Hello Randy & All,
My take of the current nosema issue.

The problem is not as much which nosema you are dealing with as much as
your past history of nosema control.

 I have spoke with commercial beeks which have never treated for nosema. Now
they have got a crisis and trying to control with fumidil and are happily
( very very happily) being sold all the fumidil they can afford  by bee
supply houses. Fumidil is in short supply now if you have been waiting to
order. Betterbee is out and not sure when they will get replacements as well
as Drapers.

Without addressing the spore issue ( as is done in other areas of the world
by acetic  acid ,other less common methods  or comb replacement) then you
getting into an area similar to treating all the time for foulbrood because
your comb contains the spores because you chose to simply treat to control
instead of burn to eliminate.

Back to nosema.

The nosema C. ( for teaching purposes I like to say nosema C. instead of N.
cerana  as some beekeepers get confused and think I am talking about the bee
cerana) is without a doubt harder to control.

Jerry Hayes wrote in his column last year that in Europe at times beekeepers
have had to treat three times a year for control. Fact and also in extreme
cases in the U.S. I will address next.

 I personally believe that those beekeepers had to treat three times a year
because they had comb with huge spore loads.

 Randy has been trying in my opinion to point to spore loads as the way to
decide on a course of management.

 I agree but *if* you have never treated for nosema and Nosema C. has been
in the U.S. for a decade then in my opinion you have got a nosema issue and
most likely nosema C. is hives are crashing and testing shows high spore
counts.

 Our bee researchers dropped the ball by not finding nosema C. in our U.S.
bees when arrived instead only when the CCD issue hit!

I am the guy which takes on the tough issues. I tell beekeepers what they do
not want to hear! So hear goes again!
News flash!

Many cringe when our researchers speak of rotating out a couple frames every
year and at the end of five years all comb is replaced.

 A sound practice but is not a sound practice in an outfit crashing from
high loads of nosema spores in combs.

YOU HAVE TO REPLACE OR STERILIZE ALL COMBS AT ONCE!

Our friends from the U.K. on this list have done many posts on the subject
( thanks!).

They use acetic acid but there are other ways. However before you decide to
go through the hassle of treating all combs ( it IS a big hassle! using
acetic acid) you need to *consider* all the chemicals in those combs.

 Replacement of all is what I recommend.

 If you replace all comb and then quit using the hard chemicals then you
move into the realm of easier mite control and certainly easier nosema
control. The virus contamination is reduced.  The ways many beekeepers are
converting whole outfits to new comb are many and best talked about later
but I can name many outfits eliminating all the comb from the operation to
eliminate spores and contamination.

The largest bon fire of bee frames in the world burned three and a half
million old combs.

Testing is the way to tell for sure exactly how contaminated your outfit is.
Then you can make an intelligent decision on what is best for you are your
pocket book!

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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