"Christina, have you actually checked that dysentery for the presence of nosema spores? From the numerous samples that I've checked, I don't see a correlation between dysentery and nosema (although in-hive dysentery would certainly transmit nosema). However, there does seem to be a correlation between dysentery and amoeba cysts.?"


No, but that is an interesting observation. Maybe because your bees get to fly more often you don't see streaking on the hive from Nosema? Here, by the time the bees are able to get out in spring, they are weak and full and can't really get too far before they have to "let go". I haven't checked the "scat" (or whatever we call bee poop other than bee poop). Usually I check the bees if I see streaking, and often hives with bee poop on the outsides also have Nosema on their bees' insides. Seems to me to be enough to check the bees instead of the poop...and of course there are hives with streaking and no Nosema in the bees. As you know I don't have more than a half dozen hives myself, but I have helped many dozens of NY beekeepers and looked at lots of their bees' guts. Viruses cause dysentery and other things such as amoebae too probably. I've only seen amoebae once. Perhaps it's more common in California, or maybe there hasn't been an outbreak here since I started looking at samples.


Of course what is frustrating is seeing hives with extensive streaking and no Nosema or cysts and only the vague diagnosis of "it was probably a virus". (Just in case it isn't obvious, these were hives that did not starve or die of other beekeeper-induced maladies like poor ventilation). This happened to a fair number of hobby beekeepers in NYS last winter. There was streaking outside and inside the hives, especially on the top bars. No Nosema in most of them. It's not really worth it to a hobbyist to send a specimen off for virus sampling, because not only are many of the tests both expensive and inconclusive, but there isn't any treatment, anyway. All we can say is "sick bees". And when you only have a couple hives, "manipulating the yards" by isolating or culling sick ones isn't an option.


Christina

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