Drone brood removal is a non-chemical varroa mite control method that uses drone comb to trap and remove mites from a honey bee colony. Our team has spent years working with beekeepers who want to reduce or eliminate chemical treatments, and this technique consistently ranks among the most accessible biotechnical options available. If you are … Read more

A sticky board is the simplest non-invasive tool for passive mite monitoring in a honey bee colony, and it costs almost nothing to set up. You slide a sticky-coated board under a screened bottom, leave it for 24 to 48 hours, then count the fallen Varroa mites to gauge infestation. In this guide, I’ll walk … Read more

Last February, I opened one of my hives and found dark brown streaks running down the top bars. There were smears on the inner cover and golden splatters on the landing board. My first thought was nosema. I had heard the warning for years: brown stains in winter mean nosema. After I sent a few … Read more

Nosema is one of those hive problems that sneaks up on you. One week your colony looks strong, and the next you are seeing brown streaks on the front entrance with bees crawling on the ground instead of flying. If you have been searching for Nosema symptoms testing treatment worth it, you are exactly where … Read more

Bears can destroy an entire apiary in a single night, and once a bear learns where your hives sit, it will keep coming back. Electric fencing is the most effective method to protect beehives from bears, with a near 100% success rate when the system delivers at least 0.7 Joules of stored energy and 7,000 … Read more

I still remember the morning I walked out to check my hives and found the front of one covered in muddy scratch marks. Bee parts were scattered across the ground like confetti, and the whole area reeked of skunk spray. That was the day I learned the hard way that you have to pest proof … Read more

Spring buildup is the moment every overwintered colony has been waiting for, and the moment every beekeeper has been quietly worrying about. I remember standing in front of my first hive in early March, thermometer in one hand and hive tool in the other, wondering whether I was about to save my bees or set … Read more

Every spring, new beekeepers stare at their hive and ask the same anxious question: when do I add that first honey super? Add it too early and you can stall your colony’s growth. Wait too long and you come back to half your bees gone, swarmed off into a neighbor’s oak tree. Knowing when to … Read more

Late summer is the most dangerous time of year for honey bee colonies. The main nectar flow slows to a crawl, temperatures climb, and bees grow desperate for resources. That desperation triggers robbing behavior, where bees from strong colonies invade weaker hives to steal honey stores. A single robbing event can destroy a colony in … Read more

Most beekeepers picture a deadly winter the way northerners do: deep freezes, snowdrifts, and hives wrapped like mummies against the cold. But talk to keepers in Texas, Florida, Georgia, or along the Gulf Coast, and you hear a different story. Down south, the winters that wipe out colonies are often the warm ones. It sounds … Read more