>Another question that comes to mind: do any of the beekeepers who have
confirmed CCD run mostly Australian bees?
The two largest commercial operations reporting CCD did not run Australian
bees. Both are friends of mine.
>This could help answer if Assie bees exposed to varroa are resistant to
IAPV (and other viruses).
I run Aussie bees along with 4-5 of the top commercial lines and all my bees
look great. Of course varroa is well under control.
Best looking bees in three years. We have had a strong honey flow all year
and especially a strong wildflower fall flow. The last two years the bees
were into corn pollen as corn pollen was all there was. This year the bees
are leaving the corn pollen alone so I scrapped my plans of moving away
from imadicloprid treated corn. I checked the corn fields every three days
all season.
My conclusion is that in areas of drought (last two years Midwest) you need
to avoid corn pollen in fall if all the pollen there is for the bees.
Letting your bees gather imidacloprid treated pollen should be avoided as
the chemical *is* in the corn pollen. At *the very least* the pollen sets
the hives growth back and in many cases *some of us* believe will cause CCD
type symptoms!
Both drought ( the last two year drought in our area was only bested by the
dust bowl drought of 1936 in our area) & systemic treated seed pollen caused
some of the CCD reports from my area in my opinion.
In fact it was not until late spring when all the fall befores corn pollen
was gone that those hives started returning to normal but most did by middle
May. The situation would have improved quicker (my opinion) if we had not
had the prolonged ice storm and killing freeze which forced the bees to
return to using the stored corn pollen from the year before.
Hives raising brood last fall on the contaminated pollen had symptoms
famliar to Midwest beekeepers on BEE-L.
1. would not brood up last fall.
2. would not take syrup
3. wintered poor with small clusters
4. slow to take syrup last spring
5. slow to build until May
6. Splits from those hives were slow to build.
If you are from the Midwest and had bees in areas of corn last fall and saw
those symptoms please say so as I have put weeks into the above research and
conclusions. I would like conformation of my conclusions. Lurkers please
comment on what you saw with your bees!
>This is all assuming that IAPV MAY be ONE of the factors contributing to
CCD.
I think Jim Fischer covered the above nicely! Until proof is made of IAPV
being a serious problem then will be on a back burner for me. Also the farm
bill only funds the bee labs basically so future funds for CCD seem in doubt
at this time.
"Bees get no respect!" Jim Fischer 2007
bob
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