The recent concern over CCD has much in common with the historical “Isle of Wight Disease” episode, and many lessons can be learned. Initial concern about colony losses in one particular area, the USA, has led to global media attention. Moreover, colony losses throughout the world are being ascribed to CCD, yet that term was specifically coined to describe a precisely defined set of symptoms and not colony losses per se. Indeed, honey bee colonies can die in many ways, and CCD is just one of them.

Author(s): Peter Neumann and Norman L Carreck

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This study records the third consecutive year of high winter losses in managed honey bee colonies in the USA.  Over the winter of 2008-9 an estimated 29 % of all US colonies died.  Operations which pollinated Californian almond orchards over the survey period had lower average losses than those which did not.  Beekeepers consider normal losses to be 17.6 %, and 57.9 % of all responding beekeepers suffered losses greater than that which they considered to be acceptable.  The proportion of operations with the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) symptom of “no dead bees in the colony or apiary” decreased in this period as compared to the previous years.  The proportion of colonies dying from apparently manageable conditions, however, such as starvation or a weak condition in the fall increased as compared to previous surveys.

Author(s): Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Jerry Hayes Jr, Robyn M Underwood, Jeffery S Pettis

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The BBC website reports on a report claiming a link.  Read it here.

On 24th August the British Beekeepers Association published the results of their annual survey of bee losses.  See the story here on the BBKA website.