In this YouTube video, Laurence Edwards inspects a beehive that shows a large amount of dysentery on the front of the hive. He walks the viewer through a step‑by‑step visual examination, confirming that bees are present, that frames contain brood and ample stores, and that the colony appears calm and healthy. Edwards explains that dysentery – uncontrolled defecation by bees – can be caused by cold weather forcing bees to relieve themselves near the hive entrance and is not automatically indicative of Nosema infection. He stresses that a definitive Nosema diagnosis requires microscopic analysis of samples. The colony has been re‑queened with gentle F1 Buckfast queens, and the hive contains heather honey stores. While he acknowledges that extensive dysentery could signal a problem, he recommends a cautious approach: monitor the hive, possibly plug the entrance only after careful consideration, and re‑evaluate in a few weeks rather than taking drastic action. Throughout, he adds typical YouTube call‑to‑actions encouraging likes and subscriptions and promises more beekeeping content for 2023.
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In this video, we're going to take a look inside a colony that's got lots and lots of dysentery on the front of the hive, see if they're okay, and see why it might not be anything to worry about. Let's jump straight into the hive, see if we've got bees inside, take a look at the frames, and see if they're healthy inside. So first thing we're seeing is we've got bees in the colony. Lots of times you might open up a colony like this and there'll be no bees there, so this is a good sign. There's bees inside, there's only dysentery on the Right, so if anyone's worried at this point, we're coming towards the back end of March now. It's 14 degrees here today. Got no issue going into a colony, just having a sneak peek, check inside. I'm going to pull one frame of these bees out because I just want to prove to you that dysentery on the front isn't necessarily a bad thing. It can be bad, it can be a sign of Nosema, but you will just get dysentery like this. All dysentery is, is when the bees can't hold it in. And they relieve themselves without really wanting to relieve themselves. It's uncontrollable, and if you're finding a lot of that in the beehive, then that's not a good thing. But it's been cold up here this year, really, really cold, which means that the bees, they need to get out, they need to fly, they need to relieve themselves, and they're just doing it around the beehive. I've got a beehive over here, my Annell beehive— said it right this time— and that's not even got any bees in it yet, and that's got So much kind of poo, bee poo, all over it. So it's almost breaking and busting the myth a little bit here. All bee poo isn't dysentery, all dysentery doesn't mean the bees have Nosema, and just trying to take it with a pinch of salt. That doesn't look good, that doesn't look healthy, I'm a little bit concerned about that. I'm not going to do anything drastic, I'm not going to look at that and say, wow, that colony's got Nosema, I'm going to plug it up so it doesn't spread to the rest of my bees. The only way you can do that is by taking microscopic samples, looking at it under a microscope, and testing and confirming for Nosema spores. That's the only way of doing it. Just this first glance in this colony here, they look fine. The smell of bees is amazing. I love first couple of times of opening the colonies in the year, and you get in and you smell the bees like that. I know, I know, I'm tempting fate. These are calm bees, they're definitely not going to sting. It really is nice, gives you a good feeling, and it lets you know that the beekeeping season is nearly here. Right before we get a couple of these frames out, if you're enjoying this video, if you like my channel, definitely give it a thumbs up, hit the subscribe button. We've got tons more beekeeping content for 2023. Let's pull a frame out, see if we can find some brood, and see if we can prove that there's nothing wrong with this colony. So there we go, first frame of the beekeeping season. Nothing wrong with this colony of bees. I'm not going to go in breaking it up, seeing what I can see, and just to prove that there's nothing wrong with them, but it's a single frame that I've taken out there. But believe me, if there was a problem with Nosema, if there was a real problem with dysentery, you'd see it on the top bars, you'd see it on the face of the honey frames like this. This is just a healthy colony of bees with plenty of stores left over going into the new season. What's so nice here as well is that I requeened these with very gentle queens, F1 Buckfast, and you can see how gentle they are. No stings, not even messing around with me. And what's even better than that is the smell of heather honey is truly beautiful. Up here, that's what they overwinter on. They overwinter really well. Definitely don't see any issues with dysentery inside the hive. Just got very, very healthy and happy bees. So if you did go into that colony and it was full of dysentery everywhere, again, not necessarily meaning that it's Nosema, but it's not something that I particularly like. You need to make a decision at that point what you're going to do. Personally, I'd probably just leave them alone for a little bit longer. Could take the decision at that point to plug the entrance and just stop any further spread. As I said, not something that I would do. I would leave them, give them a little bit of time for it to hopefully clear up on its own, and evaluate them in a few weeks' time. I hope you enjoyed that video. If you enjoyed it, definitely give it a thumbs up, hit the subscribe button. We've got tons and tons of beekeeping content to come in 2023.
