Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Grab your bee. Don't use gloves - you will probably be stung but you will get hold
of the bee better.
Remove the bee's head. Pull it off gently - slowly but surely. Remember, you are
doing this for the benefit of your bees generally. This severs the mid-gut from the
head. The bee may continue to struggle even when headless, and this can alarm
some people.
Grasp the very last segment of the bee's abdomen with a pair of good tweezers and,
gently holding the thorax with your other hand, slowly but firmly pull the sting
and last segment away from the bee.
The rectum and mid-gut will follow. Keep pulling slowly and firmly. Don't pull
too suddenly or too hard - otherwise something will break and you'll have to start
again. The bee may still be struggling.
After the mid-gut has emerged, hold it over a piece of white paper. The mid-gut
can now be seen easily.
Study the mid-gut. If it is tan coloured and wrinkly, it is healthy. If it is smooth and
white, it probably has nosema.
Nosema ceranae
Unfortunately, Spanish researchers have identified another type of nosema -
Nosema
ceranae
- that is widespread in the Spanish honey-bee,
Apis mellifera
.
N. ceranae
evolved with the far-eastern honey-bee,
Apis cerana
, but these findings indicate that
this parasite had now moved out of Asia to Europe. The disease has been reported in
France, Germany and Switzerland. More worryingly still were the massive colony losses
in Spain during the winter of 2005-6, some of which have been linked to nosema.
Nosema may also have caused the huge colony losses in Spain in 2004-5, from which
my own bees suffered, or these losses may have been due to varroa or some other
pathogen and the nosema simply multiplied in the remains of the dead bees.
Nosema is usually less of a problem in warm climates and so, in common with other
beekeepers in the region, I had done little to prevent it. At the time of writing, Spanish
and other researchers are still evaluating the problem. The world is becoming smaller
