More CCD

[Chip Euliss]

Just saw this and thought it would be of interest.

http://www.honeycolony.com/article/ccd-poster-boy-david-hackenberg-loses-90-of-his-bee-hives/

[Gypsi]

yup.  I think my industrial rather than agricultural location is a blessing.

[Perry]

Have either of the two keeps in the article stated why they believe their colonies perished? Were the bees gone as before, cause the article doesn't really say what happened.

[tecumseh]

Nothing new here folks, so just move on.

It is interesting to me to see individuals or an industry that bemoans the lack of regulation and then point the blame to other while on the other hand using all kinds of 'off label' remedies for varroa control.  IMHO Any stated link to neonics is a bit over stated.  Historically we have had reports of massive bee die off before.... and in each and every case it is best to have some 'other' to blame rather than yourself.   

[Chip Euliss]

Have either of the two keeps in the article stated why they believe their colonies perished? Were the bees gone as before, cause the article doesn't really say what happened.

Not to my knowledge Perry.  I just ran across this article today and thought it would be of interest to the group.  I've had bees in Lost Hills, or a little north, for years.  Based on the lawsuit, both beekeepers 'believe' they know what happened.  Whether their lawsuit gets any traction remains to be determined.  I do know that bees here used to do very well on sunflower but that doesn't appear to be the case now.  I helped a friend put MAQS in his hives one fall a couple of years ago.  He had about 300 of his hives in sunflowers that year and nearly all of those hives crashed and weren't worth what he paid for the strips.  They were all planted with systemic insecticides on the seeds.  All his other hives spent the summer mostly in native and restored prairie; they looked fine.  He's a top-notch beekeeper.  Far from a scientific study but I do have a colleague who is just finishing up a research project looking at the impact of pesticides used in sunflower seed coats on bee health in ND.  His work hasn't been published yet but he tells me they found a strong negative effect on bees in sunflowers.  Bottom line is that the scientific community still doesn't know "who done it" but I do move my bees when they are within flight range of sunflowers--better safe than sorry.  It's about the only crop here that produces good quantities of nectar here that is highly attractive to bees.  Here, it's mostly corn and soybeans; soybeans are not significant sources of nectar here due to our cooler temps at night plus we tend to have an abundance of alfalfa at about the same time.  There is paper in review right now that demonstrates a strong negative effect on immune system function of bees at the landscape scale (2.5 mile radius of outyards) in landscapes dominated by ag here in ND.   I'm a coauthor on that paper and I set up the study sites for the evaluation.  Similar findings have been published on spadefoot toads by a colleague of mine out of Texas Tech a few years ago.  There are many possible reasons and more work is planned to tease out the influences to make informed decisions.  The world is changing and we don't know near as much as we think...I think

[apisbees]

Thanks for posting the update Chip, Nice to be kept informed as to the status of bee from both the commercial and hobbyist beekeepers. If other commercial operators that produce packages and queens are experiencing these kinds of losses. It may be a bad year for getting your bees and queens delivered on time when you want them or even getting them delivered at all.

[rwlaw]

Thanks for your work Chip. I've been working with Mel Disselkoen on the issues of hive crashes in the fall. As i was firmly convinced that I was getting mites reintroduced and their viruses as the main cause, I'm now seeing the events of harvesting crops and the disappearance of major amounts of bees in the hives as a plausible explanation.

[Perry]

I visited another forum (I rarely do) in regards to Chilean queens and while there noticed a thread on the same CCD topic.
I was saddened by what I read there. I have never seen discussion based on so little knowledge it isn't funny. It appears some keeps that have enjoyed modest success seem willing to blame everything bad that happens to another keep on bad beekeeping. With accusations flying, unsubstantiated commentary, critics abounding with little fact or thought as to how someone may feel, it is frightening. I am so glad that I am not in a position where I would require the sympathy of some other keeps because if what I read there is true, I sure wouldn't want to be holding my breath waiting for it!
The overwhelming feeling is that the two main characters in the article mentioned some how either had it coming or were not very good at what they do, neither of which I would choose to believe.

[Chip Euliss]

I saw it too and agree with your assessment Perry.  I worked with many of the folks doing research on CCD before I retired and the general belief in the scientific community is that CCD likely is an environmental syndrome that is the result of multiple factors, including pesticides, diseases and parasites, habitat loss, beekeeping practices and many others.  The issues facing bees, and us, isn't the same as not too many years ago and it will take some time to unravel all the factors and their interactions.  An article that lays out some of the general issues can be found in the following article:

The Plight of the Bees†
Marla Spivak*,
University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota
Eric Mader and Mace Vaughan,
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland, Oregon
Ned H. EulissJr.
U.S. Geological Survey, Jamestown, North Dakota
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2011, 45 (1), pp 34–38

You should be able to google the paper and download a pdf if you want.

[iddee]

From my reading, CCD seems to have certain steady attributes. It is the only recipe I have found that you can combine any 6 of a dozen ingredients and come out with the same result. Sure wish someone could explain that to me.

[rwlaw]

The phrase "death from a thousand cuts" has become my catch phrase. I'm going to happy if I can prevent 500 of em.

[Gypsi]

I think I am familiar with that forum Perry.  I read there but rarely post.

[Lburou]

HERE is the pdf Chip referred to above if you want to look at it.  :-)

Chip, if you have any more articles a beekeeper should read, call them out and we will read them...TIA.

[Chip Euliss]

Yep, that's the one Lburou.  That particular one was an invited paper for a special edition of the journal.  It's pretty general but contains much of the work Marla and I collaborated on in North Dakota through a NIFA grant.  The project supported 2 PhD students; one on natives and one on honey bees.  The honey bee paper is undergoing review at a journal now and it's dynamite as it shows a clear immune system response of honey bees to poor landscapes.  I'll post a pdf when it gets accepted.

[Ray]

Thanks Lburor and Chip Euliss

[Perry]

Interesting read. 

[tecumseh]

a Lee snip..
HERE is the pdf Chip referred to above if you want to look at it.  :-)

Chip, if you have any more articles a beekeeper should read, call them out and we will read them...TIA.

my comments...
is there any science HERE?  looks to me more like an abstract to ask for funding.  some of the assumptions stated in the paper are just that.

and back to the original link.... does anyone know of exactly where was the first reported case of CCD?  and did you ever hear of neonics before David Hackenburg mention this as a cause for the loss of 'his bees'? 
 

[Chip Euliss]

a Lee snip..
HERE is the pdf Chip referred to above if you want to look at it.  :-)

Chip, if you have any more articles a beekeeper should read, call them out and we will read them...TIA.

my comments...
is there any science HERE?  looks to me more like an abstract to ask for funding.  some of the assumptions stated in the paper are just that.

NOPE, especially given that science is a verb, in my view.  It was an invited review paper for the journal and one that was prepared well after funding; that's why I referred to it as a general information piece in my post.  The purpose of the special issue of Environmental Science and Technology was a review and the editors requested that authors write in more of a lay than scientific style so I can see where you are coming from but was the objective the editors wanted to achieve.  Must have worked because the paper won the best paper award for the journal in that category that year.  My point in bringing the paper to our group here is that there are many potential issues involved in CCD (and most things) that require the attention of both the scientific and management community.  Interpreting new findings (and exercising management decisions, at the level of a beekeeper and higher) within within the context of what we know and what we don't is essential to a successful path forward in my opinion.

[kebee]

 Has any one read this, interest  http://personalliberty.com/epa-forced-to-admit-neonicotinoids-killing-bees/

Ken

[Perry]

The next big question (in my case) was where did it come from?