A morning of mirth and merriment at the apiary. Sunny and cold, bees all in, so an ideal opportunity for the first dose of varroa treatment.

Oxalic acid sublimation - Bioxal - quick and effective.

Bees should all be settled for winter - but it’s worth remembering that our milder winters mean that bees could be flying with little or no forage to sustain them. Queens could still be laying in the milder of winters, meaning no brood break to help to minimise the varroa load.

So, with a varroa population high in a diminishing colony of winter bees - a recipe for potential disaster in the spring.

Think like a bee!