Hello All,
I have looked at a large number of the hives from the CCD survey. Certainly
a higher number than were sampled by the CCD team.
I think most reading are beekeepers. Think about what I am saying from a
beekeeper perspective. I have been looking in bee hives for almost fifty
years .  ALL commercial beekeepers seek out the wisdom of "grandpa
beekeeper" when new problems arise. Always!

CCD:

brood left in hive and bees gone:
Sure brood being left is unusual . The ONLY time I have seen A. melifera
abandon eggs,larva and brood *is* with a pesticide kill. Heck even fume
boards have a hard time driving bees out of supers with brood in it.

Other bees  will not rob the full combs of honey:
I never have seen combs of honey the bees would not rob when a flow is not
on! Never!  Think about how fast the bees in your home yard try to get into
the honey house when the flow is over. clean up those empty supers.
In an experiment I ran on some comb last fall I found even a light pass over
the comb with an insecticide (not spraying directly on the comb) would
prevent the bees from touching the comb. However just like with sugar ants
after a week the insecticide goes away and the ants come back. After a
period of time the bees will try to rob my test combs. I did not leave out
put simply brought outside the building and set down in an area of bees
robbing and a week later the bees hit the test comb right away. Which is a
reason why when samples are taken a few weeks after the problem only low
levels of insecticide are found. However we still have no information to
speak of on sub lethal doses of neonicotinoids.

Bees disappear:
Classic neonictinoid poisoning. Each year beekeepers are finding higher
numbers of hives with not a single bee in the hive. Even I am seeing these
hives. In summer I figure they simply went queen less and the bees drifted 
to
another hive. This time of year when the bees are confined I have got no
answer as to the cause. The dead bees should have been found with heads in
the cells or dead on the bottom board. Not! The only reasonable answer to
what I have seen.is that the bees have become disorientated and flew from 
the hive in dead of
winter to die.

What I have seen:
Hives checked on the first 50F. day in dead of winter. My return on the next
50F. day weeks later and all but maybe 50-100 dead bees on the bottom board 
gone! These
hives had a cluster of around 6-7 frames of bees on the first visit.

From the 60 minutes program:
Hackenberg:
" I think, basically , I think the insecticides are breaking down the immune
systems"

Steve Kroft;
" He says most beekeepers believe the culprit is a relatively new type of
pesticide called "neonictinoids" a synthetic chemical based on nicotine.
They are now used for everything from cornfields to golf courses , and
everything from the front lawn to the family pet"

Hackenberg:
" Well basically , the chemical , the manufacturers of this product say it
breaks down their immune system, causes memory loss, causes nervous systems
disorders, It causes the insects to quit feeding"

Bob Harrison comment on first stage CCD:

Quitting feeding with CCD hives is more common from what I have seen than 
the
bees gone. The last few years have been the first time I have seen bees
which would not touch feed when starving. Some of these hives will return to
feeding but in tests I have seen the bees go for a couple months without
touching feed in a feeder. Even a hive with enough bees to empty the feeder 
in a day leaves the feed alone.  If the bees feed at all the bees feed on 
the honey around the brood nest. Maybe one out of five will survive and in a 
few months return to a normal hive.

Asked by Steve Kroft if he thinks this is what has happened to the bees ,
hackenberg tells kroft:

" That's exactly what we are seeing inside these honeybee colonies"

Remember:
There is not a lot to research if the road leads to the new neonicotinods!
I agree with Hackenberg that most beekeepers which keep bees for a living
are not buying what certain researchers are selling BECAUSE their hypothesis
(like the Science article) simply does not fit with what we are observing.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison


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