Colony Collapse Disorder

[Adam]

I think some of the practices of the (big) US beekeepers is poor - shipping bees across country, mixing them with any disease going in a monoculture with other bees and then spreading the disease about the country when the bees are taken away - maybe to another monoculture site doesn't appear to me to be good beekeeping practice. It's not what bees are supposed to do.

Varroa, Nosema Ceranae, pesticides, trucking, antibiotics, environmental pollution are all contributory factors. Beekeepers (Michael Bush) who don't do these things seem to have healthy bees. There's a lesson there.

[Rosie]

Varroa, Nosema Ceranae, pesticides, trucking, antibiotics, environmental pollution are all contributory factors. Beekeepers (Michael Bush) who don't do these things seem to have healthy bees. There's a lesson there.

Are your certain of that Adam? Dee Lusby does not do any of these things either and she admits to having CCD.

Rosie

[Adam]

Hi Rosie,
Talking in generalaties I am pretty sure that the practices I wrote about in post 11 are not good and will tend to spread disease. I think the best guess at the moment is that CCD is caused by a combination of things as we don't fully understand why CCD occurs, sadly.

[necterboy]

Adam I tend to agree. I saw first hand how at least one large scale operation works. It all about the money. I'm not knocking the business as a whole, just the way some conduct their business. My island was until recently Varrao free. The only reported incident was from a mainland bee keeper last year who brought in infected hives to pollinate blueberry crops. Once discovered he did comply and remove the infected hives. However as we are all aware bee's do wander & now Island bee keepers are left with the possible threat.