From: Barrie at Honeybear
Date: 3/9/98
Time: 10:38:59 PM
Remote Name: 209.115.133.221
Am finding the postings on nosema analysis interesting. Good to see a discussion box that is commercial and pertinent.
FWIW, we did some similar testing back in 1996, following a course put on by Fairview College in Edmonton, Eric will remember steering us to a good source of hemocytometers. I also purchased a good scope from James International in Edm. We bought a compound monocular scope power 4X to 100X that's great for nosema, no good for tracheal mite.
That March we tested 30 locations , sampling about 150 bees/yd as we were putting the pollen and oil paddies on. We were mainly testing for tracheal mite, but ground up I believe 25 bees per sample for nosema spore counts.
Out of the bunch we only double checked two samples, but they were very close so we didn't go beyond that. Our samples were a few bees from every hive, well mixed up in the sample jar before we scooped out 25 to grind up. Still, we may have been lucky in the numbers in the second test.
The samples ranged from 0 spores in 11 yards, to a few as high as 6 and 7 million. Most of the remainder were in the .5 to 2 million range.
We then resampled 9 yards in early April, and in all but one case the levels dropped significantly. The one went up. We were testing the value of fumagil in pollen paddies. The trend was there based on testing and scope work that was consistent each time. However, I can't say how much natural drop also may have occurred with spring flying weather in April. Also the March samples were from the top bars, the April samples were from the entrance.
The only "control" we had was two samples taken from two beeyards of a neighbour who did not treat. The nosema levels remained constant with one sample, and rose significantly with the other.
Another thing we can't easily sample or monitor is the effect of nosema on the queens, and supersedure rates. For us, the data was enough to continue general outfit level treatments, split between the syrup in the fall, and in the pollen paddies in March.
We justify it based on relatively low nosema counts maintained by treatments we hope, good queens , and also respecting the damage that tracheal mite can do when that stress is added to nosema stress.
Hope this adds to your exchange in a positive way.
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