At the bee meeting last night, the established and commercial beekeepers talked about nosema (Nosema apis), a microsporidian that gets into the gut of the bees and makes them have dysentery, which appears apparently as yellow streakes on and worse, in the hive. This is commonly treated with Fumagillin.
   This chemical tends to be mixed with the sirup for the bees, but because they do not drink enough of it right now, because of the cold, it is recommended to mix it with powdered sugar – not commercial icing sugar, which contains starch, but with regular sugar that is reduced to powder in the food processor.
   I did not have much sun, a bit veiled. But the bees came out of the hive so I decided to place the sugar with Fumagillin. Agnes had some, and offered to all new-bees under Bill's wings. I went to Bill, where Agnes had brought it, and also picked up my share of thymol strips against the pernicious varroa mites.
  When I open up, I can see that there are many on the sirup jar and then I see that the bees are in a big cluster. They really don't like the cold. I spread the powdered sugar on the frames, as Bill told us to do and rapidly closed the hive again to prevent the bees from chilling out.