>Colony Collapse Disorder was first reported by a Florida beekeeper
in November of last year. It quickly started showing up in other states.
My phone started ringing last year about crashing hives from July on. Most
in Sept. & Oct.
The die off was real but the documented cases of CCD as determined by bees
missing and 7-9 frames of brood left was rare from those I spoke with. From
my conversations with those which claimed CCD only Dave Hackenberg and Lance
S. spoke of those symptoms. However mostly of hives without bees. I do think
the USDA should have focused on those hives as those symptoms were never
seen before by *those* guys.
As I have said many times before. For decades when you find a hive with
adult bees gone and full frames of brood ( I have seen myself for decades)
you think pesticide kill and the bees did not return due to not being able
to find their way back or died in the field.
From the unsolved case files:
I posted months ago about a case in Florida I looked into where the missing
bees were found floating in a swamp about 200-300 feet from the yard. Never
seen before so my phone rang. I told the beekeeper to look for the dead bees
and when he called back I was surprised as I really did not think he would
find the missing bees.I do not know what happened but sure the bees thought
they were at the place their hive should be.
From the solved files:
Years ago a migratory Nebraska beekeeper took three semi loads of bees to
Carthage, Texas to winter. Came back to Texas a couple weeks later to find
brood in all stages but missing adult bees. He was advised to follow the bee
line of the bees. Which he did.
What he found was a commercial beekeeper close by had huge pans of poison
honey set out and the pans were full of dead bees. After the fight the
beekeepers actually became friends! Seems the Texas beekeeper was trying to
extract honey in his honey house and the out of state bees were causing
problems.
No CCD here and case closed!
On a later trip I made to Texas the Nebraska beekeeper took me over to meet
his Texas new friend! I was told before the meeting not to bring the bee
kill subject up!
bob
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