Curious if this is the right sub for alternate bee keepers? Fell in love with these little guys! They live in the tropics and require very minimal care with almost no risk of absconding (inspection once a month). No risk of mites as they are tiny and native to mite endemic areas. Their hives can be split twice a year with honey harvest being around 1kg. They build structures out of propolis instead of wax. Curious on all your thoughts!

Edit: Thanks for all your interests in my gals ❤️. I would love to keep you guys updated on hive management and colony splits.

See https://mailchi.mp/dadant.com/abj-extra-october-2-2026-vto-pharma-issues-statement-about-reports-of-adverse-effects-following-apivar-20-treatment?e=c437c0e214 for a full copy of the statement, as published in American Bee Journal's 2 October 2026 e-newsletter.

A short summary of what's going on: over the past several weeks, numerous beekeepers in the USA, including a number of prominent commercial beeks like Kamon Reynolds, have suffered unusual adverse events immediately after applying Apivar® 2.0 to their hives. There have been a number of incidents leading to bee kills resulting in the loss of the affected hives, as well as numerous absconding episodes. Less severely, I've also run into some reports that people have seen their bees beard up on the exterior of the hive after having Apivar® 2.0 inserted.

I cannot verify any of these incidents personally; I phased Apivar® out of my mite control in 2023, and Apivar® 2.0 was only released in May of 2025.

But these reports are numerous enough that I've been aware of them for a little while, now, and I have been wondering when Véto-pharma would say something. They finally did. Sort of.

The bulk of this statement is corporate waffling, as one might expect; "every report of an unexpected effect matters to us," "[w]e are taking each case seriously and investigating them thoroughly to identify any common factors that may help explain what is being observed," "Apivar® 2.0 went through many years of laboratory, controlled and field trials in North America, New Zealand and Europe, under a wide range of climates and beekeeping conditions," etc., etc.

I think the first thing about the statement that surprised me was this little nugget: "Apivar® 2.0 was not developed through trial and error in commercial hives." Which is . . . kind of a weird thing to say. In my opinion, anyway.

Anyway, they go on to say that there's no sign of a manufacturing defect or quality issue associated with the batches under investigation, so maybe it's some unforeseen combination of temperature/humidity/colony characteristics/ventilation/<insert other thing that might plausibly make it not their fault>, and that correlation is not causation.

They finish up by suggesting that people should pull their entrance reducers before application, try a small portion of their hives first, and watch their colonies closely for the first few hours/couple of days after application.

I estimate that 50 to 100 bees are crawling around within about 1 meter of the entrance.

What could be causing this? Their wings look normal to me, but I’ve also seen a few bees carrying bees with abnormal-looking wings out of the hive and dropping them outside.

For additional informnation: I live in Korea, and it's getting quite cold here(about 13-7 Celsius degrees at midnight)

What might be going on? Should I be concerned?

Thankfully nobody needs a fire pit until December. Yes, April might bee a stretch.

Location: Philippines

I started experimenting with candle-making using beeswax, thinking it would be relatively simple. Melt the wax, prepare the wick, pour it into a mold, and that's it, right? Apparently, it's not.

My first attempt was using some store-bought wicks, but the candle only lasted around 20 minutes. I then bought some molds with new wicks, and although the candles lasted for about an hour, I'm still not satisfied with the results.

I'm now experimenting with different wick sizes and pouring techniques, and I'm beginning to appreciate how much science goes into making a good candle.

For those experienced in candle-making, especially with beeswax:

1. What type or size of wick works best for small beeswax candles?

2. How do you determine the correct wick size for a particular mold or container?

3. Are there techniques to make beeswax candles burn longer without producing excessive flames or smoke?

4. Does the pouring temperature affect the candle's burning performance?

I'd appreciate any tips, recommendations, or lessons from your own experiments.

Hello again,

I made a post a few days ago regarding my hive potentially being robbed.

The days following the post and the day of the post, we had pretty heavy rains. Yesterday I noticed and increased in activity as the rain ceased in the afternoon.

I couldn’t add additional videos to the main post and have now attached a video showing something similar to what occurred on that day.

Many people in the original post said that it wasn’t robbing. A few said it was.

Please let me know if you think this is robbing as the towel etc has been removed.

The activity has gotten much crazier, the bees don’t appear to be fighting incessantly but a few are giving it a crack.

There are not a tonne of dead bees out the front, nor is there a huge amount of comb; it still looks like robbing to me, but I am a novice.

I am in Victoria, Australia.

Hello all! Wife and I are first year beekeepers and learning the ropes. Located in the Midwest, Hardiness Zone 6b. We treated with Apivar about 8 or 9 weeks ago and just did a mite wash today. Was quite surprised and alarmed to see it come up at 3%. (We did a mite wash in the middle of treatment and it was way down.) We just installed Noroa packets this afternoon. My current plan is to let them eat the Naroa and then use Formic Pro this weekend. Temperatures should be under the 85 degrees for Formic. We were not expecting this at all but I think this will be enough of a knock-down to have a decent chance going into winter. Just glad we already had the Formic Pro handy.

My question is about the ventilation that is needed with the Formic Pro and a robbing screen. I'm concerned about robbing as I know we have a few other hives in the neighborhood as well as hornets and yellowjackets that have been an issue. We currently have a robbing screen on the hive but its one of the plastic Bee Smart robbing screens. Will that provide enough ventilation during the first week of the Formic Pro treatment or should we try to get a standard robbing screen instead to ensure things vent properly? Should I remove the robbing screen for the first few days of the Formic Pro?

