Bees on CCD

[gavin]

Thanks to Tas Mania, one of Chris Slades' contacts on Facebook ...

[Stromnessbees]

Gavin, it just sickens me the way you like to joke about CCD.

There are real lives destroyed by CCD, not just the ones of the bees but also of lots of commercial beekeepers, who have lost their livelihoods because of it.

And the real reason for CCD, the neonic pesticides, are destroyng the ecology of our agricultural landscape as well.

Whoever finds this funny and worth joking about is not somebody I will ever trust again.

[Jon]

Doris. You need to (a) get a sense of humour and (b) start providing evidence for the claims you make (c) remember that there is no ccd in the UK and scant evidence elsewhere in Europe. It is primarily a US thang. Ccd has a clear set of characteristic symptoms, such as lack of bees to cover remaining brood, and no evidence of robbing of stores in deadouts.

A guy I know lost 18/20 this winter. CCD? Nope. He used camomile tea as a varroa treatment. This is naivety rather than ccd. Colony loss is not a synonyn for ccd so it is important to have clarity of language.

The previous winter a member of my BKA lost 27/28 colonies and he had argued with me in September that he did not have varroa so he did not treat. When his dead bees were checked they were full of varroa.

Apparently CCD losses have been less than usual this winter in the US. I read on Bee Line that Dave Hackenberg who is the main commercial guy beating the drum for neonic problems had a much better winter than in recent years.

Will be interesting when the statistics come out for this winter. Apparently some of the commercial guys have very small losses, back to the normal 10-15% whereas others still have large losses. The problem is that they see themselves as competitors and the ones having success are not giving away trade secrets. ie not all beekeepers are cooperating with each other.

[AlexJ]

I'm not against commenting on humour applied inappropriately or used to stifle debate - this isn't one of those moments - i'll fall into the untrustworthy box.

[Bumble]

Oh dear! I'd better go and sit on the norty step.

I laughed!