How Many Varroa Mites In The Hive? The point of this article is to encourage beekeepers to carry out mite washes at some point in the season and treat colonies with oxalic acid every winter. I missed the winter treatment on an apiary last year, and the impact has been significant. Every mite alive in … Read more
Many people, myself included, find spring to be their favourite season. The arrival of snowdrops, then crocuses, blackthorn and early blossoms together with frantic pollen-collecting activity by the bees is a welcome antidote to lockdown. Sometimes beekeepers get a little too excited and forget that we can still have snow in April. As long as … Read more
Following on from my article about using brood breaks to help with varroa management, I’m going to get into ‘death by charts’ territory today. Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of Randy Oliver’s spreadsheet model, which can be tweaked to reflect one’s colonies and treatment regimes. In the absence of any beekeeping, … Read more
When Richelieu said, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” in Cardinal Richelieu (a play by Bulwer-Lytton in 1839) he was in a bit of a pickle. As a man of the cloth, he could not take up arms against his enemies, so he took up his pen. Having watched Kill Bill (1 and 2) … Read more
Mites, Weather & Queens I’m a beekeeper, so the majority of my posts are probably about varroa mites, the weather and queens. So many of the problems I’m likely to face are covered by these things. Varroa mites are a significant problem for honey bees, and that doesn’t look likely to change soon. The weather … Read more
Yesterday I treated all of my hives with oxalic acid vapour using a Sublimox device plugged into a generator. The generator was a gift from a friend who I have helped out with bees over the last year. The Sublimox was a gift to myself and my bees. Research at LASI, located at my old … Read more
Image above copyright Mariusz Nikiciuk Here in the UK, and particularly in my corner of our emerald isle, we are accustomed to some unpleasant weather, mostly of the wet kind. A couple of years ago I picked up some bees from somebody up in the hills of Derbyshire because I wanted to try out bees which get … Read more