Nozevit

When I removed the candyboards from the hives last wee I noticed that Hive4 seemed to have dysentery or possibly Nosema. I'd overwintered them on a solid wooden floor as something of an experiment and it's safe to say I'll not be doing that again. I moved the hive to a mesh floor and had a look for some medication. In the UK Fumagillin B was used to treat Nosema but was withdrawn from the market at the end of 2011. There's plenty of sources online and in print that still refer to Fumagillin B including the UK Edition of Beekeeping for Dummies although that volume is Copyright dated 2012. There's a number of different options including Vita Feed Gold which I've used previously for general health. This time I opted to try a product called Nozevit developed by a firm called Apivita.

Aptiva's web address is in the .hr domain which is administered by the Croatian Academic and Research Network and looking at there address shows they're a Croatian firm. Apparently as well as rather bloody recent history and a very metal influenced punk scene Croatia also has a long tradition of beekeeping and Apivita has a small product range most of which relates to bees:

Nozevit and Nozevit+ both for treating Nosema
Apifit a general bee health supplement
Apibox a system for making section honey without wax foundation (in Langstroth medium supers)
Apistop a sealer specifically for hives
Rebivit a repellent to protect plants from rodents and deer
Barrel Wax a beeswax product for stopping barrels leaking

Whilst I've not previously heard of Nozevit Apivita helpfully provide links and references to articles including the peer reviewed Veterinarni Medicina, The Journal of Apicultural Research and The Beekeepers Quaterly, also the (not peer reviewed) American Bee Journal and other papers from, I think, Argentina, Croatia, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey. The first article in the list mentions that Nozevit is made from Oak bark which contains polyphenols and how these are used to treat the gut in humans and their mode of action or any enquiring minds that want to know.

According to the website Nozevit and Nozevit+ can be applied to the bees by mixing 1ml Nozevit to 200ml of 1:1 syrup and either feeding it to the bees or spraying the bees with it (I'll assume trickling with a syringe will do there) or by putting 1ml of Nozevit in a 500g pollen patty. They recommend using it twice in Spring and twice in Autumn with ten days between each pair of treatments.

Little bottle, ideal for your handbag

The bottle I ordered from Beebay was 20ml of Concentrated Nozevit. It states Made in USA complete with an American flag on both the label and the instructions. I notice the bee logo in the product name and on the Complete Bee Inc logo is the same as on the Aptiva website.

Could use a little work on the wording but hey so could this blog

The instructions that come with it seem to have been translated in a hurry and there's a number 15 in the text which looks to have got there by mistake. I guess they're almost as lax about proof reading as me. The instructions with the bottle were a little different to those on the site which I figured was probably because this is a concentrated version according to the site although the word Concentrated was noticeably absent from the packaging. My understanding was that you're meant to mix the whole 20ml bottle with 1 litre of 1:1 sugar syrup then either feed a cupful to each hive or apply to the bees on the frames. The instructions mention spraying the top bars or using the 'drench method' which sounds a little severe but I'm assuming just means trickling the syrup onto the bees in the same manner as oxalic acid. Doing the maths this is a far stronger dose than is suggested on the website for the regular Nosevit and Nosevit+ products but there's no mention of a reapplication ten days later.

As I'm only treating one hive I didn't mix the whole bottle. 100ml of syrup and 2ml of Nozevit should give me the right concentration. As the instructions seemed so consider a pound and a half kilo as near enough to be interchangeable and the same for quarts and half litres and recommended doubling the dose for stressed colonies  so there's room for a little leeway is anyway. I added 2ml to 100ml of 1:1 syrup. It's a grey liquid with bits of I don't now what in it. I figured it was unlikely to be dangerous and ave it a little taste test myself -don't do that at home kids.. it tasted and smelled a lot like hospital mouthwash I once tried many years ago. It also seems to have a lot of sugar in it so it's probably in a syrup base.

It's time for your medication

I drew it up into syringes before opening the hive to save time even though it was a warm day and bees were flying.

Hello in there

When I'd given the hive a quick check before I'd thought there was only 3 seams of bees but today it looked more like 5. Luckily I'd made more solution than I needed anyway so I drizzled it along every seam I could see a bee in. I'd swapped the wooden floor for a regular open mesh floor already so any overspill will just go through. I've still not done an invasive inspection but having a quick look between the frames I was able to see there was still a lot of capped honey on the frames towards the back of the hives. I assume with the candy above them they'ed opted to to start eating that because it was easier to reach than exploring other frames for stores.

Someone else has been overwintering in the hive too

I found probably a Harlequin Ladybird had been overwintering in a corner of the hive roof between the wood and the insulation. I'm not sure if it's very well with a wing sticking out and I think there's some sort insecticide component in the dribble of green Shed & Fence Paint it's chosen to sleep. I've left it there though, it's not in the hive proper anyway.

Heavy frog

Depending which calendar you use we're either in Spring or soon to be in Spring. As I'm seeing a few flowers out and the female frogs are looking heavy with eggs I'll go with the Meteorological Calendar this time and say Spring started on the 1st of  March. However whilst the days are reaching a 13-14 degrees celcius night time temperatures are still dropping to as low as freezing and I got caught in sleet last week so I'll be leaving the insulation on the hives for a few more weeks.

Spring is in the air -well on the floor at any rate..