Parasites
Nosema Apis is believed by many to be the agent of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Recently declared a fungus, N. Apis is a unicellular organism, with the ability to resist extreme temperature and dehydration, that causes the most common aliment in honey bees. (4 pg. 140)(5) N. Apis causes a disease known as Nosema in which the digestive tract of western honey bees becomes infected. Consequently; damaged intestines, excessive defecation, and the premature death of the worker bees often farther than usual from the hive because the worker bees, after having left for work, become to weak to return. Other symptoms include crippled wings (often rendering the bees unable to fly), disabled food glands (hypopharyngeal) in nurse bees, immature bees (larvae that fail to mature), young nurse bees assuming different colonial positions too early, lowered life expectancy (about half the life expectancy as non-infected bees during summer), and the death of the queen (infected queen bees stop larvae production and die within weeks). (7) The sum of these symptoms results in a disturbance significant enough to cause the colony to collapse and its populace to die.
There are many ways to prevent a Nosema Apis infection including: (7)
- Maintaining the colonies with strong queens
- Provide enough high protein pollen to ensure high population
- Ensure that colonies have enough honey for the winter (studies show that colonies with more than half of their honey had lower spore counts than those with less honey)
- Move the colonies to warmer locations during the winter and away from shady, damp, or windy locations.
- Reduce stress on the colony by reducing your interaction with them (i.e. feeding, comb manipulation, colony relocation ect.)
- During winter, reduce the space inside the colony so that the bees become compact and warm
- Avoid stagnant water sources that can become infected
- Reduce damage to bees during manipulation
- Replace old or dark combs with new beeswax