> Researchers are now saying that CCD alone is not sufficient to collapse a colony.

Huh? CCD stands for COLONY COLLAPSE! There may be uncertainty as to what the cause of the collapse is, but they're collapsed all right!

By the way, a hive that has absconded takes the queen with it. A hive that collapses leaves the queen and usually a small bunch of bees, no doubt too young to know "what to do".

I saw this type of collapse in hives long before the term CCD was coined. By my reading of the definition, a hive with "CCD" usually has no diagnostic signs, such as PMS, high levels of varroa, etc. and abandons significant amounts of normal looking brood.

With varroa collapse, there is usually a small amount of virus ridden dead brood covered with mites. It appears that the older bees attempt to purge the hive, but if they do this in the fall, the colony is sunk. In absconding, the whole colony jumps ship (although young bees may continue to emerge after they've left.

PLB

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