Jerry said:

"If your inspector refuses to acknowledge it, then your state is listed as  
NOT having CCD - kind of like the case with Canada - NO VERIFIED CASES (how 
does  one verify something that we don't yet know the cause of?). "


Here in Mn the so called CCD cases that happened to the small handful of commercial beekeepers occurred when they were out of state over the winter. I have never met anyone here in MN or heard from any university or agency types that we had any confirmed cases on the GROUND. We are one of those states that did maintain no CCD here which I think was an accurate statement given the facts. 

I am highly critical then of the overall reporting stats that seem to be eager to portray this murky malady as everywhere and perhaps randomly affecting many.

What is clear to me and many others is the obvious conclusion that the vast majority of CCD afflicted colonies are managed by commercial beekeepers. I would suggest the underlying issues that cause CCD are not that serious unless you FEEDLOT your bees in CA or elsewhere. Thus the pathogens may not be the long term issue as opposed to the fact that honeybees have limitations and if you FEEDLOT them you risk losing the whole load if there is a contagious pathogen on the loose. So is it the pathogen of the practice thats the core issue?  And maybe the answer is .......not the answer INDUSTRIAL AG and the commercial beekeeping industry wants to hear or accept. 

If we have a flu pandemic in America I doubt that our health system would insist that its good practice to pack people into public areas etc if you see my point.  But that's the mentality with CCD that we're going to continuing moving bees and feedlot them and expect no losses. My sense is welcome to reality and losses are just going to be a fact of life in commercial beekeeping as it moves further and further from its roots as a stationary local or regional activity.  

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