Hello Peter and All,
Although Peter D' answered his own questions by saying maybe he should drag 
out the microscope I feel compelled to comment. Spore count is about all you 
have to work with *after* a confirmed N. ceranae find in you bees has been 
confirmed.

It is my opinion that rare would be the hives in the U.S. which would not 
test positive for N. ceranae in the hives of migratory beeks. 100% of the 
CCD samples tested were positive for n. ceranae .

Still did not cause much of a red flag for the researchers.  They were SURE 
after the Science article that IAPV was killing our bees AND the import from 
Australia had caused the problem. Only a couple others besides myself said 
"now just wait a minute".

> Bob commented on dead bees in the feeder of Nosema affected hives.
> Is that a common experience?

Not with nosema apis but I would say yes in the late stages of a hive 
crashing from Nosema ceranae. Spore counts are usually in the five million 
per bee range ( although not always) and according to Dr. Eric Mussen ( 
California research  explained to beeks at the November 2007 Missouri State 
Beekeepers meeting ) is caused by desperate starving bees going into frame 
feeders. Tests done on those bees showed the bees were starving and unable 
to take syrup.

All my inside frame feeders have a full length V of 8 mesh hardware cloth. 
Has always prevented drowning before I had serious nosema ceranae issues.

> Am I missing the possibility/probability that syrup drowning is indicative 
> that these hives have a Nosema problem?

It is best to test and confirm nosema ceranae as nosema apis does not seem 
to produce the bees in feeder issue.

I might add for my friend Randy's information that the syrup in those 
feeders quickly turns black. Do you see a change in the color of syrup in 
California when you find dead bees in syrup? I note no off smell but I 
always dump and wash out the feeders. I washed some out today and wonder 
what I should use to kill nosema ceranae spores before reusing those feeders 
gain or is necessary. What do you think Randy?

Randy also asked about if feeding pollen helped turn the nosema ceranae 
hives around. Randy has suggested such to me before. I honestly have not 
tried feeding a pollen/substitute as we are finding hives with an above 
normal amount of high quality pollen this year. I was happy not to find corn 
pollen in the hives I checked!

Which is why I believe we are not seeing problems with the neonicotinoid 
corn pollen that we did in the two drought years when the bees packed in the 
seed treated corn pollen.

bob 

*******************************************************
* Search the BEE-L archives at:                       *
* http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l *
*******************************************************