When John Chapple, one of London's largest keepers of honeybees,
opened his 40 hives after the winter, he was shocked: 23 were empty,
seven contained dead bees, and only 10 were unaffected by what seemed
to be a mystery plague.

Beekeepers are used to diseases sweeping through their colonies, and,
nationally, nearly one in seven colonies dies naturally each winter.
But this seemed very different to Mr Chapple, who is head of the
London Beekeepers Association and has 20 years' experience with the
insects and their diseases.

"The problem was that most of the bees had just disappeared. It was
like the Marie Celeste. There was no chance they had been stolen," he
said yesterday. "The ones that were left did not seem to have been
attacked by varroa [the tiny parasitical mite that beekeepers have
learned to live with since it arrived from Asia 15 years ago]. I
really do not know what happened".

Government bee inspectors met yesterday, but Mike Brown, head of the
national bee unit based in York, reported no signs of CCD in Britain.
"There is no evidence in the UK right now of colony collapse
disorder," he said in a statement. "The majority of inspectors said
that they can put the current mortalities in honeybee populations
around the UK down to varroa or varroasis."

"I just don't know where they get their information," said Mr Chapple.
"They took away some of my bees but I have heard nothing. All I know
that something is very wrong with our bees."

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2055067,00.html

-- 

I like the name "Marie Celeste phenomenon" so much better than CCD -- pb

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