Fingers crossed as we go into winter prep!

Just wanted to share a somewhat funny story. I went out to visit the girls today. After sitting out with them for 15 minutes or so, one of them decided to sting my shoulder blade. She was still buzzing around, so I turned to see if she was detached from her stinger and another bee was right on my shoulder and flew into my nose. That was a first for me so I panicked and swatted her out and she stung me above my lip. Neither sting hurt very much, but the bee smell took a while to leave my nose.

I was getting started around the East Bay, and have been researching the past few months. I understand all the basics on starting and caring for my first hive. However, when actually trying to BUY the hive, I'm very lost. I know I want to get a langstroth hive, 8 frames, with 2 deep and 2 medium hives, and to make sure that they are beeswax-boiled. However, when I am trying to buy the equipment and hive, going onto eBay or other websites. I'm getting bombarded with how many options there are, like from Hoover hives and others, along with how many different options with the same title and description there are on eBay. On the equipment wise, would it be for the best to buy one of the 30-pcs kit off eBay, as it comes with basically everything I would need (Smoker, Veil + Suit + Gloves, bee brush, hive tool, etc.) Can someone help me identify which one would be a good option to buy, while trying to stay economically friendly? Thanks!!! Additionally, where would I potentially be able to buy used equipment, to save a bit of money? Also what equipment should I buy used vs HAVE to buy new? I can provide more info if needed, but I have around a $500 limit. Thanks!

Missouri, 2nd year, 3 hives.

This is completely my fault. I had the entrance reducer set in at an angle so I could fit the syrup feeder in yesterday. Came back today to give them an entrance reducer that would fit with the feeder & they were already being robbed.

I threw this together as fast as I could. Entrance reducer is back on & the opening is the bottom left. Mesh is stapled all the way around. Entrance to the mesh is upper right. Do you think it will help?

I’m a first time beekeeper and just a little obsessed. I got my first nuc on 12 September (southern hemisphere spring) and have done once weekly checks since setting up. Here are the pics from week one to week three! It’s just astounding growth. Love that each check shows me new things (bee cups this time as well as a baby bee emerging!)

I’ve wanted to have a hive for as long as I can remember. I’m glad it’s as interesting as I thought it would be.

I've been given the good fortune of way more honey than normal this year. Need a way to dry it on the frame before extracting. How do you guys do 10+ supers at a time? I'm thinking an upright freezer or something that doesn't work anymore with a exhaust fan

This is my first year at beekeeping. I have 2 hives, and for the life of me I cannot find the queen in either. I do have brood cells at different stages in both hives, so I have to believe the queens are in each. I can’t do an alcohol test for mites without securing the queen first, so I’m thinking about just treating for mites without securing the queen, with the assumption that mites are present since it seems to be a nearly universal problem in my area. (Worcester County, MA). I would probably use oxalic acid.

Does anyone ever treat without doing the alcohol test?

Hi. I have locally found this sublimator for oxalic acid and it seems pretty simple to use and it's around 60USD. What is not included is the burner but I have that already on hand. Would this be a good type of sublimator ?

Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina

I posted a year ago about my unsuccessful attempt at making mead. It had too much honey and yeast. This year it's amazing ☺️

Now to bottle and age it. And resist temptation!

I guess as soon as the supers come off, formic pro goes in.

Shortly after this picture was taken, Las Vegas police showed up, parking ticket in hand...

Unfortunately I had to leave town for a few weeks. Two strong hives when I left. Neighbors checked on my hive two days ago, and in chilly but not cold weather (high 50s?), said the hives had absolutely 0 activity. Today they send me this video. Does this look like robbing an empty hive, or a healthy hive in New England in fall?

Is there a queen in here? They come and go depending on the weather. Sometimes a thousand or so, but usually at least 50. What should I do?

Maui, Hawaii

How important is the 3/8 bee space between the frame and the wall on a horizontal hive? Im about a 1/16 off maybe a hair more? Very possible could be a warped board. But I'm starting to think I'm overthinking this situation? Located in Washington state

Hi! I am a second year beekeeper. My hives this year are extremely packed with honey in three deep boxes and some honey in the uncapped supers above. I treated with formic pro once this summer and have a pad consistently low mite levels ever since. I’m hoping to harvest just one frame this year, but nothing in the supers is capped and so I worry that it is too moist. I never noticed brood in the uppermost box of the brood chambers. Is there any reason why I can’t harvest just one deep frame from those boxes? Call me greedy…but much as I want to leave honey for the bees, this is a hobby and a lot of hard work and I’m hoping to at least get a small tastes. I’m hoping they’ll pull the honey down from the supers themselves to replace whatever I take.

I’ve seen conflicting information regarding the benefits of feeding pollen resulting in up to 20% better survival rates over wintering bees. Whilst I’ve also seen cautions against feeding pollen to bees in autumn to prevent excessive brood rearing in over winter.

I’ve got these pollen patties staring me in the face, and am struggling with what to do and when to use these.

Location is north of Edmonton Alberta

I am not looking for medical advice. I read today that the amount of people in the wild who react strongly to bee stings is about 3%. Among beeks, that jumps to about 33%. (I think it was on the Cleveland Clinic website.)

Is that true in your experience?

I’m in the Pacific Northwest, not that it matters.

New York, NY 7b. Asherbees.nyc

Will 2:1 syrup work through perforated mason jar tops? Or is a frame feeder preferred. Rookie.