Hello All,
Having went back and reviewed the literature on "Disappearing Disease" and
being a beekeeper when I first heard the words I see history trying to
repeat itself.
Nothing was found (similar to today).
The promise of an answer to the question of "Disappearing Disease" never
came.

Those beekeepers which lost hives back then simply became better beekeepers.
Every time you lose a large number of hives and go through a warehouse of
deadouts  ( has happened to me before and in archives) you become a better
beekeeper.

Most of us are more concerned today with the work of Diana Cox Foster on
virus and
virus contamination of comb ( directly related to varroa ) than we are some
mystery CCD problem. Her presentation at ABF did not fall on deaf ears!

1. virus is spread by contamination on flowers

2. Virus contamination on comb is real and only solved by comb replacement
(boxes can be saved by power washing)

3. A virus contaminated queen can infect the whole hive as the virus is
passed on in eggs.

4. virus contamination passed from bee to bee and from bee to larva.

All the CCD hives contained mites & virus as did the hives in Florida which
crashed four years ago! I quietly spent days working on the problem.

My opinion is if you control varroa then most PMS & CCD problems will go
away. Unless your comb has a high level of virus contamination from several
die offs leaving PMS contamination on comb. In those cases many beekeepers
ARE reporting what Jerry B. is calling CCD. Hives are crashing with somewhat
high varroa loads but lower
than threshold levels of varroa coming out of California. However many last
year made it to July/August before crashing.

We have seen higher than normal varroa loads in package *shake* bees coming
out of California the last two package seasons. Not a big deal but tells me
that most hives coming out of almonds have got a varroa load needing a
spring treatment soon.


The reason why I say maybe we should give the SSDD beekeepers money for
package bees one time but if they do not heed the work of Diana Cox Foster
about varroa and virus contamination on comb then this fall they are going
to be asking for packages again. And again! Once again! Please one more
round of packages to keep me afloat!

Real solutions are to educate as many beekeepers as possible as fast as
possible as to things which the CCD team saw wrong in hives and found in
hives. Is not Diana Cox foster part of the CCD team?

The CCD team totally discounts the Penn State inspector which reported a
high infestation of varroa in the hives of David Hackenburg in July of 2006
( report on file). He recommended immediate treatment to save those hives.
If not the hives were doomed.

CCD Even refused to take a peak at samples proving the same.

Bob



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