Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) Is Alive And Well

摘要

Despite published rumors of its demise, this winter CCD again decimated colonies in California and other states. I saw collapsing colonies in Florida after the American Beekeeping Federation meetings. When I got back to Montana, we had reports of beeproblems from several states, along with stories of major collapses in California. I called the Editor here and found that we were both getting similar reports, so, to find out more, Bee Culture sponsored a trip to California to see what was going on inthe almond orchards. What I found was a situation that mirrored that of 2007. Bee losses were widespread. The affected colonies displayed the signs of CCD, with sudden colony collapses, resulting in empty hives or hives with a queen and a fistful of young bees. Some beekeepers lost 80-90% of their bees; many more lost 50-60%, with the mildest cases reporting 30-40% of colonies showing signs of failing to thrive and dwindling. I inspected and sampled bee colonies from Modesto down to Ba-kersfield, and saw the same scenario everywhere. Although impossible to quantify, CCD bee losses seemed to be on par or maybe even worse than in 2007. Both intra-state and inter-state migratory beekeeping operations were impacted, as well as stationary beekeepers. Size of beekeeping operation did not appear to be a factor; nor were all beekeepers affected. I, saw some exceptionally strong colonies, but in general, strong colonies were only found in operations that did not report CCD.