The beekeeping season can feel like a series of calamities interrupted by winter. Queens can fail, not get mated in the first place or simply disappear. Workers can start laying eggs and hives are then difficult to requeen. Bees are susceptible to parasites – like Varroa – and the viruses they transmit. If that wasn’t bad enough, there’s the threat of new invasives.

If it can go wrong, at some point it will. Beekeeping … so much more than honey 😉 

Queen failure and laying workers

Drone laying queens, queenless colonies and – although not technically a queen-related problem – laying workers.

• And they’re off … April, 2019
• Spot the queens August, 2018
• Downstairs? Upstairs? August, 2018
• In perpetuity July, 2018
• Old and new duds March, 2018
• The Autumn of the Matriarch June, 2017
• Finding the queen March, 2017
• Dealing with DLW’s July, 2016
• Drone laying workers July, 2016
• DLQ RIP April, 2016
• Time to change the queen June, 2014

 

Varroa

Probably the biggest threat to bees and beekeeping.

• Crime doesn’t pay September, 2019
• Flower mites September, 2019
• The flow must go on August, 2019
• Midseason mite management June, 2019
• Bait hive guide March, 2019
• Hanging around February, 2019
• Pedantically not phoresy February, 2019
• Chewin’ the fat February, 2019
• Mites equal viruses January, 2019
• Responsibilities January, 2019
• Know your enemy December, 2018
• Convenience or laziness? December, 2018
• Resistance is not futile October, 2018
• Survival of the fattest August, 2018
• Sublimox spares and repairs February, 2018
• Kick ’em when they’re down October, 2017
• Counting Varroa September, 2017
• Small cell foundation April, 2017
• CSI: Forensics in Fife February, 2017
• Take one for the team July, 2016
• Same time, next year June, 2016
• Keep your distance June, 2016
• Divide and conquer April, 2016
• All together now February, 2016
• When to treat? February, 2016
• The Drifters cont. January, 2016
• Vaporising Api-Bioxal January, 2016
• Time to BEEHAVE January, 2016
• Drifting in honeybees December, 2015
• CABK Stratford Conference November, 2014
• Reducing winter losses September, 2014
• Apiguard treatment August, 2014
• Oxalic acid treatment January, 2014

 

Drifting and robbing

A major route by which Varroa are transmitted between colonies and a major reason why coordinated mite treatment should be beneficial.

• Midseason mite management June, 2019
• A tale of two swarms May, 2019
• Robbery August, 2018
• Sphere of influence July, 2018
• If Carlsberg did apiaries … June, 2018
• Keep your distance June, 2016
• The Drifters cont. January, 2016
• Drifting in honeybees December, 2015

 

Diseases

Deformed Wing Virus, Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus, European and American foul brood.

• Virus resistant bees? August, 2019
• Magic mushrooms not magic bullets July, 2019
• Leave and let die June, 2019
• Midseason mite management June, 2019
• Responsibilities January, 2019
• Convenience or laziness? December, 2018
• Botulism September, 2018
• Survival of the fattest August, 2018
• They think it’s all over! August, 2018
• Sphere of influence July, 2018
• CSI: Forensics in Fife February, 2017
• Drifting in honeybees December, 2015
• Deformed Wing Virus October, 2014

 

Invasives

Small Hive Beetle and Asian Hornet. Not here … yet.

• Asian hornet 2017 September, 2017
• Extrapolating Asian Hornets August, 2017
• Asian hornet in the UK September, 2016
• Small Hive Beetle update October, 2015
• Time to ban bee imports? November, 2014
• Small Hive Beetle (SHB) and the UK November, 2014

 

… and the rest

Any number of additional things – animal, vegetable and mineral – that threaten our bees.

• Bee shed musings November, 2018
• Downstairs? Upstairs? August, 2018
• Robbery August, 2018
• Sphere of influence July, 2018
• Stroppiness May, 2018
• I hate those meeces to pieces January, 2016
• Bait hive – fail May, 2015
• Belt and braces March, 2015
• Woodpeckers December, 2014
• The beautiful and the damned May, 2014