Dysentery

[Bush_84]

I am having some serious dysentery issues with two of my hives.  I am fairly certain that there is nothing I can do but hope for some nicer weather, but anything specific I should know?  It will just clear with time when the weather get better right?  What should I do about cleaning things?  It has a rank that I didn't know existed. 

[edward]

Give them clean frames and hive when they are all pooped out .

Scrub disinfect, burn/flame the hive

mvh edward 

[Bush_84]

Wow...that was quite a bit harsher than I thought.  Here I thought it was going o be a scrub dirty box with bleach solution.

[edward]

  Not burn completely just the surface  .

There is a desinfektion that the use in stables and barns that kills most bacteria and spore's. mix with water spray on let dry and then ready to use again.

mvh edward 

[Vance G]

Good grief B84!  Haven't you had a February Thaw flying weather?  If you haven't it is probably couldn't hold it anylonger and not nosema.  I think the toothy one is thinking it is nosema which it may or may not be.  You could always send off a piece of fouled comb and freshly black sticky dead bees to Beltsville and tell you if it is nosema or too long in the box.  Too long in the box, just scrape off the top bars and let the bees clean it up next june when there are lots of them.    I would love to see edward scorching his epe boxes.  That might be worth taking a picture of~!

[edward]

I would love to see edward scorching his epe boxes.  That might be worth taking a picture of~!

Yes but it very effective in disease control but it only works once 

Manually scrubbing and disinfectant that kills spores is the way to go with poly hives.

If they have pooped the hive and have a bad case of nosema the hive usually stinks a bit 

a microscope with 300- 400X enlarging is needed if you want to test for nosema.

mvh edward 

[Bush_84]

How much does it cost to get tested?  Since I have two icky hives do I send in two separate samples? 

We have had some nicer weather but not much above 40.  It seems as though they will either just defecate at the upper entrance or fly out and land in the snow to die.  Some on occasion fly around, defecate, and go back in.  We have had only really one day where it seemed that there was a good cleansing flight, but things were already stained before that.  At this point I can't tell if any of it is new or old, but it's a mess.

[edward]

To dagos nosema you grind some bees in a mortar with distilled water and look at it under a microscope, the spores are egg shaped. http://www.google.se/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/jpg/nosema_spores.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/nosema.html&h=312&w=312&sz=16&tbnid=e5zZWMp76LuBBM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&zoom=1&usg=__f_KgP9X61ScXiIRgRJ8HUG_gukU=&docid=66-hLVUecYtvFM&hl=sv&sa=X&ei=dV0xUfWIK6n24QS49YFo&ved=0CD8Q9QEwAg&dur=242

mvh edward 

Diagnosis
 
Diagnosis is dependent on microscopic examination of the ventricular (midgut) content and/or fecal matter or on PCR analysis of infected tissue. No specific outward sign of disease may be present, although in dissections the ventriculus often appears whitish and swollen in late stages of infection. The disease is easily detected in samples of whole bees macerated in water. The fluid is examined under a light microscope at 250–500 x magnification where the characteristic Nosema spores[6] can be observed. Though the spores of N. apis and N. ceranae have slight morphological and ultrastructural differences, they cannot be reliably differentiated via light microscopy. PCR analysis or electron microscopy of spores are the only reliable ways to differentiate between the two types of Nosema infection, given genetic variation and variation in the number of sporular polar filament coils between the two species.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosema_apis

[Bush_84]

It doesn't sound like a bad idea to get a cheap microscope to inspect your own hives for nosema.  I have no idea if this is just poor weather or nosema.  

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=901046&is=REG&A=details&Q=

That might be worth the investment.  

Is it a good sign that both my surviving hives are like this?  I really didn't start this topic to go in depth about nosema, but I suppose it is natural to discuss when talking about dysentery.  

Edit-As I think about it, I don't really think I will treat for it.  So I don't really know that I would need to know. 

So what do I do with dirty comb?  How bad does a comb have to be to cull it out?  Or will the bees simply take care of it? 

[edward]

When in doubt take it out.

There are also microscopes that you can hook up to your computer and take pictures to reference or send to colleagues and ask for a second opinion,diagnosed.

mvh edward 

[Michael Bush]

They have been confined.  All bees that have been confined for long, have dysentery.  It will clear up in a few days.  If you want to do something, feeding is as useful as anything else.

[Bush_84]

One has some candy on and another has dry sugar.  I will just have to keep an eye on them for now and clean what I can when it warms.