Honey Bee Suite » bee feces

Nosema and dysentery are not the same

Rusty — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:40:11 +0000

Yesterday I read the following statement on the blog of a well-known beekeeper. “First I looked at the hive entrances which had signs of nosema the last time I visited. The hive looked just the same – no new nosema on the side of the hive.”

Whoa! There are at least two things wrong with this statement. First off, you cannot see Nosema on the side of a hive. What you can see on the side of a hive is bee feces, which may or may not contain Nosema. More often than not, an accumulation of runny brown feces at the entrance to a hive in spring is honey bee dysentery. Unlike human dysentery, honey bee dysentery is not caused by a pathogen but by poor diet.

It is true that Nosema apis also causes diarrhea-like feces to be deposited in or on the hive, but it cannot be distinguished from dysentery without a laboratory analysis—or at least a microscope and some training.

Secondly, Nosema ceranae, which also can infect honey bees, does not cause the bees to defecate in or on the hive. Most often bees become infected with Nosema ceranae in the summer and die in the field while out foraging. In any case, bees infected with Nosema ceranae do not leave diarrhea-like feces as a clue.

In summary, seeing no feces does not mean the bees are free of Nosema anymore than seeing feces means they are.

Rusty

Honey bees collect Alaska cedar pollen

Rusty — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:32:09 +0000

Yesterday, when I saw hundreds of honey bees in the Alaska cedar hedge (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) in front of my house, I thought they must be collecting propolis. But on closer inspection, it was obvious they were collecting pollen. Their corbiculae were full of pollen the exact color of the pollen-bearing strobili that adorned the tips of the branches of some of more mature trees. When I pulled the branches apart for a closer look, clouds of brownish pollen floated on the air.

A little research revealed that many kinds of evergreen tree pollen are collected by honey bees. Although it is not considered high-quality pollen as far as bee nutrition is concerned, if there is little else available, the bees will eagerly gather it.

When the sun finally came out–later in the afternoon–the honey bees abandoned the cedars in favor of something else. In the photo below you can see the full corbiculae of a cedar-foraging honey bee.

The pollen baskets are barely visible, camouflaged against the pollen-bearing strobili.

Readers: How do you remove bee poop stains from laundry?

Rusty — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:22:58 +0000

Dear Readers,

An innkeeper in South Africa has a problem and maybe you can help. There, they hang the laundry outside to dry, but his inn is adjacent to a field with 100 hives. He can’t get the yellow/orange stains out of the laundry and wants to know if there is a way to do it. Any ideas? I know he would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks for any tips you can share.

Rusty