The Bee Lady Apiaries

26/09/2026

Be prepared for the unexpected? Is that even possible?

For breeders about to face their first Varroa invasion, this is some advice from the other side of it. We lost more than 200 colonies during our first major Varroa wave, and rebuilding the breeding program afterwards has taught me a few things I wish I’d understood beforehand.

Keep your valuable breeders in nucs where possible. They are easier to monitor, easier to treat and much easier to manage when things start going wrong.

Young, vigorous breeders generally handle treatment better. If you have older or irreplaceable breeders, consider moving them out to an area with no Varroa or very low Varroa pressure while you still have that option. Preserve the genetics first.

When the invasion really gets going, things become incredibly busy, very quickly. Prioritise your breeding stock. It is surprisingly easy to become consumed with trying to save everything while the genetics that took years to develop quietly disappear.

Protect your drone mothers as carefully as your queen mothers. We went from having around 100 drone-mother colonies capable of producing tens of thousands of drones to virtually no drone capacity. Losing that genetic resource can affect the breeding program long after the initial colony losses are over.

Where you have a choice, use the gentlest effective treatments you can and preserve your treatment options for later. High mite pressure combined with repeated treatment is hard on breeding colonies, particularly older queens.

And constantly check that treatments are actually working. Don’t assume a synthetic is effective because it worked previously. Monitor before and after treatment and be alert for resistance or treatment failure. We learnt that lesson the hard way.

Have a Varroa plan for your breeding stock before Varroa arrives. Decide which queens and lines are genuinely irreplaceable, where you could move them, how you will protect them and which genetics need to be duplicated.

If possible, spread that risk — sister queens, daughters and drone sources in more than one location. The first invasion is not the time to discover that too much of your breeding program exists in one place.

There will also be things you simply didn’t anticipate. Varroa doesn’t just change mite numbers; the effects ripple through colony strength, drones, mating, queens and the following breeding season.

PRACTICAL CHECKLIST

☐ Identify your irreplaceable breeders and drone lines.

☐ Keep valuable breeders in manageable nucs where possible.

☐ Back up important genetics — daughters, sisters and drone sources — and spread them across locations if you can.

☐ Consider moving older or irreplaceable breeders to a no-Varroa or low-Varroa area before the wave reaches you.

☐ Have treatments ready. Use the gentlest effective options you can.

☐ Monitor before and after treatment. Never assume a treatment worked, and continually watch for resistance to synthetics.

☐ When things get hectic, prioritise your breeding stock.

☐ Keep enough records that you still know what survived, what was treated and what genetics you have left.

☐ Save some energy for the inevitable rebuild. Surviving the invasion is only the first part.

And expect the plan to change. It probably will.

Good luck, and see you on the other side.

20/09/2026

We are observing unusually high levels of swarming and supersedure this season, including in colonies with queens less than three months old. It is likely to reflect several interacting factors rather than a single cause.

Following a wet winter, reduced competition from feral colonies and rapid spring build-up, colonies appear to have entered an exceptionally strong reproductive and queen-replacement state. Rapid expansion may also be exposing weaknesses in queens that were not apparent while colonies were smaller, including viral infection, inbreeding and reduced fertility.

Some colonies replaced queens over winter following the initial Varroa invasion wave. With fewer drones available, those replacement queens will have had poorer mating outcomes. Varroa-associated viruses can also contribute to premature supersedure by impairing queen fertility and pheromonal signalling.

Any thoughts? Are you seeing this too?

09/09/2026

🐝 Getting back on track.

After the devastation of last season and losing so much of what we had built, it feels pretty special to see the breeding program coming back to life.

There’s still a long way to go, but breeder queens are laying, colonies are rebuilding, drones are plentiful, and this season’s breeding work is underway.

We’ve learned an enormous amount from our first season with Varroa, and that knowledge is now shaping what comes next. The goal hasn’t changed — to keep selecting and breeding bees that are better able to cope with Varroa under Australian conditions.

A huge shout-out and thank you to Paul Roder and his team at whose support and breeding work have played a major role in helping us reset and get moving again so quickly. Having genetics maintained outside the area hit hardest by Varroa has proven incredibly valuable.

These beautiful girls represents something I wasn’t sure I would be looking at this soon — the breeding program moving forward again. ❤️🐝

05/09/2026

⚠️ SPRING VARROA WARNING – DON’T LET A LOW WASH FOOL YOU

A warning for local beekeepers as our colonies rapidly expand their brood nests.

A low or even zero alcohol wash does NOT necessarily mean you have very few Varroa.

As spring brood increases, mites move from adult bees into brood cells to reproduce. Your wash only measures the mites on adult bees – it cannot see what is under the cappings.

I recently checked 134 just-capped worker cells and found 18 infested (13.4%), containing 22 adult female mites.

So if your washes are suddenly looking surprisingly good as your brood explodes, don’t assume the mites have disappeared. They may have simply moved into the brood.

Keep monitoring, and don’t let a low spring wash give you false confidence.

25/08/2026

The season is underway.

The bees are building, the flowers are opening and queens are being prepared for another season of breeding. Normally this is the time of year I look forward to most.

But this year feels very different.

After everything that has happened with Varroa and the loss of so many colonies, my heart is still broken. So many years of work, carefully selected genetics and beautiful colonies disappeared in such a short period of time.

There are survivors, though. And amongst them are queens and genetics that matter enormously to me.

So we begin again — with fewer colonies, a smaller breeding population, and still trying to find our way through what comes next.

Seeing the bees working the spring flowers reminds me why I have spent so many years doing this.

The season is underway. I’m just not quite sure my heart has caught up with it yet.

05/08/2026

Will we be selling nucleus hives this season?

We keep getting asked this, and unfortunately the answer is No.

Right now our priority is rebuilding our breeding population, followed by rebuilding our mating nucleus hives for queen production. Without a strong breeding population and plenty of quality drones, we simply can’t produce the queens we need.

Once our breeding program is back where it needs to be and varroa mite numbers are under control, we’ll look at offering nucleus hives again.

Our focus has always been, and always will be, on producing the highest quality bees—not the highest quantity. Quality is worth waiting for.

03/08/2026

We are still on our own. If you were relying on some assistance it isn’t coming any time soon.

Industry has committed to leading several initiatives itself and is continuing to push governments for practical assistance. Let’s hope this is just the first step and that meaningful support follows soon.

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29/07/2026

11/07/2026

Before varroa, this time of year looked very different.

By now I would have had around 100 hives prepared with drone comb. The queens would have laid them up weeks ago, and those drones would already be emerging.

Then you’d wait for that first perfect winter’s day. The temperature would creep over 20°C, the wind would drop, and almost as if they had all received the same message, they would leave together on their first mating flight.

Fifty thousand drones would fill the sky.

It was one of my favourite sights of the season. It marked the beginning of another year of queen breeding and the next generation of Australian honey bees.

Today, after varroa, I have one hive with drones.

I’ve even marked some of them as they emerged, wondering whether the colony would keep them alive or whether, with the mite load, they would simply become too much of a burden.

The silence is hard to ignore.

Varroa hasn’t just changed how we manage bees. It has changed what we see, what we expect, and what we have lost. Some of the things you never thought twice about—like a sky full of drones on a warm winter afternoon—have quietly become memories.

This year, instead of watching fifty thousand drones take to the sky, I’ll be watching just a handful from one hive and hoping they make it.

09/07/2026

Wednesday mid week post - July 8th 2026
They have forgotten already but many beekeepers haven't......

Letter for sending to MP's and decision makers in the comments