Beekeeping Tips, Guides & Resources

Varroa destructor is now part of beekeeping across most of Australia. Since the response shifted from eradication to management, keeping a colony alive really comes down to three habits: monitor your mite levels, treat at the right time with permitted products, and check afterwards that it worked. This guide walks you through each step — with the Australian doses, timings and the gear we'd reach for, not overseas label rates.

Twelve practical tips for lighting a bee smoker, choosing fuel and using cool smoke so your bees stay calm during hive inspections.

Can't find the Queen? You're trying to pick one bee out of tens of thousands — and she's hiding. Here's how to spot HRH faster, read the bees around her, and confirm a Queenright hive even when she won't show herself.

A Queenless hive rarely sorts itself out — it just quietly fades. The trick is catching it early. Here are the six signs that tell you your colony has lost its Queen, what each one really means, and the two ways to bring the hive back from the brink.

ABDOMEN The posterior or third region of the body of the bee that encloses the honey stomach, stomach, intestines, sting and the reproductive organs.

Believe it or not, Queen and worker larvae start the exact same way. Most female bees become workers, which are generally sterile. Only a tiny percentage of female larvae become Queen bees, which are the sole reproductive beings in their colonies.

Everyone’s heard of the Queen bee and how important she is. A Queen is responsible for laying eggs and maintaining her colony’s population levels. Due to her level of importance, losing a Queen is one of the most common ways to lose a colony. 

The queen regulates hive behaviour and produces eggs to maintain the colony’s population. She can live for a year or more, whereas the worker bees have life spans as short as five weeks, for they are, well, busy bees, constructing combs, feeding and caring for the brood and queen, cleaning and guarding the hive, regulating nest temperature, foraging for nectar, pollen and water.

Want to reduce plastic waste in your kitchen? Learn how to make homemade beeswax wraps to store food instead! They are reusable, non-toxic, biodegradable, and really easy to make.

How hot-wax dipping protects beehive timber from the inside, how it compares with painted-only boxes and how to make your hive woodware last longer.