[Pollinator] Barry Thompson's CCD Experience

[Ladadams at aol.com]

Any other stories that people would like to share?  Laurie


>From Barry Thompsaon in response to the work at Penn State - posted on the 
NAPPC LISTSERV this week:


Laurie,
   In retrospect, the USDA, Maryland state officials and I have wondered if 
we saw an earlier occurrence of "disappearing disease" or CCD when I found that 
19 of my colonies had abandoned their hives in February 2005. The bees left 
brood (which they almost never will do) and ample stores of honey; and queen 
and bees were just gone (from colonies in which they had been found in good 
shape a month earlier.) Studies at USDA Beltsville and at Maryland Department of 
Agriculture revealed no consistent pattern of problems.
   We theorized that dry August and September, poor nectar flow in October, 
queens that quit laying early (due to adverse environmental conditions) and 
resultant clusters comprised of older bees that died off in larger than usual 
numbers over the winter) placed the colonies under stress, such that some trigger 
(such as mite build-up) caused them to "abscond" into almost certainly fatal 
winter weather. I tried feeding bees pollen substitute and sucrose syrup in 
the fall of 2005 and was rewarded with larger clusters that fall and a better 
over-wintering survival than the previous season. However, winter 2005-2006 was 
fairly mild; so we may not have executed a "real" test.
   This year, losses appear to be between 20% and 40% (thus far); but I have 
some explanation (starvation, tracheal mites, or tiny clusters unable to 
survive the 7-8 F. mornings that we had earlier this month) for almost all losses. 
CCD does not appear to be obvious in Maryland at this point. However, state 
inspectors are noting significant losses of colonies from some sort of adverse 
impact, as early spring inspections get underway. The story is far from over, 
it seems.
   With large numbers of colonies leaving Maryland for California (almond 
pollination), orchardists and truck farmers in the state will be looking for a 
significant number of those bees to be returned to MD in time for apples, 
blueberries, pickles and ultimately pumpkins.
   Likely TMI with a focus on Maryland; I hope you find something interesting 
in the saga.
Barry Thompson    





Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
LDA at coevolution.org
http://www.coevolution.org/
http://www.pollinator.org/
http://www.nappc.org/

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