My team got together after covering Pennsylvania, Georgia, and  Florida.  
Another member will be looking at hives in California  tomorrow.  So far, no 
simple answers, but it does seem to have connections,  showing up in beekeepers 
who work together, seemingly spreading, at least within  yards.
 
We've traced this syndrome to Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Connecticut, South  
Carolina, and the aforementioned states.  The reported losses in Texas  are 
not nearly as severe as we initially heard, and the bees appear to be  
recovering.  Either the Texas incidents are something different  or represent a much 
milder situation.  The Texas beekeepers have  agreed to let us know if this 
changes.
 
We've heard rumors of losses in California, but at least some seem to be a  
result of the stresses of moving, with dead bees in boxes, on the ground.   
I'll know more next week when Larry Tarver gets back from California.
 
I've just finished reading the discussion on Bee Source, but I can't  respond 
to that group until they approve my registration. They discussed mapping  the 
problem, confidentiality, and are talking about a making up their own  
reporting system.  That's fine, but it may be a duplication of effort, and  we hope 
that beekeepers won't get confused.
 
Two weeks ago we launched a national survey of this problem.  We  developed 
and carried a detailed survey form to Florida, Pennsylvania,  Georgia.  We 
asked lots of experts to review our form and responded to  their comments.   After 
seeing the problem firsthand, we're revising  our initial questionnaire - we 
anticipated issues that are no longer relevant,  and we missed others that are 
critical.
 
We will be at both the National Bee Meetings and will have copies  of our 
revised survey available for distribution.  We hope to get  the survey form 
published in the bee journals, magazines, and we will be posting  it on our web 
page, soon -- but first we have to finish a bunch of year end  reports.
 
Then, we will need your assistance.  Its obvious that  because there are so 
many factors, we will need lots of beekeepers to tell  us what and where their 
problems are, and tell us about their management  practices.  And, we need to 
backtrack affected hives at least 3-6 months,  maybe a year.
 
We have a well-developed, multi-media, database system that is  
geo-referenced.  For every location, we can tie in everything from reports  to pictures and 
video.  We've got analytical tools to process this  information, which is one 
of the reasons we've joined this investigation.   So, we're not just running 
a survey, we're building an information database that  hopefully will help 
sort this all out.
 
We are well aware of confidentiality issues in terms of any survey, mapping  
exercise.  We are conducting this investigation via our small technology  
transfer business, rather than the university.  As a private business, we  have 
much more control over data, who gets it, and in what form; than we do  under 
our University projects.
 
It is not our purpose to point a finger of blame, single out beekeepers,  
'turn in' beekeepers who use illegal materials.  It is our purpose to try  to 
isolate factors responsible for or contributing to the current problem.   We need 
to run to ground the origin, current distribution, and possible spread  of 
this syndrome.  We're particularly interested in seeing if this is  spreading to 
nearest neighbor yards, or if there's a common denominator such as  sudden 
weather changes that may induce the disappearance of the bees, or use of  some 
chemical or food material that is common to those suffering from  this.  We 
need to find the leading edge, so that we have a chance of  catching colonies 
before and as they are failing.  We need to move from  autopsy to diagnosis.
 
We hope you will participate in our national survey, and we hope that the  
national beekeeping associations will support our efforts.  If nothing  else, 
getting a handle on how widespread and severe this phenomenon is may help  raise 
its visibility among beekeepers, the general public, and policy  makers.  
Currently, its appears to be throughout many of the eastern  states.  Let's hope 
it doesn't jump to the west coast.  
 
Thanks
 
Jerry
 
J.J. Bromenshenk
CEO, Bee Alert Technology, Inc.
 
"Putting Technology to Work"
 
 

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---