[ExI] Bee recovery signs hopeful?

[spike]

> --- On Thu, 6/25/09, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> > ....
... 
> > 
> > BillK my bees are up about half again from last year. Down 
> by about a 
> > factor of three from 2006 but coming back.
> 
> Has there been any definitive on the cause?  I've read of the 
> issue now for a year or two in the science press and am not 
> aware of anything conclusive... Regards, Dan


I have heard plenty of plausible sounding theories, but I don't know that
any have ever been proven conclusively.  They disproved varoa mites, since
the mites are really an opportunist parasite, attacking hives already
weakened by something else.  I would suspect it was just a virus that
evolved and took a big bite.  Now the bees evolved around it, while the
virus also evolved to be less lethal to their hosts.  Bugs are so cool like
that.  

I do recall from my earliest misspent youth that there have been bee
die-offs occasionally.  The one in 2007 was just a particularly bad one.
They always come back after a couple years.

spike