> > Hi Michael! > >And what about virus resistance. Are these dead colonies just more > susceptable? > I went through another yard today. Mostly busting strong colonies, thriving under same conditions as lower survival yards. In the last two yards I had strong colonies next to deadouts. All had looked similarly strong a few weeks ago, and had similarly low mite levels. In answer to your question, yes, I'm guessing that some are more resistant to one or more viruses. Dr. Ilan Sela's work supports this. I expect to have my bees sampled for viruses soon. One of my farmers commented (when I was dropping off yard rent) that he noticed that I had far more dead bees in front of the colonies this year. I've been noticing this, and was surprised that it was obvious enough for him to see. Something has been really different in my operation for the past three years. Far more dead bees in the yard, more unexplained deadouts, and lots of strange diseases in the brood. And I'm not using any harmful chemicals or stressing the bees in any new way. As Bob has commented, things are changing in the arena of bee health. Nosema ceranae is part of it, but doesn't appear to be the only thing. I'm eager to see Jerry B get the IVDS machine, and really start investigating viruses. I'm wondering if IAPV is just one of several new ones. Randy Oliver--survived the storm in the Sierra this week, power finally back on. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************