The Apiarist

Regular readers, and those who have taken the time to rummage through the archives, will know I'm a big fan of using fondant for all my autumn and winter feeding. It's something I've been doing for over 15 years, and — except for feeding of colonies when queen rearing or mating {{1}} — it's the only way I feed sugar to my bees at any time of the year.However, in looking back though the cobwebby archives I realise that the information is rather diffusely spread.I've regularly discussed 'opening…

Did the miticide treatment work?A simple enough question, but not one that's straightforward to answer.What is meant by work?Does it mean 'kill mites', or does it mean 'prevent the overwinter loss of the colony'?The latter involves the former, but the former does not guarantee the latter.How can something work, but not work?You can kill easily thousands of mites in a heavily infested colony, but the colony will still perish if the mites were killed too late in the season to benefit the bees.For…

“This is the way the season ends, not with a bang but a whimper”, with apologies to T.S. Eliot {{1}}.A few weeks ago I felt I was struggling to keep up, now I'm looking for things to do.Well … almost 😉.Beekeeping is a seasonal activity. In my part of the world, I'm busy from early April until late August.In some seasons things start early, bringing March into play.In others — like this year — they end prematurely.The prolonged drought conditions that prevailed during the summer brought forward…

The Plain English Campaign promote (not unsurprisingly) the use of plain English {{1}}, and have campaigned against “gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information” since 1979. Their website has several (clearly written 😉) guides to using plain English; using shorter or simpler words where possible, avoiding overly-long sentences, preferring active sentences over passive, effective use of lists, and avoiding jargon.Anything that makes written English more accessible — particularly when…

Like anglers, beekeepers often obsess about the weather.They both need something to blame when things go less well than they had hoped. How many times have you heard “too little rain, no nectar” or “too hot, they weren't biting” ?Or, to give them the benefit of the doubt, this compulsion healthy concern simply reflects the influence of the weather on their hobby.I was reminded of this at 7 am today when I listened to the weather forecast … there's another 'heatwave' on the way, but overnight…

The solution to what?The solution to the three-part problem that increasingly faces beekeepers wanting to minimise Varroa mite populations and reduce their winter colony losses.These are:Increasing resistance — and the geographic spread of this resistance — to the 'hard chemical' miticides like Apivar and Apistan {{1}}.The inability of oxalic acid (OA) to penetrate the cap on sealed brood.The absence of a midwinter brood break in many temperate regions, something which will be exacerbated as…

Everything you wanted to know about honey supers but were afraid to ask.Or, more accurately, everything I can think of about using honey supers … partly because it came up in conversation a couple of times this week, and because it's timely with the summer nectar flows nearing completion.Inevitably this is going to reflect the way I use and manage my honey supers, rather than being an unbiased overview covering every eventuality. Some things will be omitted altogether e.g. cut comb and…

It's turning out to be a bonanza summer for beekeeping. The third heatwave has conveniently coincided with the flowering of acres and acres of Phacelia, and the colonies are furiously piling in the nectar.Actually, that's not quite accurate … there's nothing furious about it.Even colonies that have previously been a bit temperamental are decidedly 'mellow' thanks to the consistently good weather and ample nectar.Instead, they are single-mindedly filling the supers, and studiously ignoring my…

How often have you read the words, “Varroa is the greatest threat to bees and beekeeping”?If you're a regular reader of The Apiarist then you've read it here, many times.It's true … up to a point.However, it's really a convenient abbreviation for a much more wordy explanation of the real threat to bees and beekeeping.Varroa alone is not an issue, in much the same way as a mosquito is not really harmful.It's the viruses that the mite or the mozzie transmits that do the damage.A mosquito bite…

Heatwave 2.0 has been and gone, Prime Minister 9.0 appears to have been (amicably?) decided {{1}}, and the newspapers have instead reverted to saturation coverage of the 'soccer' World Cup. In the hope of also attracting some errant Google search activity I've used a sporting term for the title of the post, though it was primarily chosen to reflect the stage we've reached in the beekeeping season.The June gap has closed again. It wasn't very protracted, and most colonies continued to find bits…

“What's the greatest inconvenience for experienced beekeepers?”.If I were to ask this question I'd expect a lot of different answers; cheap supermarket (p)honey, the fubar'd differential on the Landy, the daft licensing restrictions on Api-Bioxal, and incessant spousal nagging about propolis on the sofa.What? Me?However, if I asked enough beekeepers I'd wager that some of the most 'popular' responses would be about poor queen mating and laying workers.These topics are (tenuously) related.'Poor…

I've just reached the 'and breathe …' part of my season.This is the period between spring expansion and summer consolidation.It's the time when I realise I am more-or-less in control of things after all, contrary to all the evidence a fortnight ago.Colonies are at or near maximum strength.The urge to swarm has been controlled, contained, coerced … or belatedly overlooked with a resigned shrug.Hopefully, rather more of the former than the latter.Apiaries are busy with a mix of production…

