winter dysentery?

[Adam]

Isn't heather honey a problem due to the protein in it rather than the water content?
And a strong thymol syrup (Hivemakers recipie) is good for nosema....

[Bridget]

An update on this nucleus as weather allowed a full inspection today. The floor of the hive was covered with dead bees and chalk brood mummies. Tw of the outside frames were disgusting (one with what looks like poop in the frames) so have both been burnt and a frame of stores from another hive added, along with an empty frame. Queen was in evidence but no brood and very little stores and they were well into the fondant. If I had had another nucleus I would have put them in a clean one, will get one this week. So they are looking a little fragile inside, though flying strongly outside and bringing in pollen. Photos are of the two outside frames. Dead bees were mainly head up. Would these pics help confirm nosema?.
IMG_1548.jpgIMG_1540.JPG

[drumgerry]

Bridget the only way to be certain of nosema is using microscopy. 2nd frame doesn't look too bad apart from a little mouldy pollen.

[Bridget]

No Drumgerry, moldy pollen is in fact chalk brood and the rest of that frame looks like poo.

[gavin]

Do you have a close-up of that second frame? Don't think it will be faeces, at least not bee faeces!

[drumgerry]

Ah well it is quite hard to tell what's going on from photos taken from a distance. Mouldy pollen can have that white look as well sometimes I've found. Not seeing the poo - the wood itself looks quite clean.

[Bridget]

Ive done close ups of both frames - hopefully you can see clearer. The wood is a lot cleaner than the inner frames Gerry which have faeces all over the top. In the other frame there is some yellow stuff at the bottomIMG_1540_2.jpgIMG_1548_1.jpg, that looks like melted wax. Looks creamy coloured in the photo.

[Jon]

What is the mite level in that colony? The second photo with the fully formed bees failing to emerge from cells is quite characteristic of PMS.

[Bridget]

I will check the mite drop but it was very little in the autumn when treated and given OA trickle in January. This nuc had a lot of dead bees and mummies all over the floor yesterday which I cleared out - far too many for the bees to manage to clear themselves. Sorry Jon, can't remember what PMS is.

[Jon]

Parasitic mite syndrome.
Maybe an excess of chalk brood is part of the problem as well.