Well, I've promised to do nosema checks this year and I guess if I'm going
to do them, I should do them right.  Especially since I paid good money
for a hemacytometer a couple of years ago.  Eric offered to do the
microscope work, but I figure I shouldn't take advantage of his
generosity.  He has his own to do.
 
Trouble is that I can't find my notes on how to use the hemacytometer.
Then I searched and searched and, although I found a really good post or
two on nosema, I came up empty with regards the use of a hemacytometer.
 
I understand that to determine what the level of infection per bee, the
guts of 25 bees are placed into 25 ml of water and macerated, then
shaken. After the debris settles, a drop of the broth is placed on the
hemacytometer, the slide cover put over it, and the spores, if any are
counted in the squares under a microscope (power? around 300?) , but I
forget the details and also the math.  I remember that in the course Eric
& I took, that we macerated the whole abdomen for simplicity (maybe it
was the whole bee -- can't recall).
 
Can someone give me a refresher?  I'm sure the extension people have
this wired and it would be of general interest to the group.
 
Allen
 
PS: On the subject of nosema, there are several posts of particular
interest in the logs.  Of them, #2817 is truly impressive -- and
fascinating.
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