hive management Archives - Professional Beekeepers

Topic: hive management

published - 5 December 2019
By Nadine Chapman

Summer management

It’s getting hot hot hot, and so are your bees! Extreme heat can melt beeswax, kill brood or even the entire colony.
Keep your colonies cool
Site location: ideally your site will provide some shade during the hottest part of the day, but not early morning
Hive: bees require less effort and energy …
Read More

apiary location, hive management, summer, ventilation

Managing your hives

published - 4 December 2019
By Nadine Chapman

Screened bottom boards

Varroa has not yet established in Australia. In the advent that it does establish, beekeepers need to be aware of the available control methods. Chemical treatments have several drawbacks. Miticide residues have been reported in honey and bees wax, mites can become immune to the miticides, and their use prevents …
Read More

hive management, screened bottom boards, varroa

Honey, Managing your hives, Pests and diseases

published - 19 September 2019
By Nadine Chapman

Fire safety for beekeepers

Smoke causes bees to stop guarding the entrance to the colony, move inside and gorge on honey. Just like humans, bees are easier to deal with when they have full bellies. The smoke also masks the smell of alarm pheromone. The use of a smoker is necessary to work responsibly …
Read More

fire, hive management, safety, smoker

Managing your hives, Policy and compliance

published - 12 September 2019
By Nadine Chapman

Spring management

Spring has sprung, and it is time for beekeepers to spring into action to ensure a good season.
Early spring inspections

Is there a laying queen?
Is there a good brood pattern?
Inspect for brood diseases – chalkbrood is a particular problem at this time of year
How much food is left? Do you need …
Read More

chalkbrood, hive management, honey, queen bees, spring, supplementary feeding, swarming

Managing your hives, Pests and diseases

published - 3 September 2019
By Nadine Chapman, Tom Gillard

American Foulbrood

American Foulbrood is a highly contagious and fatal disease caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. This bacterium can survive for extended periods by forming spores which are resistant to both environmental and chemical stressors. These spores can survive for decades (current estimates at more than 60-80 years) and still initiate …
Read More

American foulbrood, barrier management, biosecurity, hive management

Managing your hives, Pests and diseases, Policy and compliance

published - 23 August 2019
By Nadine Chapman, Dr Doug Somerville

To feed or not to feed

By definition honey is a “natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from the nectar of blossoms … which honey bees collect, transform and combine with specific substances of their own, store and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature”: Australia New Zealand Standards Code.
Feeding sugar and sugar …
Read More

biosecurity, hive management, nosema, nutrition, pollen, sugar, supplementary feeding

Managing your hives, Pests and diseases

published - 19 August 2019
By Nadine Chapman

Chalkbrood

The fungus Ascosphaera apis causes chalkbrood disease in honey bees. The disease occurs in honey bee larvae fed fungal spores by nurse bees. The spores germinate in the gut and the larvae die of starvation, before the fungus grows throughout the larval body turning it into a hard “mummy”.
Chalkbrood is …
Read More

barrier management, chalkbrood, hive management, spring

Managing your hives, Pests and diseases

published - 4 July 2019
By Nadine Chapman, University of Sydney

Almond pollination: hive management

Every year in August over 200,000 bee colonies are taken to New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to pollinate more than 30,000 hectares (Almond Board of Australia 2017-18 Almond Insights) of almond trees.
Honey bee pollen foragers perform most pollination of almonds. To increase the number of pollen foragers brood …
Read More

almonds, biosecurity, hive management, pollination

Managing your hives, Pests and diseases, Policy and compliance, Pollination

published - 24 June 2019
By Nadine Chapman

Hive management: Autumn & winter

Hive management in autumn is critical to ensuring your hives survive winter. Disease and colony management is best performed in autumn rather than in winter.
Perform a pre-winter inspection in late April or early May on a warm sunny day:

Ensure that all colonies have a laying queen
Colonies without a queen …
Read More

American foulbrood, autumn, hive management, nosema, supplementary feeding, winter

Managing your hives, Pests and diseases