Blue Sky Bee Supply Blog

The oxalic acid dribble method involves mixing oxalic acid with sugar syrup and applying it straight to your clustered bees using a large syringe. It is ideal to perform the dribble at a time when little to no capped brood is present in the hive and when your bees are clustered together. It can be done in temps as low as 40 degrees F. This way, the bees will remain clustered when you open the hive. What you’ll need: Oxalic acid (Api-Bioxal) Gram scale Glass container for mixing …

With the Varroa destructor mite a pernicious pest of managed honey bee colonies across North America, beekeepers have a variety of control methods to choose from to reduce the mites’ impact on their hives. Which ones do they most prefer?To answer that question, researchers at the University of Maryland and the Bee Informed Partnership analyzed four years of data from surveys that asked beekeepers about their Varroa-management methods. Their findings, reported in a new study published in April in …

Above: An image showing a cross section of a varroa mite feeding on a honey bee’s abdominal cavity is one of several ARS microscopy images changing what we know about how mites damage honey bees.Research by scientists at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of Maryland released today sheds new light — and reverses decades of scientific dogma — regarding a honey bee pest (Varroa destructor) that is considered the greatest single driver of the global honey bee colony losses. …

Mite Monitoring is an important part of spring hive management. Typically, strong overwintered colonies come into late spring and early summer with strong overwintered mite loads. It's critical to keep an eye on mite levels and treat accordingly once your colonies are above the recommended threshold, which is 2% (6 mites in a 300 bee sample) in the summer time. A lot of folks find the idea of an alcohol wash to be overwhelming, complicated, and unnecessary. We firmly believe that it is cruc …