>In mid-summer, the main symptom is that the  colonies 
>are unusually slow to grow, may be poor at storing honey, may even go  
>off feed 
>(which in some cases may be due to Nosema ceranae).

Agreed
I suspect these hives have infected queens
If you treat with formic the symptoms are
well supressed, this may not "fix" an
infected queen
Early queens seem more likly to evade ccd

dave

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