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<DIV>Any other stories that people would like to share? Laurie</DIV>
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<DIV><EM>From Barry Thompsaon in response to the work at Penn State - posted on the NAPPC LISTSERV this week:</EM></DIV>
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<DIV>Laurie,</DIV>
<DIV> 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.</DIV>
<DIV> 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.</DIV>
<DIV> 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.</DIV>
<DIV> 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.</DIV>
<DIV> Likely TMI with a focus on Maryland; I hope you find something interesting in the saga.</DIV>
<DIV>Barry Thompson </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#004000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12">Laurie Davies Adams<BR>Executive Director<BR>Coevolution Institute<BR>423 Washington St. 5th<BR>San Francisco, CA 94111<BR>415 362 1137<BR>LDA@coevolution.org<BR><A title=http://www.coevolution.org/ href="http://www.coevolution.org/">http://www.coevolution.org/</A></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#004000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12"><BR><A title=http://www.pollinator.org/ href="http://www.pollinator.org/">http://www.pollinator.org/</A></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#004000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12"><BR><A title=http://www.nappc.org/ href="http://www.nappc.org/">http://www.nappc.org/</A></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#004000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12"><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Bee Ready for National Pollinator Week: June 24-30, 2007. Contact us <BR>for more information at www.pollinator.org </FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#004000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12"><BR><BR><B><I>Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.</B></I></FONT></DIV><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at <A title="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=http://www.aol.com" href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaol%2Ecom" target="_blank"><B>AOL.com</B></A>. </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML><BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.