Woodside Honey

30/08/2026

Kenton Valley
Varroa check alcohol wash and drone uncapping both negative😎🐝🐝
Hives are low on stores, but nectar and pollen coming in with a couple of trees flowering nearby so they should be ok.🤞

27/08/2026

Varroa check Woodside. Negative😎😎🐝
Both hives doing well with brood building up rapidly.
Both hives had some drone cells which I uncapped and I did an alcohol wash on both.

16/08/2026

Kenton Valley
Varroa check.
Did alcohol washes x3 and drone uncapping on one hive, the other two had too few drone cells to bother with.
Very sad 😢 to kill 300 🐝 per hive each time I do an alcohol wash.
The picture is of two 🐝 samples I washed and the resultant debris - happily no mites found today.

16/08/2026

Varroa - the impact in QLD & NSW is huge 😥

15/08/2026

Varroa - Seeing what is happening in Queensland has me very concerned for beekeeping in SA.

Brisbane beekeepers say a treatment-resistant strain of varroa mite is ripping through suburban hives, wiping out colonies and threatening local honey production and pollination services.

Commercial apiarist Rick McFarlane, known as The Backyard Beekeeper, said the outbreak had hit this part of Queensland hard.

“For south-east Queensland, the only word I can use now is devastation,” McFarlane said.

He said the pest had moved quickly through suburbs near the airport (Eagle Farm, Hendra, and Ascot) with recent testing showing many Brisbane hives were resistant to both synthetic pyrethroid and amitraz-based miticides.

“We had complete apiaries fail due to not being aware of the resistance until after the testing results,” he said.

He estimated 90 per cent of managed colonies had collapsed and 99 per cent of feral and unmanaged colonies had been destroyed by the mite.

Read the full article at https://village-voice.com.au/bee-collapse-as-mite-tears-through-hives/

12/08/2026

Busy happy bees at Woodside!

07/08/2026

Varroa will change a lot of things.
Those who rely on feral bees for pollination will find there are greatly reduced numbers of bees and feral colonies. Up to 90% or more gone if Queensland experience is a guide.
Beekeeping is changing dramatically, and not in a good way.😢

07/08/2026

Lovely weather this morning at Woodside! Slight breeze, 16C, sunny!
I inspected both hives, found both queens - being marked helps! One had a green iridescent mark which only shows up when sunny so I caught her and remarked her yellow!
No signs of swarming, plenty of pollen and honey stores.
No drones and only found one drone cell!
Did alcohol washes on both with no mites found - very relieved!
They settled down quickly after the inspection. They are nice bees!

19/07/2026

Kenton Valley - a short video of where my three hives are.
I did alcohol washed to check varroa mite numbers, pleasingly no mites found, but one bee was not happy!

15/07/2026

Kenton Valley
Removed the Bayvarol strips the other day, did an alcohol wash and added sticky mats and removed them after 3 days. Happily no sign of varroa.
Sadly two hives are very light on stores so I gave them some frames of honey from last season to tide them over.
The third hive is doing well, plenty of stores and bees!🐝🐝