Mice and Rodents in the Winter Hive: How to Protect the Colony
In summer a hive defends itself, but in winter the entrance is often left unguarded: a convenient opportunity for a mouse looking for shelter. A practical guide to the damage,...
Recent blog posts
Honey as a Christmas Gift: How to Choose the Right Jar
Honey is one of the simplest Christmas gifts to get right, but choosing the flavour, the format and the right time to order makes all the difference. This article is a practical...
Oxalic Acid in the Broodless Period: How to Use the Winter Treatment Window
Oxalic acid works far better with no brood present, but the autumn-winter window has narrowed. This article looks at the required conditions, the two application methods, and...
Winter Stores and Hive Weight: How to Check If Your Bees Have Enough Honey
A hive that feels heavy is not always a safe one. This article looks at how much honey a colony really needs to get through winter, how to check it by counting frames or...
Varroa Monitoring: How to Count Mites and Know When to Treat
Treating for varroa on a fixed date, without knowing how many mites are actually there, is the most common mistake. This article walks step by step through the powdered sugar...
Organic Beekeeping: What Actually Changes in Apiary Management
Knowing what organic beekeeping is does not tell you what actually changes day to day. This article goes rule by rule through the concrete requirements of EU Regulation...
Drifting and Robbing: How Apiary Layout Causes Them
Losing bees is not always a brood-health problem: sometimes it simply comes down to where and how the hives are placed. This article looks at what research says about drifting...
Beekeeping Site Agreements: Terms and Fees with the Landowner
The best site for an apiary is almost never land the beekeeper owns: it is a favour, agreed verbally, that works until something changes. This article explains why it is almost...
The Italian Beekeeping Register: Registration, Apiary Sign and Census
The law everyone quotes, the declaration of apiaries to the local health authority, was repealed in 2022: today the obligations fall into three distinct moments. Registration in...
Migratory Beekeeping: When Moving Hives Really Pays
Migration is not a style of beekeeping: it is an economic decision taken afresh every year. 2026 yields per hive, the full calculation of trips and hours, the three kilometre...
Selling Honey: Labelling and Direct Sale Without Mistakes
A jar does not sell because the honey is good: it sells because it is compliant. Mandatory particulars, floral names, batch codes, durability dates and the change that rewrites...
Hive Materials Compared: Wood, Polystyrene and Sizes, What Really Changes
The material of the hive does not decide how much honey you take. It decides three things: how much weight you lift, how the colony handles heat and cold, and what you can do on...
Brood Diseases: Reading the Signs and What the Law Requires
Spotty brood is not always the queen's fault. How to tell American foulbrood, European foulbrood, chalkbrood and sacbrood apart by looking inside the cells, the ropiness test,...
Beeswax: How to Recover Cappings and Old Combs and Get Your Foundation Back
Cappings from the harvest and old combs are not waste: they are wax the bees have already paid for. Which combs to cull and how many each year, how to render without darkening...
Beekeeping Equipment for a Growing Apiary: What You Really Need and in What Order
Once an apiary grows, the problem is no longer just keeping bees: it is carrying the workload. Which equipment genuinely gives time back, why there are never enough supers, when...
Honey Harvest: When to Remove the Supers and How to Get Properly Ripe Honey
The calendar does not decide when to harvest: the bees do. How to tell that honey is really ripe, how much moisture is too much, how to take the supers off without putting the...
Weak Colonies in Late Summer: Assess, Strengthen or Unite Them Before Winter
In late summer a weak colony starts at a disadvantage for winter: few winter bees, a fragile cluster, stores burned fast. How to really read it (population, brood, stores), work...
Wasps and Hornets at the Hive: Protecting Bees in Late Summer
In late summer wasps and hornets target the hive, right when the bees need to bank their energy for winter. Who the European hornet and the Asian hornet are, how to tell if your...
Starting the Season: Spring Checks at the Hive
The first mild days mark the hive's restart. The first spring visit is the check that tells you how the colonies came through winter and what they need to get going the right...
Collecting and Transporting Nuclei and Packages of Bees: What to Know
Collecting a nucleus or a package of bees looks like the easiest part, but the journey is a delicate moment: tens of thousands of living animals, sensitive to heat. Here is how...