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I
have been informed that the Colony Collapse Disorder workgroup is in our area collecting samples. Though they haven’t
contacted me since they arrived I thought I would take this time to address this problem.
The
bullet points, listed below, were sent to me by Jerry Bromenshenk on January 18.
Jerry
is a member of the CCD workgroup and owner of Bee Alert Technology, Inc.
Colony
Collapse Disorder! (Symptom bullet points given to me by the CCD Group)
A) The complete absence of adult bees in colonies
B) Little or no dead bees in or in front of hive
C) Presence of capped brood in colonies
D) Presence of food stores (one to two boxes of honey)
Where
colony is actively collapsing
A) Insufficient workforce to maintain the brood that is present
B) Workforce seems to be made up of young adult bees
C) The queen is present
D) The cluster is reluctant to consume provided feed
Now
I will list the symptoms that I described on my web site as early as 2003.
A) Many hives just quitting! Plenty of food but they don’t eat
B) 8 frame bees shrank to 2 and 3 frames …Can’t cover brood
C) Queen looks healthy and active but confused
D) Adult bees will not forage. They just sit at the front door
E) Young bees seem to disappear from the hive
F) No dead bees in the hive or on the ground
G) Finally the hive shrinks to a level it can not survive the winter
What
I described was 1200 hives coming out of the canola in South Dakota the first year canola was treated with imidacloprid. When
I received them for the winter, they were 8 to 15 frames of bees, full of honey.
By
the time to put the bees in the almonds 500 hives were dead, 200 hives were dying and the rest were barely large enough for
pollination. BUT I had almost 1000 boxes of honey! So I took that honey out to other bees and let them rob it out. Within
two weeks after putting out the honey I noticed the same signs and symptoms in these formerly healthy bees.
After
much soul searching and Internet searching I came across the French study on imidacloprid, this led to the hundreds of studies
done on imidacloprid. In report after report the description fit exactly with what I had observed in my own bees AND the description
given by the CCD Workgroup.
So,
I am going to go out on a limb here and state that ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ is directly related to the use of
imidacloprid. The time line even fits with the introduction of imidacloprid and the beginning of the ‘CCD’.
An
extract from a report entitled ‘Imidacloprid in Canada’:
“Bayer
claims in many of its publications that the problems with bees are due to disease, not this insecticide. But I would draw
your attention to this quote, from the label of Premise 75, a Bayer product with 75% imidacloprid and 25% inert used to kill
termites and ants (other social insects like bees): "Premise causes a range of effects in termites, they stop feeding and
are unable to maintain their colony. A second effect, exclusive to Premise, is called Premise plus Nature. This product makes
termites susceptible to infection by naturally occurring organisms. Either way, the termites die and your home is protected".
Exactly, my point, weaken the colony of bees with lethal and sub lethal effects and surely disease will set in, and it is
crass to use this effect to advertise a product, and then use it to blame beekeepers' problems on diseases.”
I
would like to leave you with this theory:
Many
of the queens purchased last year were raised on imidacloprid treated plants. These queens were damaged by the imidacloprid
such that their offspring have an immune system that is compromised. Leaving the hive more susceptible to disease. | 
