>
> >The good news is that there are some colonies that laugh at whatever the
> >heck is causing CCD.
> >And where might one find some of these bees?


In most instances of colony collapse, there are some survivors.  Even in the
trial in which we crashed virtually all the colonies with a massive dose of
virus cocktail from a CCD operation, one of the control (untreated) colonies
thrived, despite being surrounded by 71 other hives crashing from virus and
Nosema ceranae.  You can bet that I bred lots of daughters from that colony!

Dave, there is a long history of colony collapse events, yet honey bee
populations alway rebound from the survivors, with or without the help of
humans.

>Yet many new beekeepers listen to the no treatment crowd ( which is ok with
me) but as soon as they are on the "no treatment" bandwagon (from the first
day without even proving to their selves the method works many times) they
start to slam the commercial beekeeping industry around the world as
misguided for not wanting to join in their folly.

Bob, the above observation is also a sore point with me, which I rail
against at every one of my speaking engagements and press interviews.  In
the future, I certainly hope to be able to return to no treatment
beekeeping--but in the interim, there are few places where bees can be kept
commercially without treatment.

The good news is that great strides are being made with ARS Russian and VSH
stocks, and by other breeders of mite-resistant bees (including myself).
 However, I feel that it would be foolish for any commercial beekeeper today
to simply go treatment-free without constantly monitoring mite levels as a
reality check.

I'm in total agreement with Bob on the importance of keeping mite levels
down.  However, I cannot agree with the statement "Control varroa and no
virus issues."

I have personally observed, heard from other commercial beekeepers, and seen
plenty of hard data that colonies can crash with very low mite levels.
 Historically there have been instances of widespread colony collapses prior
to varroa (and they happen even today in mite-free Australia).  The
strongest suspects are viruses and nosema, often exacerbated by
miticide/pesticide immune suppression.

Luckily, mite levels are very easy to monitor, and there is no reason to
allow them to climb, especially since we now have a good arsenal of mostly
legal "natural" treatments that very effectively keep the mite in check.

I still don't know why N. ceranae only appears to be an issue in some
operations and areas, but not in others, but I suspect that
miticide/pesticide immune suppression is involved.

>Be that as it may, it is obvious that the part time feel good beekeepers
are having a lot more fun!

I'm a full-time (this time of the year, time and a half) commercial
beekeeper, and I challenge you to show me any part timer who has more fun
than me and my sons!  : )

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm