Nosemea question?

[CoolBees]

I should also add - this hive had a dysentery problem last May, shortly after becoming Queenright. Bee poop all over the outside. Bees dragging themselves along pooping. Inspection revealed a lack of stores. Adding 2 frames of capped honey with some pollen, fixed the problem and the hive bounced back nicely at that time. ... as previously stated, I'm in a steep learning curve ...

[Michael Bush]

Any time you confine bees they get dysentery. That doesn?t equate to nosema.

As far as fumidil, first, it is no longer available. Second, it makes them more susceptible to nosema because it kills the bacteria that forms th gut lining in the bees. Third, it causes birth defects in mammals which is why it is illegal to use in most of the world.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnosema.htm

[TheHoneyPump]

HP - that is outstandingly well written! Thank you for taking the time!

A question - in the case of nosema apis+ceranae - I have a hive that matches your description. 7 med frames of brood at every inspection. A good nectar flow has been on since early Jan, and all other hives are booming. Yet this hive has seemingly less bees each month. Will re-Queening solve the problem?

I had planned on re-Queening this hive as soon as I've grown some queens (which has been delayed due to 7 weeks of rain and low 50'sF temps). This week it warms to 70 deg F and I am planning to make several swarm-prevention split. Queens would of course be ready in 4 weeks or so.

I've also thought of removing (and freezing) the brood, killing the 2ND yr queen, and introducing a frame of eggs - using this hive as a starter Nuc.

However - if the disease would be passed down, all of this would be pointless. Assuming of course, that this is in fact the problem.

Your thoughts on this?

Thank you
Alan

Suggestion would be to confirm your suspicions first by sampling. If you see nosema in the microscope, combining with your observations of high mite load, inspections, and performance. Then that hive should be taken down promptly, killed. This could be the dead bees walking scenario. It may have a multitude of compounding problems, and perhaps nosema on its own would be the least of its troubles. When it is decided to terminate a sick hive. The process is this:  Do not shake it out in the bee yard. Do not let the bees go anywhere. Do not transfer brood or comb hoping to save their efforts. Consider the equipment and all the bees within as contaminated. Bag it in the evening and contain it. Remove and cleanup the equipment as described. Then you can startup a new hive in that equipment when your new queens are ready and you are making splits. Make a very very strong split into the refurbished equipment, combining bees and brood from multiple hives.  Et Voila, a new rocket of a hive that will still make you a crop this year. You are at the perfect time of the year to do this.  You can sample and let the scope tell you.  Or perhaps just combine the observations you already have; previous problems, the mite factor, and since you are dealing with only one hive - just take it out now. Nothing is to be lost and everything to be gained at this time of the year. It can be a tough decision to take out a hive. It is helpful if you think about what is best for the bees, not what is best for your wants and efforts.

The alternative is to hold on to hope and nurse it.  That is the frustrating route that always ends in heartbreaking disappointment.  Maybe they just need another week.  Or another week.  Awe man, they are so close ... maybe one more week.  No.  It is spring. It is the time the hive should be prolific and explosive.  If it is lagging far behind the others, there is an issue to be investigated, data gathered, and dealt with promptly while you have the resources and energies available from the other colonies to do something about it.

I always advise against re-queening as an approach to fixing a diseased or pest ridden hive. A sick hive is a sick HIVE not a sick queen. Deal with the hive as a whole, holistically.  Deal with the queen as an individual.  Re-queen for sake of keeping the genetics wanted and to keep the queen age across the apiary young and vigorous.  Replace old or defective/failing queens.  Replace queens of mean or wimpy/dainty genetics.
Re-queening a sick hive is like installing one shiny new chrome lug nut when the wheel alignment is off, the rim is bent, the steel belt wires are poking out of the bald tire, and the tire has hardly any air pressure in it.

imho.
Hope that helps!
.

[Ben Framed]

TheHoneyPump- "The microscope is an essential tool in the beekeeper?s toolbox."

I am not attempting to hi-jack the thread. Just a quick question please for you, Mr Van or anyone else who does AI-II. Is the 400X good for both processes, I am considering the purchase and it would be nice if one microscope could be used for both purposes.
Thanks, Phillip

[van from Arkansas]

Phil, For II one needs a stereo microscope 8X.  Mine is a Nikon 80-8 mag.  Some use jewelers glasses.

For nosema 400X light microscope.  Mine is a Zeiss, medical grade, 40X to 1,000X with oil condenser.  One does not need a Zeiss for bee work.

Two completely different scopes.

[Ben Framed]

Thanks Mr Van that helps..
Phillip

[Michael Bush]

> A sick hive is a sick HIVE not a sick queen

But often a sick colony is sick because of their genetics.

[van from Arkansas]

Amen, Mr. Bush.  That is why I requeen and have not ever attempt to treat dysentery issues.  Fungicides are nasty, just plain poison and certainly play havoc on the good bacteria in the bee gut as stated by Bush.

Interesting that i never saw dysentery when young and raising  bees.  May be part to location: Houston Texas mild winters that seldom see frost so the bees were not confined in winter like most places.

[Oldbeavo]

We get nosaema when the bees feed late in the season when there is a lot of moisture in the air at night. This tend to show up weeks after the bees have been collecting high moisture nectar.
For us a shift to warmer areas, especially on to bare sandy soil seems to help, an increase in nutrition also seems to help.
We don't change queens or treat, just a better environment, also affected hives are packed down to the brood box and even pack out the brood box to reduce area needed to keep warm.

[robirot]

For confirming Nosema, you don't need to use a microscope, you can see it by the color and by the pattern (line oft dots, runny and a distjnct brown).

But using the microscope is the better way.

Treating is very easy, the main criteria is to make sure that all sources for reinfection are cleared and that you stimulate brood rearing.

Just wait until you start to hit about 46f, then feed liquid 1:1 treated with bleach. In the 2nd or 3rd flying day in a row, you bring a new hive, with foundation. Now all brood and clean combs get moved into the Nlnew box with the brood enclosed by at least one sheet if foundation (foundation firces the bees to build combs and thus raising the ammount of feed used, and also confines the brood onto a distinct area, that the bees can care for quite easy). All honey combs geht removed.

Now continue to feed 1:1.

The old hive needs to be cleaned, burn the inside and outside with a torch after scraping.

The frames that you took out of the hives are getting melted and the frames cooked in 6% soda or 2% NaOH.

While doing this, you have to be honest to yourself. Don't try to keep any stores that you take out of the hive or keep any dark combs. The reason is, that you else will spread the diseases and continue to lose hives, cause of this.

To limit the problems with diseases in the future, feed at least a Fallon of thymolised sugar syrup in fall and rotate a lot of combs out of your operation. Try to replace brood combs every two years and don't use dark combs in supers (gives better quality honey and those combs are seeing many hives, better not use them to spread diseases).

[Ben Framed]

For confirming Nosema, you don't need to use a microscope, you can see it by the color and by the pattern (line oft dots, runny and a distjnct brown).

But using the microscope is the better way.

Treating is very easy, the main criteria is to make sure that all sources for reinfection are cleared and that you stimulate brood rearing.

Just wait until you start to hit about 46f, then feed liquid 1:1 treated with bleach. In the 2nd or 3rd flying day in a row, you bring a new hive, with foundation. Now all brood and clean combs get moved into the Nlnew box with the brood enclosed by at least one sheet if foundation (foundation firces the bees to build combs and thus raising the ammount of feed used, and also confines the brood onto a distinct area, that the bees can care for quite easy). All honey combs geht removed.

Now continue to feed 1:1.

The old hive needs to be cleaned, burn the inside and outside with a torch after scraping.

The frames that you took out of the hives are getting melted and the frames cooked in 6% soda or 2% NaOH.

While doing this, you have to be honest to yourself. Don't try to keep any stores that you take out of the hive or keep any dark combs. The reason is, that you else will spread the diseases and continue to lose hives, cause of this.

To limit the problems with diseases in the future, feed at least a Fallon of thymolised sugar syrup in fall and rotate a lot of combs out of your operation. Try to replace brood combs every two years and don't use dark combs in supers (gives better quality honey and those combs are seeing many hives, better not use them to spread diseases).

Thank you for the information. Just for educational purposes, what about the wax? Could it be boiled and thus kill any nosema? 

[robirot]

Yes, reworking into foundation is no problem

[Michael Bush]

>Could it be boiled and thus kill any nosema?

If you are concerned about nosema spores, keep in mind that Nosema cerana has displaced Nosema apis and Nosema cerana spores are killed by freezing.  I've never done anything for Nosema and APHIS does counts on my colonies every year and find a Nosema count of zero.  I'm sure some of the issue of Nosema has to do with climate.

[Ben Framed]

Thank you both robirot and Mr Bush for the previous post. Glad to hear both your responses. I hope my bees never get this nosema. I  am trying to know what to do in the case that they do get it.  If I was  on a scale such as TheHoneyPump, I would do as he does in such a case. I would not want to dally around with such a problem where livelyhood was involved. But as a hobbiest, who theoretically has more time to devote to each hive. I might try and save them. So, if a person wants to save the wax from a hive with this problem. He could freeze the wax and then boil the wax and that should do it. This has been a good topic and good post made in my opinion. Thanks all. Phillip

[Ben Framed]

Mr Claude, your post #16 & 17 were totally outstanding. I hope it's not against the rules here, and if it is Jim please scold me now. I have made a habit of printing such post, (articles), for my personal use fo future references. How could we not appreciate such bee knodlege that borders brilliance. You folks are true Blessing for beginners as well as professional beekeepers, I am sure! Thanks all of you !!
Sincerely, Phillip

[van from Arkansas]

>Could it be boiled and thus kill any nosema?

