Colony Collapse Disorder - Signs and Symptoms

Signs and Symptoms

A colony which has collapsed from CCD is generally characterized by all of these conditions occurring simultaneously:

• Presence of capped brood in abandoned colonies. Bees normally will not abandon a hive until the capped brood have all hatched.
• Presence of food stores, both honey and bee pollen:
  • i. which are not immediately robbed by other bees
  • ii. which when attacked by hive pests such as wax moth and small hive beetle, the attack is noticeably delayed.
• Presence of the queen bee. If the queen is not present, the hive died because it was queenless, which is not considered CCD.

Precursor symptoms that may arise before the final colony collapse are:

• Insufficient workforce to maintain the brood that is present
• Workforce seems to be made up of young adult bees
• The colony members are reluctant to consume provided feed, such as sugar syrup and protein supplement.