In terms of good beekeeping advice, Ted Hooper's book (Guide to Bees and Honey) takes some beating. It was first published almost three decades ago. My copy, the fourth edition, dates back to 2008. The illustrations (line drawings, or B&W images) make it look dated, but the text remains relevant and is better than many of the 'up-to-date' publications.My copy is well-thumbed, has been read cover-to-cover several times, and is still regularly used to check some detail I've either forgotten, or…

I doubt that many readers of The Apiarist also read the Daily Mirror. Those who do will be familiar with the tabloids' infatuation with the weather, evidenced by the frequent articles and dramatic headlines they employ.There's barely a warm week heatwave, damp week deluge, or cold week icy blast forecast that doesn't get exaggerated billing. Presumably they've done their market research, and they know it attracts subscribers (or perhaps 'clicks', as they don't sell many physical newspapers…

I made the comment last week that all unexplained colony losses are due to Varroa, unless there's unequivocal evidence they are due to something else.If there are three weeks of rain in November, the stream floods, and you watch impotently as your hives are washed away downstream, I'll grudgingly accept that Varroa wasn't to blame.However, 'unexplained' losses, in particular the majority of winter losses, are likely due to the detrimental effect of mites and the viruses they transmit within the…

Two and a half million motivational posters bearing the words Keep Calm and Carry On were printed for distribution in mid-1939. In the end, few were ever displayed, and they were forgotten until being rediscovered in a bookshop in Northumberland, in 2000 {{1}}.The rest, as they say, is history. The wording has become internationally recognised. It is used as a decorative motto on a range of products … and an almost limitless number of internet memes.Despite this overexposure, the wording —…

If you go to the apiary in the early afternoon on a lovely day in late May you'll often find the air filled with a swirling mass of bees.Try following the flight of an individual bee — not always easy — and you'll see she's flying in uneven, ever-widening, spirals as she gains altitude. You'll eventually lose sight of her amongst the hundreds of other bees doing the same thing.Beginners can, understandably, mistake these flights for swarming activity.However, swarming bees leave the hive in a…

Like many beekeepers, I'm often thinking about my bees at any time of the day or night. But like most beekeepers, I do my beekeeping during the day.But not just any time during the day.Most of my beekeeping is done between late morning and mid/late afternoon.That's a 6-hour window, or just 25% of the day. During the rest of the time, the bees look after themselves — I don't bother them, at least, not usually.In temperate regions, other than during a heat wave, that 6-hour period straddles the…

How many bees does it take to rear a queen?Using nano-colonies, scientists have shown that as few as 100 bees can rear a new queen (Lamas et al., 2025). That's right, 100 nurse bees in a perforated plastic cup in an incubator, provided with a 12-hour-old queen cell (i.e., one that's just been started), will rear the queen to emergence. There's no difference between the mating success of queens reared like this and those reared in a traditional cell builder {{1}}.However, if you read about…

We're still in that 'frame-building' part of the season I referred to last week. A bit too cold to open the hives for long, but still very pleasant to be outside working in the sunshine.I have opened my hives, but as the afternoon cooled the foragers returned en masse and their compliant acceptance of my meddling segued to mild resentment.I did what I had to, and closed them up pronto.Other than one queen who appears to be on a 'go slow', with little brood in the box, all the hives are…

Winter DIY projects to make my beekeeping this year a little easier. Things for frames, mini-nucs, supers, finding bees, vaporisers, and queens. Some are novel, some are improvements, and some are poor facsimiles. All kept me entertained, and may help you in the months ahead.

What's the best method of swarm control? Some would judge this in terms of equipment needs, or lifting involved, or the number of return visits. However, if you also consider the population of bees in the colony, I'd argue there's one clear winner.

A recent study suggests that a beeswax Jenter-like system produces bigger, better queens than are reared by conventional grafting. Does this offer a worthwhile alternative approach to the current expensive (plastic) commercial queen rearing systems?

A pick'n'mix collection of swarm-related information this week. The planning and equipment needed for swarm control, and hiving bivouacked swarms. Some preliminary results on absconding swarms and re-hiving distances, and another over-confident prediction of when swarming will start.

Early hive inspections — and why you shouldn't — some thoughts on variable spring weather and progress in predicting swarming, and how the accuracy of the waggle dance varies depending on who is watching.

Colonies are highly selective when choosing larvae to rear queen. Standard (grafting-based) queen rearing methods are not. In this post I briefly discuss the science of larval selection, and then present two easy practical methods that take advantage of our current understanding of the process.

Do wet winters kill bees? Winter losses in '25/'26 appear to be unusually high. Inevitably, the miserable winter rain is blamed. However, I suspect the problem may be due to the earlier drought, a shortage of pollen, and the timing of winter bee production.