Early Spring Nutrition Expriments

65 beehives were taken from the mountains in the south of Chile (lat -40º) at the begining of winter (28^th june) and moved the 12^th of July 1000km north (lat -32º) were spring was starting (ie a complete change of flora).

All the colonies were around 5 frames of bees but were not check in detail cause of the rain during the period when moved down the mountain and towards the northen location. All of them were treated with amitraz for varroa in february and given fumagilin for nosema in april.

At their arrival they were treated again for varroa with formic pads, three aplications a week apart (120 ml of 65% formic acid per time). Only J+ and J++ were not treated with formic pads. At the same time 11 different feeding protocols were applied.

Treatments

J = Jarabe = 1 litre sugar syrup 67 brix

J+ = 1 litre sugar syrup + 250 g pollen patties with 0.06% orego-stim (liquid)

J++ = 1 litre sugar syrup + 250 g pollen patties with 0.06% orego-stim (powder)

JCo = 1 litre sugar syrup with 40 mg CoSo4

JCoo = 1 litre sugar syrup with 40 mg CoSo4 and 0.06% orégano essential oil (liquid)

Jf- = 1 litre sugar syrup with 1.5 g fumagilin (Medivet) + 250 g pollen pattie

JfCo = 1 litre sugar syrup with 1.5 g fumagilin (medivet) and 40 mg CoSo4

JfL = 1 litre sugar syrup with 1.5 g fumagilin (medivet) and 5 cc of Promotor-L

JL = 1 litre sugar syrup with 5 cc of Promotor-L

Jo- = 1 litre sugar syrup with 0.06% orégano essential oil (liquid) + 250 g pollen pattie

JoL = 1 litre sugar syrup with 0.06% orégano essential oil (liquid) and 5 cc of Promotor-L

Only Nosema was sampled before and after treatment. The frames with bees was evaluated after treatment by the same person (me).

Some of the colonies did not stand the formic treatment and changed the queens. Most did stand the treatments. The colonies without queen or with virgins were taken out of the results computations.

All treatments started with 5 colonies but Jf- and Jo- started with 10 colonies.

Results

Number of colonies for computation (one week after feeding period ie a month after the start of experiment).

Tratamiento	N
J	5
J+	5
J++	5
JCo	4
JCoo	4
Jf-	10
JfCo	5
JfL	3
JL	5
Jo-	8
JoL	4

The changed of queen due to formic might be related to the age of the queen.

	spores per Bee
Tratamiento	exantes	Expost
J	312000	2381000
J+	449000	1393000
J++	520000	3822000
JCo	422500	3368750
JCoo	152500	1516250
Jf-	1488500	864000
JfCo	572000	269000
JfL	1391667	2433333
JL	204000	1190000
Jo-	308750	2243125
JoL	103750	1133750

	Nosemosis Variation
Tratamiento	Promedio	Desv. St.	Desvst/promedio
J	0.15	0.08	56%
J+	0.70	0.99	141%
J++	24.34	48.14	198%
JCo	0.18	0.18	102%
JCoo	0.13	0.10	79%
Jf-	9.28	18.13	195%
JfCo	5.79	3.89	67%
JfL	0.51	0.67	133%
JL	1.36	2.06	152%
Jo-	0.17	0.17	102%
JoL	0.10	0.05	50%

	Frame with Bee
Tratamiento	MA	Desv. St. MA	% varia
J	6.60	1.82	28%
J+	8.00	1.41	18%
J++	5.80	2.17	37%
JCo	7.00	2.16	31%
JCoo	6.25	1.71	27%
Jf-	7.10	1.45	20%
JfCo	4.80	2.17	45%
JfL	6.00	0.00	0%
JL	6.40	0.89	14%
Jo-	6.38	2.39	37%
JoL	7.00	1.41	20%

Discution

1.- Bad experiment, two much treatments at the same time.

2.- Too good environmental conditions (good pollen flow)

3.- Only JfCo sistematically reduced nosemosis, but it is at the same time the treatment with less growing incentive.

J++ and Jf- also reduced nosemosis, but with a higher variation within colonies. J++ is the second worst incentive treatment.

4.- The best spring incentive treatment was J+ but in 4 of the 5 colonies nosema was increased.

5.- The increase of spore load was much higher than expected for a biological growth. I tend to think the increase is related to autum honey consumption with spores (infective reservoir).

photo credit: Blessed-Bee Apiaries Inc.