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  Hello All,
  So far below is the earliest confirmed nosema ceranae find to my knowledge. 

  The editor of a bee magazine sent the information to me.
   
  Just an FYI....Tony Jadczak, State inspector from Maine, submitted samples of bees to USDA he collected in 1985 to check for T mites while in Maine for BBerry pollination...tests recently ran show that 30% had NC back then...this just fyi...maybe puts a different spin on colony deaths in the last 25 years....or not.

  I was in the nosema ceranae bee yards today and picked up some deadouts. Feeders full , hives dwindling and dead bees in feeders. I am convinced you need to use acetic acid on dead outs before adding new bees.  This spring all equipment going back into production will be given an acetic acid treatment. 

  Since nosema ceranae has been found in my hives I suppose I have lost around 40-50 hives I could not save using the drench method ( Eric Mussen & Randy Oliver). 

  I will say all my other yards are the best bees in years and using the drench method has worked to keep N. ceranae issues only in the test yards. 

  In areas in which you are trying to winter bees in cold and expect a couple months of confinement I think depopulating late stage N. ceranae hives, treating with acetic acid and starting new in spring is the best method.  By spring I will have a good idea of which n. ceranae hives will survive and which are a waste of time and money.

  In my opinion what I see parallels Spain. a hive can be full of bees. The first signs of a problem is after summer supers are removed comes with the first gallon of feed. The hive obviously needs feed and is strong enough to empty a gallon feeder in 24 hours but does not touch the feed. 

  When I check the yard next visit I find all the other hives feeders empty but certain hives. I mark the hive as "feed still in feeder". On the next visit I find the feeder still full but the feeder full of dead bees. Dr. Mussen explains that the bees have serious N. ceranae in the Mid gut and can not feed and in fact are starving which explains the dead bees in feeder. Meanwhile you see a big decline in bees each week. 

  *If* I start the drench early enough ( at first signs) then the problem can at times be reversed. However once you see dead bees in the feeder then the hive is doomed in my opinion.

  I can honestly say I personally  only know of a handful of people in the U.S. looking at the problem ( other than the USDA-ARS ). Dr. Eric Mussen, Randy Oliver and myself for three. If others on the list are setting a few yards aside and doing testing I would love to hear from you. In California Randy and Eric seem to be seeing a different scenario than me. Close but not exactly the same. I trust what they are seeing and I believe California trusts what I see. 

  I have worked out a course of action for the commercial beek in the Midwest but will be better able to fine tune after I get results of trying to winter certain N. ceranae colonies.  

  I plan to end the nosema ceranae experiments in spring and simply stick to my game plan. Once the boxes with high N. ceranae spore counts are treated I believe N. ceranae can be controlled with a drench when needed.

  Some of the boxes I brought in today are dysentary stained along with dead bees in feeders. I do worry that problems might occur in other colonies as two were robbed out. Some of these hives were drenched four times but continued to dwindle.

  I only post so if in the future others start seeing signs of N. ceranae you can go back and reread my posts on N. ceranae. I am doing the testing for mainly selfish reasons but willing to share what I have learned.
  I certainly have not got all the answers but have learned quite a bit over the last two years of testing.

  bob

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