Jurassic,
Sounds like the suction on the beevac box was a little too much. They are still recovering from the removal.
I would just wait and see.
If they were sick, the entrance of their old location would bee covered with yellow stains.
Jim Altmiller
Thank you for your feedback, Jim. It seems to have tapered back. I had the vacuum set a little strong at first but dialed it back quickly as as they were only in the wall for about two months and the comb was soft. This took longer to suck them all up as I had to go over them repeatedly, but it preserved the comb. There was not staining outside at the entrance.
Firstly, assuming poo is nosema is perhaps jumping a little too far. It is like assuming a sore throat is throat cancer. Yes poo is one symptom of nosema, but there are also many other things that can cause it.
I agree with Jim, give a few days to see, like he said it would not have manifested in one day, so their old entrance would have shown signs. How was the brood pattern when you did the removal, was it a nice solid pattern or spotty? How long did you have then contained before they could fly? If there was a lot of orientation flights after being cooped up for a while that could have also played a part. If you are really concerned, the best way to know for sure is have the bees tested.
I usually find feral colonies are pretty healthy. Mother nature does a good job culling out the weak. Of course there are always the rare exceptions so it is worth keeping an eye on them. Cut outs are very stressful on a colony.
Thanks for your feedback, Robo. Yeah, perhaps I jumped the gun on the nosema thought, I just had not seen this occur with other removals I've done and of course with lots of poo all over everything, my mind went to the dark side...and to nosema. This was the first colony I removed from in the inner-city so I wondered if they had come in contact with pesticides, fungi or other chemicals which might have caused them problems.
Laying pattern was normal. It wasn't super dense, but nothing of concern. I cut them out at about 3pm in the afternoon and had them hived and in my apiary that same night and opened the entrance so they were free to egress and orient as early as they desired the next morning.
There doesn't seem to bee much more of the poo occurring so perhaps it was from the vacuum as Jim mentioned, or stress as you suggested, but whatever the reason, they do seem to be doing better now. Will continue to keep an eye on them.