>One suggestion would be to find out if you have Nosema.
>1) Grasp an adult bee by the head and by the tip of abdomen and pull. With
>a little prcatice the entire gut will be exposed.  Look at the middle
>part, A normal bee's midgut will be darkened and "ringed", it will have
>circilar constictions along it's surface.  An infected gut will be
>bloated, whitish, and the constrictions will not be as clearly visible.
 
Many thanks to John Skinner for the above technique!  Nosema is one of most
difficult of bee diseases to diagnose, in my opinion, if it is not at a
severe stage, because there is no brood affected and the adult bees
generally die out of the hive, weather permitting.  Because of this I think
most beekeepers, where winters are extreme, just treat all the colonies as a
matter of course.  Since fumagillan has been used for a long time now, and
considering the recent discussion on this list about antibiotic resistance,
I have a few queries:
 
Has there ever been any fumagillan resistance noticed?
 
Is there any alternative treatment if resistance does develop?
 
What biological control alternatives are available?  (I was under the
impression that the bees would recover on their own, but with a reduction in
strength and therefore yield that season.  I could be quite wrong,  and I do
not know if untreated hives are more likely to harbour "spores" that will
reinfect them in winter conditions.  Nosema is a "sporozoan" ??, so I assume
it has spores?  :)
 
What is the situation in Sweden and New Zealand, where other antibiotics are
banned?
Is fumagillan banned as well?
 
Regards, Stan   45 degrees N