
treatments stopped working altogether?" Or, if people switched over to
treatments that don't really work. You could lose a lot of bees that
way.

By the way, I visited a beekeeper in a neighboring county on Monday.
He lost 30 out of 30. Mostly the bees were just gone, but the few that
still had bees, had very small clusters of dead bees. They used
several different treatments against mites that they bought from a
local bee supply store.

pb

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