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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JUNE 2017
Testing for nosema Now I’m turning my attention towards the health of the colonies. Are they showing signs of nosema? This is a gut parasite (a fungus) that eats the cells in the bee’s stomach lining as it reproduces. Bees effectively starve as they cannot digest their food. When nosema was a major problem in the 1980s, its effects were attributed to reducing honey production by one box a hive. There’s a quick on-site test to indicate nosema in field bees: remove a field bee’s head and pull out the sting and the stomach should come out with it. If the latter part of the stomach is slightly orange with pollen, all is well but if it’s clear, this could indicate nosema. To investigate further, you need a 400x power microscope. Collect 10– 15 bees from the entrance and remove the abdomens. Grind these up with a mortar and pestle and add one millilitre of water for each bee. Stir up and put a drop on a slide. If you don’t have a blood haemocytometer, count the number in the eyepiece after referring to Randy Oliver’s website, ScientificBeekeeping.com (http://scientificbeekeeping.com/ sick-bees-part-13-simple-microscopy-of-nosema/) What I’m looking for is hives with next to no nosema showing so I can select the best of these as breeding stock. They could end up being bee drone mother hives or queen breeders with this trait, along with having good overwintering ability, being good honey producers, and being gentle and steady on the frames. By selecting and breeding from those hives showing resistance to nosema, I gradually changed the amount of nosema in my hives. Now that we have a new nosema (Nosema ceranae), I am looking at this parasite again so it won’t suddenly creep up on me during a wet spring. I don’t want to have colonies collapsing from a result of poor nutrition due to a wet spring and nosema. Winter tasks Winter is a nice time to render down old frames, as this will be the only warm place in the shed. Plastic frames are a little more difficult to clean. Some of the bigger beekeepers have built power washers with several heads to pulverise the wax off the plastic. I still have to do it the hard way by warming the frames and scraping the wax off. There’s a fine line when it comes off before the heat buckles the frame. I tried waterblasting them but it’s very messy in the open. Doing this task in a metal box is better and you don’t get so much back in your face. We have only two and a half months before we are back into beekeeping again, so plan to have everything ready for the next season well ahead of time. You never catch up in the spring once bee work begins. It might be said I’m old fashioned but I like wood and wax frames in the brood nest. They take longer to make up but they are better for the bees, I feel. You can also purchase ready-made gear from some of our advertisers if you fall behind in your winter jobs. If you are in beekeeping for the long haul, ask your farmers if you can plant a few poplar trees along the fence lines away from amenities. Trees with sticky buds are excellent propolis producers—they are good for erosion control, provide shade and when big enough, the timber is light and durable. Mary-Ann’s uncle made a truck deck (a tray, for you Australians) out of this timber. I can’t get at my reference material at the moment as we’ve shifted the location of our office and I’m waiting for new shelving for all my books. If you contact the Poplar and Willow Trust, Ian should be able to put you on to some new hybrids. (Go to http://www.poplarandwillow.org.nz/about/contact)
Things to do this month Time to move work indoors. Render down cappings and old combs. Make up new equipment for the coming season. Check the effectiveness of your mite treatments by monitoring the natural mite fall over a week or more. If you count more than a couple of mites falling per day, you could have a problem. More than one mite in 100 bees two weeks after the treatment is removed could signal that another treatment is advisable—perhaps an oxalic dribble with warm sugar syrup on a warm day. It’s also about this time that lost swarms start to break down with varroa mites, so check monthly for ‘mite bombs’ (i.e., a single hive with lots of varroa).
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