and something at end about nosema This is perhaps overdue #7 was ~nov7, chilled That's 25% winterkill before mid nov, have to call it "fall kill" And yes, I know VD control was semi failure Its the other symptoms/observations that make it unusual I'll think I've won if I have only 50% winterkill I won't win #7 was both PPB and ccd, about equal, d ~Nov7 For some reason in jun I thought that one would crash But then it got heavy and I forgot I looked after supers, spotty brood, and forgot twice The Q probably died mid-late aug, only 6 cells, only 2 good It looked like 1 emerged, but if there was a virgin she failed her role (If you try to raise a Q in a ccd hive, you won't get a Q, you must be insane!) Robbed out, 2 small (frozen) clusters 8" apart One tennis ball, other smaller No dead brood, avg on BB When I floundered in, dec 21 (1' snow, 200 yd) I went to this (7) to get sample, I knew it would be easy to get the handful Few snow angels around hives. No new (hive) mortality On the way out, I paused on the upslope, panting, and said look that lump is a bee under a thin white shroud and more, 5 ahead , and farther 5 more, and behind 5 and another 5 farther So that's 20 on only that path. If the hour(s) was to spare I could have picked up at least 500 corpses from the snow, up to 5d old by guess. Typical "flee" That they were all good flyers (no snow angels) suggests older bees, aug-sept?, perhaps 100-110d before intolerable?? gut pain?? or is it the smell? but this is just symptoms, not anything curative I don't know how to pick to breed from, nearly every choice that I have made has died The only selection that I can conceive is strongest in Spring, imply least affected life span or lucky Because of this, next yr I will (hopefully) induce supercedure by very heavy one sided wing clipping Young Qs is easier management than Zero VD (ccd Qs don't seem to live much more that 2 yrs) I'm going to have to feed OA, I don't like the idea You can't tell these hives are alive by any noise they make because they make none, You have to pull (3/4") plug & see NO noise Ozone. Did someone Randy? try O3 on nosema? What is the equipment? Cost? Question:(O3 vrs UV vrs bleach) vrs cost-benefit In my little campaign against ccd I've only got it in me for 5 years. I don't think I'm gonna win PS Today, jan10 I got back 4th nosema test BP says both samples are "negative" (as were 3 previous tests) I asked "only test for nosema" One of these was a ccd hive for sure dave ******************************************************* * Search the BEE-L archives at: * * http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l * *******************************************************