>How do you test for nosema? Is pulling out the gut and checking >for a
light honey color reliable enough?

Looking at the mid gut is ok for a field test.

Putting a sample under a 400 power microscope and looking for the "rice
grains*  is better.

> Does this help control nosema in any significant way, or just >make me
feel better?

The acid controls the spores as Chris suggests. To sum things up I see Chris
as looking at total control of nosema spores. I personally see this as
impossable. I find detectable nosema in all feral colonies I check and all
beekeepers colonies which do not treat.

I am content to simply knock nosema down to a very low level *but* I monitor
so levels never get so high I have got hives brown with nosema spores.

> Last fall as an experiment I did not treat with Fumidil, but now
I notice more poop on and around the hives (and on me) when they started
their cleansing flights.

Dysentery is not nosema. Without a microscope test you can not tell for sure
if what you are seeing is dysentery from poor winter stores (honey type) or
from nosema. If I were to make a guess I would guess dysentery if you are
seeing *huge amounts* of poop but better to test than guess.

Bob

Ps. I will be at the Kansas Honey Producers meeting in Emporia, Kansas the
next two days. March 5th & 6th.

I may or may not be at the Missouri State Beekeepers meeting in Springfield,
Missouri the next Saturday. The constant rain (5 in. today)has put me behind
so if the rain stops I might have to play catch up on beekeeping work. I
never decide this time of year till a day or so before.

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