How healthy is your hive? Nosema poses a serious threat to New Zealand honey bees.
Nosema is an infection of the honey bee's gut that causes dysentery-like symptoms, weakening the bees and eventually killing the hive. There are almost NO visual signs that your hive is infected with Nosema until it is too late. However, laboratory testing is a quick and accurate way to diagnose an emerging infection, giving you a chance to take action to save the hive.
With nucleus colonies topping $300, mated queens at $50 (and more), it pays to know you have a healthy hive. Spring and early summer are the peak times for Nosema deaths.
We make testing your hives for Nosema easy and affordable. We offer two testing protocols:
1. Relative abundance ($40 including GST) – find out if your hive is clean, or infected enough to take action. We can tell you quickly and inexpensively if there is nosema infection and whether the hive has a low, medium, high or very high level of infection.
2. Absolute count ($60 including GST) – find out the number of spores that your bees are carrying as an absolute count per bee. Although this test is more expensive, you will be able to track exact infection rate.
Once you know the level of Nosema in your hive or apiary, you can take steps to reduce and manage the infection.