# Nosema



## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

I've started looking for nosema in my bees. Bought a used scope. Read a bit about nosema spores. Randy Oliver's article was helpful about testing methods. After grinding lots of bees, and finding nothing, I picked up a dead bee off the snow, squirted her poop on a slide, added a drop of water, stirred, and this is what I found.

I took the photo with my wife's digital camera by holding the camera lens against one of the oculars. I then cropped and enlarged. When I made the slide, the spores were evenly spread out, filling the field of view. Because it dried before I took the shot, the spores are clumped together.


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## NW IN Beekeeper (Jun 29, 2005)

Yeah, I think I'd be looking for what hive that bee came from....

Very cool picture.


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

Michael, what power was the scope set at? I am picking up a used scope from my parents in a few months and will start to use it.


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## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

Nice photo. What magnification were you using on the microscope?

-Tim


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Jeffzhear said:


> Michael, what power was the scope set at? I am picking up a used scope from my parents in a few months and will start to use it.


The scope was set at 400x. When I edited the photo, I resized to 211%. Before I actually saw any nosema spores, in any of the samples, I really didn't know what I was looking for. I knew the general shape, but not the size. So, I'm squinting, and looking at every little spot of light. When this sample came up...wham...there were spores. Very easy to identify at 400x.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

nice, whats your digital camera setup?


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

MichaelW said:


> nice, whats your digital camera setup?


Not much. I held my wife's digital camera (Nikon 4500/5mgp) against the scope's eyepiece. I was surprised how good the shot came out.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

cool, I'll have to try that!


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## Moeuk (Feb 4, 2008)

Hey Michael,
Firstly great shots of Nosema (apis or ceranea)?

My first thoughts when I saw this photo was 'oh dear oh dear' or words to that effect.
Michael, you say you found the solitary bee on the snow. Can you identify the hive she might have come from?
With all those spores from one bee then the colony she came from stands no chance of survival, I am sorry to say.
Imagine taking a sample of 30 bees from her hive, and crush up the abdomens to take another slide of the 'poo' and the slide will be covered in spores.
I_ hope I am not teaching you to suck eggs but_ I really think you must deal with this as nosema can wipe out colonies. The house bees will clean and polish old used cells for expantion so the queen can lay. In doing so they become infected with nosema. You might find the build up of eggs and larvae will over run the ammount of adult bees in the hive due to Nosema.

I feel sorry for you, but that's beekeeping.

Here's a shot I took last year of a friends colony that had Nosema.











All the vey best to you.

Moeuk


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Just picked up this microscope hand me down from an uncle that is still working on electron microscopes up in Minnesota.










Hope to put it to good use.


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## Moeuk (Feb 4, 2008)

I now think the original photo of Nosema spore could be Nosema cernae as they are slightly tapered at each end whereas N, apis, as in my photo are more 'rice grain' and not tapered.
Just an observation.

Good looking microscope, by the looks of things it has 4 objectives so you should be able to magnify up to about X1000.

Moeuk


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

This is an older thread by M. Palmer showing a very good pic. of Nosema. Quite a number of years ago I played with trying to identify it but was getting so much weirdness from trash and similar shaped pollen that I gave up. Perhaps the proper degree of filtering would have eliminated much of the confusion. Michaels method may have shown us a way to let the bees digestive system do some of the chore.

Nosema possibilities have me worried. Dwindling clusters and badly dark stained up entrances and frame tops.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Where is the repository for the organism? Does it exist between episodes only in bees or is it in soil and ditches etc., surrounding an apiary?


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