If you are concerned about nosema spores, keep in mind that Nosema cerana has displaced Nosema apis and Nosema cerana spores are killed by freezing.  I've never done anything for Nosema and APHIS does counts on my colonies every year and find a Nosema count of zero.  I'm sure some of the issue of Nosema has to do with climate.

Occurring to UC Davis Entomology Dept: nosema spores less than 10,000 are counted as zero or NONE DETECTED, ND.  The nosema article is presented below:

Causative Agent
Diagnosing and Treating Nosema Disease Eric C. Mussen, Extension Apiculturist, UC Davis ? 3/11/11
Nosema disease in U.S. honey bees is caused by one of two (or both) fungi named Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. Nosema species are obligate, fungus-like, intra-cellular parasites that are limited to specific hosts species. Nosema apis and N. ceranae cannot be reared in laboratory culture, as is possible with most bacteria and other fungi. They can multiply in living honey bee midgut, and perhaps other, cells. There is evidence that, like Nosema bombi in bumble bees, the N. ceranae may infect other honey bee tissues, but that remains to be substantiated.
Life Cycle
When a bee ingests Nosema spores, the spores are filtered out of the honey sac by the proventricular valve and released into the midgut. The exact physical and chemical conditions of the honey bee midgut stimulate germination. The organism penetrates a midgut cell and grows by absorbing nutrients from that cell. The parasite increases in size until it is large enough to divide in half. Each new parasite continues this multiplication process until the nutrients in the cell begin to become exhausted. That stimulus triggers sporulation. Depending upon the species of Nosema, approximately 100 spores can begin to develop as early as four days post-infection or up to nine days later. Some of the early, thin walled spores appear to germinate inside the infected cells, sending their polar filaments into adjacent cells. In this manner, they can make their way through the body cavity, infecting other tissues, at least in bumble bees. The nutrient- depleted host cells rupture. Environmentally resistant, thick walled spores are released into the midgut lumen to start the process, again, or be excreted to the outside. Heavily infected worker honey bees can contain an excess of 50 million spores. Damaged intestinal tissue is subject to secondary infections and "dysentery" (brown diarrhea spots on the combs and exterior of the hive) is a common sign of infection with Nosema apis, but not seen with N. ceranae. N. apis infected bees also defecate inside the hive, contaminating combs with millions of infectious spores.
Effects on Colony
Nosema infections have specific negative effects on honey bees. Worker bees that ingest spores when they are less than a week old normally do not digest food well and are not capable of producing brood food secretions. Infected bees tend to skip the brood rearing phase of life and become foragers at very young ages. Their life spans can be reduced up to 78%. Young queens that ingest Nosema apis spores normally are superseded within a month. In climates where winter prohibits supersedures for many months, colonies often go queenless and dwindle away in early spring. Experience in Minnesota suggests that an average of one million or more N. apis spores per bee can lead to increased winter losses. When high percentages of workers are infected and spore counts exceed ten million spores per bee, significant numbers of colonies will die or lose queens during the winter. With Nosema apis, this spike in the level of infection
 
normally occurrs in early spring, then ?goes away? as the weather improves and the bees defecate outside the hive. With Nosema ceranae having become the dominant species, infection and spore levels can be elevated all year. All levels of infection led to very slow spring build up with Nosema apis, even when forage and temperatures were ideal. Frequently, reduced honey yields followed this poor population build up. In Spain, year ?round infections with Nosema ceranae did not seem to interfere with spring build up and swarming, but were found to lead to very high percentages of lost colonies during summer and through to the next spring.
Diagnosis
Nosema disease is difficult to diagnose without using laboratory equipment. Pulling the last abdominal segments from a bee usually will remove the intestinal tract intact. According to some authors, a healthy midgut is tan in color, with concentric constrictions. An infected midgut will become swollen, whitish and lose its visible constrictions. There is so much variation that this method of diagnosis really cannot be trusted. Besides, other causes of dysentery, such as ingesting honeydew, fermented syrups, indigestible sugars in cola syrups, molasses and kitchen corn syrups can result in similar intestinal changes.
Scientists use a specific methodology to determine levels of infestation. Known numbers of severed abdomens are homogenized, using a mortar and pestle. The homogenate is sieved through two layers of cheesecloth into calibrated centrifuge tubes. The tubes are spun in a clinical centrifuge at 600 rpm for six minutes to drive the spores to the bottom of the tubes. The liquid (supernatant) is poured off (decanted) and the plug (pellet) at the bottom is resuspended in a specific volume of water (final calculation is spores in one ml water per bee). The plug is broken up well (resuspended) by sucking the water in and out many times through a small-tipped disposable pipette. Then a small droplet of the suspension is placed on a blood cell counting chamber (hemocytometer). The number of spores counted over certain areas of the chamber grid can be converted to millions of spores per bee. If infection levels are below 10,000 spores per bee, no spores will be seen over the entire grid and the diagnosis is determined to be ?not detected? or ?ND.? That does not mean that there is no infection.
Treating Infected Colonies
Medicating for Nosema apis is based on the most appropriate times to prevent comb contamination and development of disease in bees that clean up fecal deposits from combs while expanding the brood nest. Later in the summer, when bees are defecating outside the hive, N. apis usually cannot be detected. A few bees are infected all year, but only the diseased late season bees are of consequence. When they develop high levels of infection, they defecate on the combs in October, November and December, then die.
Brood rearing never ceases in many parts of California over the winter, but as the days begin to lengthen in late December, the bees are stimulated to pick up the pace. Availability of nectars and pollens, along with warming temperatures, accelerate brood rearing. It is at this time that many bees "cleaning and polishing" cells, in anticipation of egg laying, become inoculated. How severe the disease will get in the colony population depends upon the initial spore load
 
(amount of contamination) and how much of the time the bees are confined to the hive by non- flight weather. So, Nosema apis levels can vary significantly from year to year.
In order to "cover the bases" in Minnesota, if a colony population had one million or more spores per bee in April, we fed it two gallons of fumagillin-medicated, heavy (two parts sugar : one part water) syrup the following September. If we had to "feed for weight," that was done earlier, so that the early syrup could be "ripened" and stored before the medicated syrup was applied. If the medicated syrup is mixed with other, unripened syrup, it can be diluted to ineffective concentrations. We anticipated that the medicated syrup would be consumed throughout the winter. Spore deposition on combs in early winter would be reduced and the parasite could not reproduce in medicated bees that became inoculated in the spring. The syrup would be consumed, totally, long before the bees produced any honey.
Although we have not conducted the experiments, it is likely that two gallons of medicated syrup may not be required in most of California. Nosema apis levels were not as high in California as they were in Minnesota. Combs should not be so badly contaminated during the winter months, since intermittent flight is possible. Therefore, first treatments with medicated syrup should coincide well with the normal practice of providing colonies with "stimulative" syrup and pollen substitute feeding in late December and January. A gallon, or so, of medicated syrup should provide protection against Nosema apis until the bees are flying well in March and April. Heavy nectar flows from Manzanita, Eucalyptus, mustard and radish might dilute the medication significantly, as would later feeding with non-medicated syrup.
Medicating for Nosema ceranae is going to be different. For one thing, fumagillin no longer is available as Fumidil-B?. A Canadian company, Medivet, sells the product as Fumigilin-B?. The new fumagillin mixes more readily into solution and it appears to be less stable in solution, if the label instructions are correct. The label suggests using the antibiotic in the fall, as always has been the ractice at that time of year for nosema control. Since N. ceranae tends to persist throughout the year, the label calls for increasing the dosage level, and feeding repeatedly in small amounts of sugar syrup, in the spring. Beyond that, Spanish researchers have found that N. ceranae-infected bees tend not to take medicated syrup from feeders, so they had to pour the syrup over the bees (called ?drench?), down between the frames, to make them consume the medication.
Expected Results of Treatment
Beekeepers who have fed fumagillin to field colonies years ago had noted significant differences in colony build up. In fact, many of them stopped using fumagillin. The colonies built up too quickly and swarm control became nearly impossible. With so many colonies succumbing to CCD at this time, I doubt that swarm control will be a major issue any longer.
Decontamination of Equipment
The spores of both nosema species are susceptible to irradiation or fumigation with glacial acetic acid (details in The Hive and the Honey Bee). Otherwise the spores of apparently Europe-originated N. apis are very resistant to the elements, except sunshine, and persist for
 
many years. Nosema ceranae, on the other hand, originated in tropical Asia, and its spores are susceptible to weather, especially cold weather. The spores can be killed by refrigeration or by freezing. If possibly spore-contaminated combs are placed in a freezer and left there until it is certain that all materials in the combs have reached freezing temperatures (honey holds a lot of heat for quite a while), N. ceranae spores, all life stages of greater wax moth, all stages of small hive beetle, and other little critters that tend to get into stored combs will be eliminated.
I am happy to discuss Nosema, its consequences in colonies, and treatments. I can be reached by telephone at: (530) 752-0472 or by email at: [email protected]. Copies of this "Bee Brief" can be downloaded at: http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/facutly/mussen/beebriefs/index.cfm.