Hello All,
Yesterday I was working at the bee farm and Bell Hill Honey had stopped by.
A hobby beekeeper had came over with his two dead outs for us to look at. He
is in an area which has no other beekeepers. he and his father before him
have kept bees.(as a hobby)

He had received two packages off the same 900 package bee shipment from
California myself and Bell Hill Honey had received packages. He installed
and the hives grew strong. Produced two supers of honey each. When he last
looked in October both hives were boiling with bees.

When he checked a few weeks ago the two deeps contained around 7 frames of
sealed honey and 4 frames of pollen.
A small bunch of around a 100 dead bees with heads in cells (which had fresh 
queen eggs
laid ,some larva and some emerging brood. Maybe 20 dead adult bees on bottom
board. Both hives almost exactly alike.

As we talked with the beekeeper we pulled all the brood from the cells and
dead adult bees. Not one dead varroa mite or bee with deformed wings. No PMS 
or
AFB or EFB.

The hive had simply dwindled and the bees disappeared. What happened to
these bees?

Despite what the CCD group describes as huge amounts of brood left Midwest
beekeepers feel this is a clue which needs explained further or dropped from
the equation. In the Midwest bees wintered go broodless for the most part so
YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SEE huge amounts of brood left in spring in the
Midwest. Period! The dead will either be with head in cells or on the bottom 
board.

The above hobby beekeeper provided me with valuable input and so we are
setting up an experiment. He is getting four new packages. two he is going
to install on the two hives with the huge amount of drawn comb with last
years honey and pollen. The other two he is going to install on new
equipment. run this year and report his findings.

The beekeeper is in an area without corn or row crops. No chemicals have
ever been used on the last years comb.

Is his problem CCD? Myself , the owner of Bell Hill Honey and his employee
plus the beekeeper feel the two dead hives fit  the description. Also fits 
the
description I hear from commercial beeks claiming CCD and what I observe
looking at their hives. Sure there are large amounts of brood left when the
hives crash at certain times of the year but most of the time you see simply
dwindling.

The hobby beekeeper sought me out for advice which I freely will give but
got lucky and over a 100 years of beekeeping experience observed his dead
outs.  In all my own 48 years of keeping bees I have never seen so many
dead outs with the bees nowhere to be found. The bees have to be flying out
to die. There is no other possibility.

Which also confirms in my mind a
paralysis virus is not involved. Bees with a paralysis virus CAN NOT fly.
The sign after death signs of paralysis virus is a hive with all the bees 
dead on the bottom board. The in last stages signs are bees on the bottom 
board looking like maggots or just out the entrance looking like maggots. 
The bees can not even hold on to the comb. I have watched a hive die from 
paralysis virus on several occasions. Found others after the hive has died. 
Not common for sure but does happen since the mites have arrived. A very 
high varroa load is usually involved.

The bees I have seen right after a pesticide kill in years gone past act 
different. The bees die quicker and are not as active. At times you see a 
line for many feet of bees hitting the ground trying to return to the hive. 
With paraylis virus the bees are always directly out the entrance or about 
an inch thick on the bottom board.

Busy day today but I woke up twice last night thinking about the beekeepers
hives. His bees disappeared using 2 of the same package bees (of which we
received about half the load and ours did fine). he installed on new
foundation. Our bees look great this year but we still find hives with the
bees gone.

Eric Mussen spoke at the Missouri State Beekeepers meeting and said he still
believes a pathogen is responsible and he says one reason he believes is
that a organic beekeeper in Wyoming moves into Alfalfa seed pollination with
a commercial beekeeper which has reported CCD problems (the lure of money
can cause beekeepers to take risks) and each season when he pulls those
hives he sees bees crashing with CCD type symptoms. His other hives are 
fine. Eric explained that only
a pathogen could explain the issue. I agree but what pathogen?

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison




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