Nosema?

[Wandering Man]

I checked our new Nuc this morning and found brown spots outside the box.  This nuc contains a mixture of our cemetery found bees and bees from a split we did 7 days ago.  We plan to go in to see if they there are queen cells today.  But these brown spots have me worried.

Should we treat?  If so, should we treat our other two hives as well?

I thought Nosema only happened to hives that were confined for prolonged periods of cold.

[Perry]

Those are just some bee droppings from cleansing flights, nothing to be concerned about. When bees are cooped up, even for just a few days, sometimes the need to cleanse outweighs the need to be well clear of the hive.

[Wandering Man]

But they haven't been cooped up.

Just checked. I saw a queen cell, and almost put the nuc back together.

I decided to check the other four frames.

I've been slimed. The two frames with brood and honey was crawling with SHB larvae. There were two more queen cells on one frame. We put the comb in a plastic bag, cleaned off the bottom board, and put three fres frames with foundation.

Now I'm wondering if I can figure out how to transfer the queen cells into the nuc, if we didn't already destroy them.

Also wondering about putting a nuc withe bees and honey on top, sheet of newspaper in between.

Not many bees left in the nuc.

[riverbee]

wm, if there was a great deal of spotting on the face of the hive, top cover.......or inside the hive, then i would be concerned. it may be something the bees collected.  are you feeding syrup? if so make sure it hasn't fermented.  many things can cause dysentery in bees.

two articles about nosema,

from randy oliver, scientific beekeeping:

Nosema ceranae: Kiss of Death or Much Ado about Nothing?

i have uploaded the other, a pdf file from UC Davis Entomology........'Diagnosing and Treating Nosema Disease'

sorry to hear about the SHB.  these bugs will decimate a hive in a fast hurry.

about the queen cells, were they on the slimed frames? i think i understand that they are/were? you placed these in a plastic bag?

if they are not very many bees in this nuc, i think i would consider combining with another hive. 

[Wandering Man]

One of the queen cells was on a clean frame.  The other two were on the clean half of a slimed frame.  But when I went back to look, I could no longer find the queen cells.  I must have smushed them when I through them in the bag.  Oh, and the bag smelled really bad.

Now I'm wondering if the brown spots was slime that the bees were tracking around, or if the slime had caused the bees to get sick.

I flattened the top of the clean queen cell, and opened the cap.  I pushed two frames together, and the top of the queen cell was smashed into the other frame.  Do you think she'll survive?

I grabbed a second nuc box, placed a sheet (whoops, two sheets) of newspaper between the two nucs, and added a frame of honey and a frame of brood.  Both frames had bees on them, but I forgot to knock any extra bees into the box.

By this time, the bees were really agitated with me.  I had a cloud of bees hanging around my hood.  I learned later that I got stung twice in the butt of my jeans.  I figured I had been stung somewhere on my clothing because the guard bees kept coming out to greet meet, every time I stepped out to look at them.

Oh, BTW: 3Reds is now officially a beekeeper!

efmesch's words were echoed by another beekeeper last night.  Something to the effect of "you aren't a beekeeper if you haven't been stung."

3Reds stepped out to check on my progress.  She had participated earlier when we discovered the mess, but had to go inside thanks to a bad cold that started last night.  She came out later, to check on me, as I was cleaning up tools, etc. around the hives.  I hadn't messed with the hive in a while, but the bees were still highly agitated.

One caught her just below the eyebrow.

No epi pen was needed, so now she knows she doesn't have a severe reaction to bee stings.

We put Bakers solution on the sting.  We'll get to find out how well it works.

[riverbee]

"One of the queen cells was on a clean frame.  The other two were on the clean half of a slimed frame.  But when I went back to look, I could no longer find the queen cells.  I must have smushed them when I through them in the bag.  Oh, and the bag smelled really bad.

I flattened the top of the clean queen cell, and opened the cap.  I pushed two frames together, and the top of the queen cell was smashed into the other frame.  Do you think she'll survive?"

no wm........queen cells are very delicate.

as far as stings............benadryl immediately, as soon as you can, it does help.  hope 3 reds is doing alright. and ice it. just takes time.  some of us react more than others. me, i am allergic, better since injections.

i have very little knowledge on shb, i don't have them up here, so can't comment on whether or not the bees became sick on the slime.

i guess i am confused at what you are trying to save wm?  sometimes it's just not practical to save a few bees in a nuc (or any hive), or have them 'requeen themselves'.............sorry if i have misunderstood!

[Wandering Man]

RB, mostly we were just trying our hand at doing a split. I see now that I didn't transfer enough bees into the nuc.

Yesterday, I was also moving the nuc and one other hive onto a new hive stand.

3Reds hasn't shown any kind of response to the bee sting. Either the Bakers formula works really well, she has no immune system, or having a cold negates the effects of a bee sting.

She did acknowledge that it hurt, so I've ruled out that she's a zombie.

[LazyBkpr]

so I've ruled out that she's a zombie

   LOL, its always good to KNOW for sure!

[Chip Euliss]

Nosema apis shouldn't a big issue for you in Texas because your bees fly regularly and N. ceranae doesn't leave brown spots like N. apis.  It also tends to be more of a summer issue and often results in hives not expanding as expected.  I had mine tested a few years back and had high spore counts so I adopted a syrup/fumagillin drench regimen along with Nosevit.  Solved my problems.  I hear that freezing greatly reduces spore viability so any infected combs I have get cleansed if they are bee free here over the North Dakota winter.  Not so in my bees that go to California.  Never say never but I doubt your issue is nosema.  I don't have a beetle issue other than an occasional one that I likely pick up from infected hives in California.