Peter de Bruyn Kops said:

"I'd be grateful if someone could precisely state how to determine whether a hive with few or no bees at the end of winter (in NH, MN, or Vancouver Island) is CCD or not." 

An excellent question and not sure I have the answer other then to point out that most northern stationary beekeepers have seen this occur routinely prior to 06/07 winter when CCD entered out vocabulary. That might be why I am so stubborn about the CCD is everywhere mantra. 

From my perspective from central MN where we have a no fly period from Nov-March with subzero temps and ample snow, if you have no mite testing data in fall and did  late mite treatments in Oct or later and you have a problem in spring. You don't count as a CCD statistic because you cannot therefore eliminate mites as the cause.  We had this debate in winter of 2007 I think, and I found some folks eager all of a sudden to count northern stationary deadouts as CCD.   If you had no CCD symptoms or losses during honey season or fall why would anyone think CCD kicks in during winter during the broodless period? 

I thought what made CCD unique is workers abandoning brood which is uncharacteristic of honeybees. . If there is no brood in winter up here during the first half of winter, how do dinks or deadouts with few bees on the bottom board equate to CCD in spring? 
 
The physiology of northern stationary hives is so much different then hives sitting in a feedlot in CA at 40F in December whose brood rearing is being tinkered with by feeding that I don't know how anyone can seriously equate CCD to an northern stationary operation especially with no prior spring-fall CCD history.  

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