Cleaning a hive after a Nosema outbreak

[AliciaH]

I've been trying to research this and what I've come up with is that I can't freeze the equipment because Nosema is a spore and that I will need to replace all the foundation and absolutely cannot feed anything back to anybody for fear of infection/reinfection.

My question is about the deep and the frames.  Acetic acid is mentioned in conjuction with vinegar quite a bit.  So, now remember, I am not a cook and am still learning bee hive chemistry, would spraying vinegar on the equipment kill the Nosema spores?  Or, can/should I use bleach?  Or, does anyone know where I can get acetic acid that I can fumigate with?

Any other thoughts are encouraged, too! 

[Finski]

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Nosema is quite common  and poo spoled frames are coomon too.

Bottom, boxes and inner cover..

Scrape try dry poo off. Then pour hot water on the surface to wash the rest of poo. Lye or some sewage chemical helps too loose the brown stuff. Finally burn with flame the surfaces.

Frames are spoiled. hey are not value of that, that you spoil the next colony with dirty frames.

Wooden frames you may recycle after boiling them in hot 3% lye water. They will be like new.

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Try to get better bees which resist nosema.  Difficult to get such but try to use northern queen breeders.

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[AliciaH]

Thanks, Finski!  I'll give that a shot. 

The Nosema issue is an interesting one for me since I am moving into the camp of, "treat only when there is a problem".  So, to that end, I did not feed fumagilin last fall.  When we got a sunny day in February and all my bees took a cleansing flight, this hive looked like someone had just dumped brown goo all over it.

I was having another hive tested because I couldn't recognize their symptoms, so why send in just one sample?  So, I sent in three other samples, one of which was this 'brown goo' hive.  The dysentery was indeed nosema-based.  The hives I was originally concerned about (next to the 'goo' hive) also tested positive for nosema, but to a much smaller degree, and the other two hives didn't have nosema at all.

So, I'm learning. 

Try to get better bees which resist nosema.  Difficult to get such but try to use northern queen breeders.

I agree.  These bees are from the new nucs I ordered last year that were such a disaster.  They didn't come healthy and are continueing to be problematic.  The queens I ordered last year fall into the same category, but for a different batch of reasons I won't get into here.

This year I did not order any new bees for my apiary.  I'm going to try to get what I have healthier.  At first, I thought I would just use my own queens, but if the genetics are flawed, then I'm thinking I should consider ordering new queens, from resistant stock, and work on getting those genetics spread through my apiary.

Sound like a good plan?  Have any suggestions for a queen breeder?  I was leaning towards Minnisota Hygienics because it seems folks have been happy with those, but I would love further input.

[rdy-b]

 scroll down to comb disenfection - RDY-B
 http://www.scientificbeekeeping.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56

[bee-nuts]

is it even practical to think you can eradicate nosema from a yard.  Bees rob each other, drones are welcome everywhere, ect.  Is it not more resistance and having fresh nectar what diminishes visual evidence even though you still have it.  I can see getting rid of the worst of the mess but short of shaking bees on to new foundation and burning all old equipment its just not going to happen, huh?

[rdy-b]

 thats a good point Beenuts thats why during months of winter confinement
 i believe there is benefit to feeding of a natural treatment of a prophylactic
 nature -something like Nosevit or EOs in a protein sub -this keeps the parasitic
nature of the infection at bay-in other words just keep pumping good food through
 and the infection wont latch on to the inside of the bees gut-during times of pollen
and nectar flows bees seam to be there strongest at fighting sickness-RDY-B

[Michael Bush]

All bees have dysentery when they have been confined.  It's not necessarily Nosema.  I would make sure it is before I go burning or disinfecting anything.  The only way to be SURE is with a microscope.  The next best is to field strip a bee and look for opaque white instead of transparent and yellow.
 

[AliciaH]

Michael:  This hive was one of the four samples I sent to WSU for testing, so the nosema is confirmed.  I am currently researching microscopes.  At what point I went from like my bees to wanting to dissect them, I don't know, but I'm becoming concerned about my obsession.....

bee-nuts:  You're right, and I don't think I'll ever be able to totally eradicate it from my apiary, but the test results came back at 3 million spores/bee, which is beyond insanely high.  At least, I'm guessing it is, since I've been told that anything above 1 million is bad.

rdy-b:  Moving from the camp of "treating for everything" to the camp of "treating only when the bees need it" is tough.  In short, I haven't worked out all my kinks yet.  Two of my samples came back entirely 0 on nosema, so they don't need anything...yet.  I did just listen to an interview with Wolf Creek Apiary where the gentleman talks very highly of the use of tea tree oil as a prophylactic treatment for nosema.  I think I'll look more into that.

[sterling]

The web site you are reffering to is wolfcreekbees.com.

[AliciaH]

Thank you kindly, sterling!