Hello Jeffrey & All,
> I've not heard or read anywhere if it is a condition affecting just large
beekeepers, particularly those who do a lot of trucking, or if it is hitting
all
beekeepers proportionally, including sideliners and hobbyists

According to the CCD survey all areas of beekeeping have reported CCD.
However as pointed out by Brian, Peter and others only cases which have been
looked at by the CCD team do most of us consider real CCD cases.

Many attempts have been made to put an exact number on the actual CCD loss.
In my opinion the exact or even close to exact number will never be found.
All beekeeping history now and most of those *survey reported* CCD deadouts
now contain bees. August is six weeks away now and corn ( if the corn pollen
is part of our problem)is in tassel.

We do know we saw things in those CCD deadouts which* in my opinion* we
never saw before. My beekeeping experience dates back to the 1950's and my
first beekeeping mentor back into the 1800's and I never saw myself or heard
of such things from my mentor. Disappearing disease was the first problem in
beekeeping I ever heard about besides the foulbroods. I think I have read
every article ever published( and most likely have still got those articles
in my ABJ & BC collections). What is being reported now does not fit the old
"disappearing disease" from what I know but does fit several articles in bee
magazines about pesticide kills.

I have  seen on numerous  occasions hives with frames of brood and only
young bees and a queen from pesticide kill. The bees did not disappear but
were killed by pesticides in the field or simply could not locate the hive.
One report I got this week from a commercial beekeeper.

" My hives seem weak but when I look into the brood nest I find plenty of
brood but not a lot of bees"  Early CCD?

Pesticide contaminated pollen has always been a problem and causes
winterkill and slow buildup in spring UNTIL fresh starts coming in. Also
would be untouched by robbers, moths and small hive beetle in my opinion.

The reason in my opinion large migratory beekeepers see such large scale
losses could be partially do to stress. If the hives are having problems and
then moved a long distance it seems the stress can cause even a small
problem to result in large losses. It is very true we have been trucking
bees without seeing large die offs for a long time but weak hives have
always crashed when exposed to stress of moving.

When trucking your best and strongest hives some will crash enroute. A load
of weak hives with problems will result in large scale losses. Hives with
small clusters will not survive many times when placed on the front of a
semi load for California in winter. We do place a tarp to try and keep the
wind chill down but you can see the wind chill on the front when the temp is
below freezing and the truck is driving 70 MPH. Less than and inch of wood
provides little protection.

Also hives being transported by large beekeepers are not cared for like at
home. Many beekeepers are home sending load after load for a long period and
a beekeeper friend/ broker  is simply showing up to unload at the other end.
Hives which might have been saved through combining or feeding are lost.

Bob



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