I discovered yesterday that a colony that swarmed into a bait hive while on the heather, have reduced to a handful of bees with a pile of dead ones on the floor, and are riddled with Nosema (I checked with a microscope). I'm a bit baffled, because the queen was laying well while on the heather, but back home, when I checked late September, I began to suspect that they were queenless. I don't know what happened to the queen. Could Nosema have killed her? I moved the handful of bees into a nuc - just in case there's a queen that's going to start laying, but I think it's too late. The colony is doomed.

I also wondered whether they might suffer from some other viral illness. Some bees have elongated, shiny abdomens - not really bloated, but extended, or long. I've added a picture of one such bee. I picked her up from the floor as part of a sample of dead bees, but she recovered before I started grinding up their abdomens. She is one such bee with a shiny, long abdomen. I've attached a photo - not a good one, I'm afraid.

Celia Davis mentions filamentous virus. I should have read up, and checked for white milky haemoglobin before grinding up the abdomens - but I can't remember having noticed it.

Kitta

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