Scraping With Ted
Ted and I - my cat (actually, my neighbor's cat, I feel obliged to add- but I spend most of the day with him every day), spent the evening scraping and burning and cloroxing frames and supers of hives that died this winter- trying to get them disease-free to put on other hives. I lost two out of eighteen this winter- and others severely dwindled. And though I have my pet theories- I really have no idea why. I have sent the latest hive to Beltsville (last train to clarksville?)- which is the USDA bee testing lab- and I'll be curious if a.) I ever hear from them, and b.) what they say.
I spent hours looking into a microscope at 400x- and though I saw Nosema in a few samples- in 9 out of 10, I saw none in the really bad off hive. Considering how sick the last hive looked- down to 100 bees or so, bloated, defecating, barely hanging in there despite Funagillin treatments, I expected to see them packed with Nosema. But I saw nothing.
Which sets me to thinking- what happened this year? My pet theory, likely wrong, is that I lost control of moisture in the hive, and a perfect storm, or a semu-perfect one, came in November- actually, a freeze the day after warm, rainy weather- and the bees just succumbed- the hives, full of incapped stores (which I have seen in a number), were moisture laiden, and the bees got hit by it, and died. Apparently, moisture is a killer in its own right- causing dysentery and disease. I think I read that. Now I can't think where. But the point is- its not necessarily a pathogen.
I ordered Hive Alive- incredbily expensive for a small bottle- and some protein patties- and more Fumagillin, and a whole bunch of frame feeders, which I thought I;d try. So- I am going to experiment a little- switch it out.
I spent hours looking into a microscope at 400x- and though I saw Nosema in a few samples- in 9 out of 10, I saw none in the really bad off hive. Considering how sick the last hive looked- down to 100 bees or so, bloated, defecating, barely hanging in there despite Funagillin treatments, I expected to see them packed with Nosema. But I saw nothing.
Which sets me to thinking- what happened this year? My pet theory, likely wrong, is that I lost control of moisture in the hive, and a perfect storm, or a semu-perfect one, came in November- actually, a freeze the day after warm, rainy weather- and the bees just succumbed- the hives, full of incapped stores (which I have seen in a number), were moisture laiden, and the bees got hit by it, and died. Apparently, moisture is a killer in its own right- causing dysentery and disease. I think I read that. Now I can't think where. But the point is- its not necessarily a pathogen.
I ordered Hive Alive- incredbily expensive for a small bottle- and some protein patties- and more Fumagillin, and a whole bunch of frame feeders, which I thought I;d try. So- I am going to experiment a little- switch it out.
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