Jim said:

> I don't understand the logic.
>
> a) Nosema is a disease that can reduce yield per hive
>    without showing any overt symptoms.

Is reduction of yield not a symptom?

> c) While serious cases of either are easy to notice,
>    my understanding has been that it is the "mild"
>    cases that are the real problem.

Now I don't understand the logic!  If there are only mild cases, surely this
would suggest that colonies are coping naturally - and is that not what we
want and should be working towards?

> d) One cannot control that which they do not measure,
>    and you certainly cannot find that which you don't
>    even try to find.

I worry about the word control, but leaving that aside I do measure - not
the disease, but the crop.  My 23 year average, based on autumn count, is
70lbs per hive and this has risen over the years - in the early days it was
in the high fifties and this year was 89lbs.  If it went the other way then
I would start looking for problems, but I am certainly not going to spend
hours routinely dissecting bees and looking at microscope slides trying to
find evidence of problems which I have no reason to suspect exist.  (
Incidentally, I saw report in one of the US beekeeping magazines recently
that gave the average US crop as 67lbs per colony.  Not sure if that was on
autumn or spring count.  Is it really that low?).

> In short, he looked at the usual "check the midgut" test
> for nosema, and found it to be misleading when compared
> to microscope examination for the actual nosema protozoa.

I have never used a midgut test (except on suspected EFB), always used the
microscope.

> The bad news is that protozoa are just plain hard to see.
> He mentioned "phase contrast", a microscope feature that is
> well beyond the budget of a beekeeper.

That is certainly news to me, I use a fairly basic, elderly microscope and
can see nosema and amoeba easily.

> Maybe I don't have a nosema problem, but I'm sure as heck
> gonna look before it gets too cold to feed some Fumadil.

Keeping the treadmill turning?

Incidentally, Fumadil is no longer available in the UK.

Peter Edwards
[log in to unmask]
www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/

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