Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 31

Thread: Starting out with Microscopy

  1. #11
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    Yeah - I'm confused too (obviously)! Don't know where I got that from but I thought it was right at the time. Did hear recently that there was one, but I never went back to correct the remark above. Apologies ....

    Feel free to advertise them on here in future!

    The half - was that a young person, someone with body parts missing, or was there an accident on the day?! I shuddered when I saw 'dissection' in the same paragraph .....

  2. #12
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    west lothian
    Posts
    19

    Default

    Ha ha... No, fortunately there were no major accidents or limb removals! (just some minor finger slicing) I'm surprised the organisers didn't advertise it on the forum... maybe it was published on the main SBA website? The half person was someone who could only attend on the Saturday...

  3. #13
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    Ah ... *that* kind of half person!

    Were people bringing samples to look at on the day? These dwindling colonies (and the poor flying weather much of last year) could easily mean a resurgence of some of the traditional bee lurgies. I like that word, lurgie. The Bee Lurgie Unit, SASA ... has a certain ring to it?!

    We have microscopes in the local association but don't get them out enough. Maybe we should do something with them this year.

  4. #14

    Default

    I've done the SBA training it was some years ago at Stirling Uni with Ian Craig and a cast of experts (including 2 from the bee disease unit)
    It was excellent we used their gear and only had to take 30 bees and some flowers for pollen.
    Most of my bees revived despite having been given IKF (Insect Killing Fluid) and 24 hours in the freezer
    I think exposure to Neonic pesticides must have given them immunity or turned them into zombies

    The links I gave earlier are great if you want to get some use from, and advice on, microscopes : you soon get fed up looking at the contents of bee abdomens

    This site is good source of information about microscopes http://www.microscopemaster.com/stereo-microscope.html all very clear non jargon stuff
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 08-04-2013 at 11:05 PM. Reason: Grammar mate!

  5. #15

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post

    We have microscopes in the local association but don't get them out enough. Maybe we should do something with them this year.
    If memory serves me the nosema infected bees we sampled were brought by the staff from bee diseases
    Ian Craig brought his pollen slides, lots of them to identify, and not many air bubbles unlike mine
    We didn't have any previously stained and mounted nosema samples but everyone agreed that would have been helpful.

  6. #16
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    west lothian
    Posts
    19

    Default nosema slides

    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    If memory serves me the nosema infected bees we sampled were brought by the staff from bee diseases
    Ian Craig brought his pollen slides, lots of them to identify, and not many air bubbles unlike mine
    We didn't have any previously stained and mounted nosema samples but everyone agreed that would have been helpful.
    For nosema identification, the samples aren't usually stained in any way, so providing stained examples might not help people to recognise nosema sporeswhen testing their own bees at a later date. Gut contents of 30 bees are crushed in 15ml of distilled water, and a droplet is placed on a slide under a coverslip. This is then examined at x400 and the nosema spores are readily identified by their size, shape and colour. Next time however, we could make up some extra slides beforehand in a temporary mount and these can be passed around for examination It's always useful to get feedback on how we can improve the course, so thanks for the suggestion.

    Gavin - Yes, there were a few people who had brought in bees which turned out to have some level of nosema infection (the first time i have seen this at the microscopy course; normally we supply infected material for analysis). We didn't see any acarine symptoms, but then again only a small number of bees were examined! I suspect the long winter confinement has contributed to an increase in the normal infection levels observed at this time of year...

  7. #17

    Default

    I'm an old school dry em and dye em guy
    That's half the fun Lol!

    Don't tell me I have to stop now and go cold turkey, what will I do with that Litre of stain ?

    here's Randy Olivers method
    http://www.microscope.com/education-...oscopy-nosema/

    Ruary posted a method for making and staining more permanent slides on the BBKA forum
    for the people interested in how it was done
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 10-04-2013 at 05:03 PM.

  8. #18
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Somerset
    Posts
    1,884
    Blog Entries
    35

    Default

    Finally sent off the firms for one of the NDB short courses in July down in Devon. I'm taking a break from modules/assessments this year to, hopefully, concentrate on just beekeeping and preparing for the general husbandry assessment. But a weekend playing with microscopes seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, I've been putting off doing anything with them for far too long.

  9. #19

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Neils View Post
    Finally sent off the firms for one of the NDB short courses in July down in Devon. I'm taking a break from modules/assessments this year to, hopefully, concentrate on just beekeeping and preparing for the general husbandry assessment. But a weekend playing with microscopes seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, I've been putting off doing anything with them for far too long.
    Hi Neils

    Practical Microscopy by J. Eric Marsdon not only covers making slides of bee parts etc it has lots of other great info
    When people talk about softening bees for slide mounts etc they are usually quoting from his book

    It used to be sold by Nothern Bee books but I googled for them and had no luck
    Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Mi.../dp/B001BP5NSW out of stock
    Somebody on here will know where you can get a copy or the library might get one
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 11-04-2013 at 01:36 PM. Reason: repetition deviation hesitation

  10. #20
    Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    South West Ireland
    Posts
    86
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Hi Neils

    Practical Microscopy by J. Eric Marsdon not only covers making slides of bee parts etc it has lots of other great info
    When people talk about softening bees for slide mounts etc they are usually quoting from his book

    It used to be sold by Nothern Bee books but I googled for them and had no luck
    Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Mi.../dp/B001BP5NSW out of stock
    Somebody on here will know where you can get a copy or the library might get one
    Try Brunell microscopes I have just looked and it seems to be in stock.

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •