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[Steve Bonney <sustainableearth.steve@verizon.net>]

Lon,
Your descriptions of honey bee losses are plausible, but do not fully 
explain the current situation of colony collapse. The bees are gone and 
honey remains in the hives. Two years ago I purchased nucs of bees that 
were bred from colonies that survived the great losses due to varroa 
mites over the past ten years. I lost all them during the winter of 
2005-2006 even though the colonies where strong approaching winter. I 
had a bee researcher at Purdue look at a couple of hives and he could 
only surmise that the bees died from mites. However, he and I were both 
baffled by the fact that, although all the bees were dead, there were 
very few dead bees in the hives. I have no idea what is the cause, but 
it is a situation that I have never observed in more that 20 years of 
beekeeping.
Steve
Indiana
zone 5a