Bees abandoned ??

[happybees]

Couple years ago one beekeeper was selling his bee equipment claiming that his bees flew away abandoning the hives. He was talking about hundreds of hives. I was skeptical at his claim.
Now, I met another beekeeper that says the same thing, like he lost about 300 hives, half of his hives.
If this is true, I simply GET SCARED and was wondering if any of you experienced, can guess the reason or what would be the measures to prevent this?
I have heard, a colony can leave if they feel the danger in their current residence, but hundreds of hives from different beeyards = disaster.

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Absconding or abandoning hives is indicative of Colony Collapse Disorder CCD. Small hive beetles will also force a hive to abscond. It could be they were such bad beehavers, I will not say beekeepers, that the bees left to survive. You cannot lose all or most of your hives with good management practices

[Barry]

Are you saying you believe those who have experienced CCD (Hackenberg, etc.) is a result of poor/bad management practices?

[AmericasBeekeeper]

The average CCD loss is 30 percent. Anyone experiencing three times the national level is compromising the bees' health chasing dollars. Look at the causes -
Traditional diseases (are they throwing drugs in before detection)
Management practices (chasing honey or polllination contracts, chemical use)
Queen source (volume rearers, you get what you pay for, genetic diversity)
Chemical use (all farmers expect productivity first, if one dose is good double)
Toxins in the environment (put the bees on crops too early)
GM crops (more chemicals)
Varroa (who has time for natural controls or expensive genetic lines)
Nutrition (sugar costs money, cannot afford to fallow hives a season, chasing pollination contracts)
Exposure to more diseases and stress (hello they are bundled on pallets, thrown on trucks, moved crop to crop like migrant workers, fed a single food source, expected to reproduce when they aren't making money, surprising they survive at all)
Bees and pollination is business in Florida. Who doesn't Winter here getting ready for almonds? The state of Florida and University of Florida focus research on finding causes and keeping bees healthy. It is big ag money. Check out http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in720

[Broke-T]

"like he lost about 300 hives, half of his hives"

Half is 50% not 90%

And the 30% is average, from what I understand it is usually a lot more or a lot less.

Johnny

[Roland]

I can't take it any more....


CCD does NOT read the Gov't surveys on what percentage it is suppose to kill. Every location is different. How where those numbers reached? Did it kill ALL if the bees in 30 percent of the Apiaries?

WE lost 90 percent of the bees in 2005-2006,
Bought new bees, installed in old equipment
We lost 90 percent of the bees in 2006-2007

Figured out a solution to the problem,(new bees in all new equipment), been much better ever since.

Yes CCD can kill 90 percent of your bees. And if you buy new bees, and put them in old equipment, and they do fiine, You didn't have what we had. There is something much worse out there that you will eventually get.

Roland

[AmericasBeekeeper]

I always like the few students that threw the curve in school. So you agree there are a few beekeepers suffering severe losses so the rest suffer less than average.

[Roland]

AB - if you are speaking to me, Yes. What ever it is, is lethal. It will kill ALL the hives in a short time. There are other clues, like frequent requeening of a functioning queens, low honey production, and the inability to "fill em up" with feed in fall.

For now, the solution is new clean bees in new clean equipment. My question is: For how long will we still be able to purchase new clean bees????

Roland

[AmericasBeekeeper]

I have nothing against any beekeeper that is trying to work bees. I feel sorry for the frustration in losing bees and for the poor hives that suffered. In this age of everyone is a winner, especially the one that tried hardest and failed most miserably, 29 of 29, I will not sugar coat anything. Well maybe when I know you. I am glad you discovered new bees in new equipment works. To all the new bee hearders that just jumped in, learned everything they know on the Internet, cannot be taught anything, and lost it all - you are not winning! I learned something sitting in one of my daughter's classes in junior high in Okinawa. Ignorance is not knowing something will not work. Stupidity is thinking doing it again will work.
I hope to meet you some day at AFB or a natonal event. It would be great to hear the whole story.