The Bee Lady Apiaries

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.

CLICK HERE TO OPEN This MEDIA RELEASE AS A PDF       CLICK HERE TO OPEN This MEDIA RELEASE AS A PDF   CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE TECHNICAL […]

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

29/06/2026

Follow-up inspection of colony 71Y today after monitoring mite drop on sticky mats.

The colony itself looked excellent – the queen is laying well, there are plenty of bees, and the brood pattern is healthy. Some oxalic acid strips had been heavily chewed, some were still intact, and a couple had fallen onto the bottom board.

Over the past 10 days, the sticky mats recorded a mite drop of approximately 2,000 mites.

To assess what was still happening inside the brood, I uncapped 100 worker brood cells. The results were concerning:
• 28 adult female mites
• 24 viable reproductive foundress mites
• 2 non-reproductive mites
• 2 dead mites

Despite the colony appearing healthy, the brood is still supporting a very high level of mite reproduction. The sticky board results accurately reflected what was occurring inside the brood nest.

Diagnosis: This colony now requires a Formic acid treatment as soon as possible to target mites reproducing under capped brood.

It’s another reminder that healthy-looking colonies can still be carrying dangerously high Varroa populations. Without monitoring, the true level of infestation can easily be underestimated.
:::

28/06/2026

I love growing my own food, but I dont get time for it. So this is as big a vegetable garden as I can manage. What do you sacrifice for the sake of bees?

23/06/2026

⚠️ Oxalic Acid Strip Chewing – An Observation

I’m suddenly seeing an increase in oxalic acid strip chewing, with some strips being heavily damaged or removed in less than 10 days in Carbrook.

This appears to coincide with rapid brood nest expansion and wax-building behaviour, which may be stimulating bees to remove or chew the strips more aggressively.

Has anyone else noticed the strips are disappearing faster than usual?

Is this seasonal? They were lasting very well in autumn. Now every colony seems to be on a mission to get rid of them as fast as possible.

Has anyone else observed the same?