Brian Ames writes:
 > Of course the obvious question is was there more then two organic
 > beekeepers? Many of us are skeptical as a self diagnosis might be
 > involved in this so called scientific sampling or survey.

In watching the blasting back and forth here, I've marveled at just how 
rarely these "obvious questions" get asked.

There doesn't seem to be any central registry keeping track of these 
things, and pretty much all of the data seems to be anecdotal or at best 
sampled in ways that don't lead to statistically meaningful conclusions 
for beekeeping as a whole.

CCD seems to be an epidemiologist's nightmare.  Not just because of the 
large number of possible causes, or the potential conflicts with various 
interests, but also because many (most?) beekeepers don't seem 
particularly willing to publicly share details of what they're doing. 
There doesn't seem to be any momentum toward treating this as a public 
health issue where everyone involved _should_ be keeping track and 
sharing information.

Even where there's decent data on hives that suffered CCD, there isn't 
great data on hives that didn't.  Did neighbors have the same 
experience?  Different?  What was different?

Right now, it seems like the answer is just "don't stress out your 
hives" - which means different things to everyone, and is often beyond 
our control.

Thanks,
Simon St.Laurent - Recent arrival
http://simonstl.com/

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