Slow-release oxalic acid (OA) strips are for use on colonies rearing brood, in contrast to one-shot trickled or vaporised OA. Are they an effective solution for winter treatment when predicting broodlessness can be tricky, and when climate change is making it increasingly rare?
Super tips and tricks
Everything you wanted to know about honey supers but were afraid to ask. Adding, managing, removing, lifting, extracting, nadiring, storing … along with anything else I can think of.
Taking stock
Why tolerate poor quality bees? Simple positive and negative selection strategies can produce significant improvements in colony behaviour. However, increased productivity and pathogen resistance (e.g. to mites and viruses) appear harder to reproducibly achieve.
Vexatious viruses
Do viruses really prefer virus-contaminated syrup? How much worse are viral coinfections of honey bees? Does miticide treatment kill mites, but leave virus levels damagingly high? Three recent papers on deformed wing virus, and their relevance to practical beekeeping.
Half-time
Midseason activities include managing late-swarming, rearing queens for overwintering in nucs, and making the best of the summer nectar flows … and, if that wasn’t enough, there’s the winter ahead to start preparing for. And now isn’t too soon.
The curse of laying workers
Laying workers, and the distinct but functionally similar rebel workers, are a curse in hopelessly queenless hives. Why and when do they occur, how can you prevent them from appearing, and how to fix things if they do.
Husbandry Survey 2026
A randomised sample of beekeepers registered on BeeBase will shortly be contacted via email and asked to complete a short survey. Beekeepers are selected at random and reflect the overall proportion of hobbyist and commercial beekeepers registered on BeeBase in England and Wales. Only beekeepers who are subscribed to email…
Update on small hive beetle in Italy
On the 8th June 2026, Aethina tumida (small hive beetle) was confirmed in an apiary in the province of Latina, Lazio region, central Italy. This represents a new detection outside the previously affected areas of southern Italy. Surveillance data show one positive apiary in Latina, and a positive sentinel apiary…
The ‘June gap’, brood breaks, and myths
The ‘June gap’ and brood breaks; does the queen stop laying, or are the larvae cannibalised? Probably both, and more. Plus some brief comments on hayfever and honey, and determining when OSR/canola honey is ready for extraction (it’s earlier than you might think).
A palace fit for a queen
There are differences in the chemical and physical properties of wax in queen cells and worker comb. This is attributed to a specific group of young worker bees; the queen cell builders. What lessons are there for beekeeping from the identification of these bees and differences in the wax?