Microscope pic any comments Please

[Cedar]

Hi All

This is a microsope slide My dad took of his second colony which seems to have dysentery at the moment, there does seem to be quite a lot of dead bees on the ground, but they could be from being caught out by cold afternoons and evening once sun starts to go down.
Thanks Cedar

 

[BBG]

Crocus or snowdrop pollen? Bit hazy.

Where did the sample come from - dead bees - varroa tray ?????

 

[Skyhook]

Can you give us a scale (or a rough idea)- might help to work out what we're looking at.

 

[Cedar]

Hi thanks I believe its 400 x magnification, and came from about 20 collected live bees crushed with alittle water.

here is front of hive and ground in front.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

at 400x you will see individual pollen grains, if you have disentry you should be looking for Nosema...

 

[Poly Hive]

Classic description being grains of rice at 400x

PH

 

[Cedar]

I thought it might be nosema but it does not look like discriptions I have read, like rice shaped grains.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Cedar,there are some pictures here.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14798

 

[Cedar]

Thanks Hivemaker, does that mean I should get him to look at slide with 1000 x magnifiction.

 

[oliver90owner]

I would not be sure that is x400 at all. Looks more like x20.

What microscope was used? Is it quoted as a linear magnification or an area magnification? Unless there is a scale on the image, it is worthless, really.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

Yes I agree it doesn't look 400x hence my earlier comments, it would be useful to know whether the microscope used is a stereo one or a compound one. Then what arrangement of lenses and eyepieces were use to take the picture. Do you have any graticules you could use?

 

[Cedar]

hi NicRhodes, I dont do microscopes yet, what are graticules.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

basically a minature ruler that can be a slide iitself or an insert into an eyepiece, this then gives us a scale you can use to guage the size of objects. Nosema spores and pollen grains are very consistent in size.

 

[thundercat]

Not 400x

I'll again throw in my hat with the "it ain't 400x" crowd.

When you get to that level of magnification, the depth of field is incredibly shallow and everything you see looks flat. Any any depth would be signaled by areas that appear out of focus.

 

[Cedar]

Thanks, unfortunatley he cant remember the magnification and to cap it all has broken the slide. dont really want to mess to much with colony so thanks for your help,

Cedar.