A sad day....

[EJM3]

I called up my normal Beek a week ago and found out that he had lost all of his hives as of this year, around 10-15 years ago he had 3,500 hives. He kept his bees using organic practices, placed the hives in the wild areas away from commercial crops and only rented them out to organic farms for pollination, etc. Sad times when an 86 year old, his son and grandson lose everything due to CCD....

I have managed to acquire another conventionaly kept supply of honey, but getting only 1 bucket this year as the price went from my normal $150/5Gal to $225/5Gal

 

[Cobrac]

That’s very sad indeed. Have they found anything abnormal in the hives? Such as a great infestation of varroa mites? I have my own hives but haven’t got CCD since I started 8 years ago, neither didn’t my dad when he was alive. As I understand there’s no “one reason” phenomenon, it’s quite mysterious since the worker bees just leave all the sudden. It’s like a bee swarm without any queen with it. But in a normal swarming behaviour all the bees eat a lot honey to prepare themselves for a new hive setup somewhere else, but in a CCD they just leave without eating. It’s like suicide behaviour, a bit creepy.

 

[EJM3]

No massive infestations or anything else singularly obvious, just empty hives with a few dead workers around...