The problem I have with the survey is that it relied on the opinions from beekeeper diagnosis of the cause of death and NOT expert analysis. There is existing no ’test’ that will diagnose CCD, it is diagnosed by the symptoms which are not always the same in each case and therefore could be caused by totally different set of factors, so a diagnosis of CCD is based largely on opinion and assumptions from the beekeeper. An Estimate of Managed Colony. Losses in the Winter of 2006 – 2007 http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/CCDPpt/CCDJuly07ABJArticle-1.pdf By specifying the definition of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), meaning that “50% of their dead colonies were found without bees and/or with very few dead bees in the hive or apiary.” You potentially have a large number of hobbyist with under 5 colonies loosing 50% of more hives (an insignificant 1 to 3 colonies) to mismanagement or absconding from some other stress factor being automatically determined to be CCD related. Is a 2 or 4 colony hobby operation loosing 50% the same as a 1000 colony operation run by an expert loosing 50%?,,, I think not! Perhaps a higher incidence of misdiagnoses in smaller operations can be expected due to the “50% of their dead colonies were found without bees” as an automatic determination of CCD, and the propensity for the majority of hobbyist to be that of inexperienced beekeepers more prone to failures in management. The survey asked beekeepers, inexperienced and expert alike: “6) to what the beekeeper attributed the losses” My experience from reading ‘NEED HELP’ letters from new bees is that the inexperienced looking for a single cause to blame are often quick to diagnose losses by guess work, while highly experienced beekeepers will make the determination by proper investigation, and likely ruling out the so called CCD as the cause, while inexperienced looking for answers to a perplexing loss might br quick to assuming it to be CCD. REPORT: “Most hobbyist beekeepers believed that starvation was the leading cause of death in their colonies, while commercial beekeepers overwhelming believed invertebrate pests (Varroa mites, honey bee tracheal mites, and/or small hive beetles) were the leading cause of colony mortality.” OK, This is a contridiction of symptoms! what is CCD then. Starvation? OR parasites? OR if symptoms are different between commercial and hobby operations, WHY are they lumped together as the same diagnosis of CCD if they are so different? Best Wishes, Joe Waggle ~ Derry, PA ‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' FeralBeeProject.com http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HoneybeeArticles ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************