Thanks for sharing your information Jim.
Have you considered that the hives that swarmed had a low population of winter bees going into
winter? That would not directly explain the nosema but winter may have been more stressful on
"old" bees which made them more vulnerable to a Nosema outbreak?
Here in Mn I have seen a correlation with wet winters and Nosema losses. Especially wet weather in
Feb and March.
In fact here in Mn/Wis you can draw a line SW to NE across the two states and based on anecdotcal
reports it appears the losses were very high on the wet side of that line. The difference in precip on
either side of that line was significant. 100 inches plus on one side and 30 inches of so on the other
side. Can anyone from those states validate that theory or debunk?
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