Jerry Bromenshenk wrote
>  
> By excuses, I mean taking the easy way out  = picking your favorite  culprit 
> of the day.  
Which is why you may be on an impossible task.
>  
> The CCD has brought some regional favorites - causal agents- to  light.  
> Toxic honeydew - or just poor nutrition from honeydew - seems to be  real in some 
> areas at some times -- but where's the proof?  So far, its  always been -- my 
> dad told me, another beekeeper told me. (snip)
>  
> Maybe someone ought to sample, find out once and for all - is it real, or  is 
> it a myth?  Is something else in the area causing the problem?  
>
>
>   
I did have a honeydew problem which was pointed out to me by Tony 
Jadczak. I changed my management practices and took off the honeydew at 
the end of the season and problem solved. But the symptoms of honeydew 
are more in line with dysentery and weak bees than CCD. Also, there were 
additional factors, including other fall honey (aster was probably 
another culprit) that tend to be bad for overwintering bees. So the 
problem was just like most we run into in beekeeping. It is not just a 
single issue but many. The problem, which I continually point out on 
this list, is we have a difficult time controlling the variables.

Which gets back to your first observation, that there are may things 
being blamed. Add CCD to the list and it becomes the newest culprit. 
Bob's observation of the beekeeper on the CBS show confirms it. It was 
probable Varroa but now it is CCD.

I know in Maine that Varroa gets blamed for every bad beekeeping 
practice. Failure of colonies can be cause by Tracheal, starvation, any 
and all of the brood diseases, small colonies, location, hive 
construction (where the beekeeper knows what the bee really needs), and 
even Varroa- which will take the blame. I thought that commercial 
beekeepers were exceptional beekeepers until I went around with Tony and 
inspected commercial operations on the blueberry barrens. Some are but 
many are not. So it would not be hard for me to believe that they could 
also say that CCD was the cause of their ills when it as really just 
about anything and they just do not see it.

I have my guesses and they seem to focus on viral disease, but who 
knows. I hope you do find out, but your lab is the great outdoors where 
a thousand different experiments are going on run by the same number of 
beekeepers, all doing something different. And they all can claim CCD.

Bill Truesdell (currently in his Eeyore mode)
Bath, Maine

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