> What does THATHB say, Bill?
>

Thanks, guru, for reminding me of my standard admonition to check before
opening mouth. I did not.

However, it does confirm what I said about NA, that you can have it without
dysentery. Also, it says that the way to positively ID it is to test the
fecal matter that does come when dysentery kicks in, especially late winter,
early spring. So a positive read of NA from dysentery would seem to be a
positive ID of NC from dysentery. That is exactly what happened.

Other interesting things about NA include symptoms are often confused with
other bee problems including bee paralysis, pesticide poisoning, starvation
and dysentery. But you can test the dysentery to ID Nosema.

Spring and fall dwindling are signs of Nosema. Bees left in the colony are
lethargic.

Sounds familiar.

Also interesting is beekeepers in the early 1900's were very afraid of
introducing new bees into the US because they would bring NA, only to find
it was already in 27 states. Sort of what happened with NC.

It is interesting reading just to see how we repeat the past.

The cause of dysentery from NA is confinement. Otherwise the bees are either
removed from the hive or fly off to die. So if the trialed bees in Spain and
elsewhere were not confined for a long period, there would be no dysentery.
It takes quite a while for Nosema to get to that stage, which is why they
can go into fall with it and not show dysentery until late winter, early
spring.

So all that Tony said is backed up by the book, which is why I should have
checked it sooner. Thanks for the prod to do what I tell others to do.

Humbling.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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