CCD Revisited

[Spike Silverback]

Dear Folks,

The clamor of the CCD epidemic appears to have dropped from the national press. Is there any viable updates or predictions for the coming winter and the prognosis for the spring and summer 2008 in the US?

If this has been addressed in another thread, please forgive a newbie and direct me to the appropriate thread.

Thanks and best wishes.

Spike

[tecumseh]

I don't think anyone really knows although... speculation (as you are likely aware) approaches the context of gossip in a small town with everyone sharing a 'party' line. I am certain everyone wouldn't agree, but it seem to me that bee keepers are only now getting some feel for what problem(S) might be hiding behind the tag CCD.

and much depends on environmental conditions (IMHO) such as rainfall along the northern tier where many of the commercially held bee hives spend the summer (and either do or don't get into somekind of acceptable condition for winter).

There are a lot of variable in the mix to wean out 'the cause' of CCD... and that is more than a small part of the problem.

[simplyhoney]

I'll bet we hear about another round this spring. I really hope it isn't worse than last spring.

[Joel]

The 1st. alarm happened last fall which seemed to be when the crux of the problem hit. Since we have been seeing huge losses in the spring since Varroa and all the problems associated hit I'm not certain how we can seperate that from the unusually high average losses in the spring.

I guess all we can do is wait for the other shoe to drop, if and when it does.

[soupcan]

Made a few calls this week
Spoke with both the left & right coasts & then called our neighbors who over winter in Texas.
Sounds like there are still some major problems with bee loss.
Some outfits that had problems last year have great bees this year going into winter.
Some guys are still having problems.
I was told the feds are looking at David Hackenberg's outfit real hard as he may be going thru the same deal as last year.
Very sad to hear that.
Seems there will be a lot of digging in bees in the next 10 to 15 days, so time will tell.
Every one has the same story " I will call you back in the next week or so. "