I just received a copy of a study, "Energetic stress in the honeybee Apis 
mellifera from Nosema ceranae infection" by Christopher Mayack, Dhruba Naug, 
which, in part says,

"Nosema is a microsporidian pathogen that infects the honeybee gut and is 
known to cause a suite of metabolic changes in the host (Bailey, 1981). 
Infected bees are known to have lower levels of pro-tein, resulting in a 
reduced hypopharengeal gland (Malone and Gatehouse, 1998; Wang and Moeller, 
1970; Wang and Moeller,1971), as well as altered fatty acid composition in 
the hemolymph (Roberts, 1968). It has been less commonly suggested that 
Nosema also uses carbohydrates from the epithelial cells of the honeybee gut 
lining (Higes et al., 2007; Liu, 1984). The demand placed on the host with 
respect to carbohydrate is especially interesting because it is the most 
fundamental source of energy and bees, due to their high metabolic rates 
that come with ?ight (Neukirch,1982), have a high demand for it. It is also 
important to note in this context that the foragers, which are likely to 
have the highest energetic demand, are also the ones with the highest Nosema 
load (El-Shemy and Pickard, 1989; Higes et al., 2008)...

The study examines a number of interesting aspects of the effects of nosema 
infection and their implications.

The passage above is of particular interest to me in that it refers to "a 
reduced hypopharengeal gland ...as well as altered fatty acid composition in 
the hemolymph... "

We have discussed the feeding of protein supplements and the reported 
positive effect on nosema-infected colonies.  While carbohydrate sufficiency 
is quite obvious, deficiency in protein or amino acid nutrition are far less 
apparent, and this knowledge would seem to me to support the notion that 
feeding supplements when in doubt cab be an appropriate action.

I have looked into the cells of a lot of brood frames in the past weeks and 
often see only two colours of pollen: yellow and orange.  I don't know for 
certain what the source is although I have some guesses.  No matter, I do 
know that they are not tree pollens -- we only get tree pollens in the 
spring -- so these pollens are likely somewhere far down the list of ideal 
pollens, and I'm betting they are deficient in some important aspects.

In our area, we see the maximum performance from our bees in spring, then 
declining brood rearing.  This is widely considered to be normal and 
seasonal, but I think it is as much related to the changing pollen 
nutritional profile as to the other factors (population 'peak', season, 
flows, etc.)

This year, I fed Global's 15% pollen patties all summer and notice that the 
colonies not only eat them, but that I am getting enhanced performance from 
my hives over what I would normally expect.  Unfortunately, I have not run 
controls, because this did not start out as an experiment, and I have not 
checked yet for nosema, either. 

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