First time after viewing thousands of front entrance clips, we see this. It is in a 2-frame research hive spotted on October 26. The original hive is one of our 5-year survivors without chemical mite treatments. Could a certain strain of DWV actually help inoculate our bees?

With hobby beekeeping, I often wonder whether I should add a bit of thymol to help my bees. Treating for varroa seems to be something many of us think will help. But the science and the fact that tens of thousands of beekeepers no longer treat for Varroa tell us something else. Today, I discuss the powerful placebo effect on our actions with our bees. Does thinking it will help make it do so?

As we wind down the year a look at our failed and survivor hives with some Bee Lessons on life and money management.

I often think I can save them when I see the yellow jacket attacks, but it is really only a sign of a different problem. Here are my thoughts and Hive updates.

With just two hives failing so far, it's not enough to run the data. But some failed splits may help us better understand what may have happened to them. The other question is, if we open a hive now, what do we do with it if it still has bees?

It's sad on one side, but exciting on the other to have finally lost some hives. The lost hive data when compared to those that survived may help us better understand what is happening with our bees. The work starts this week.

As the bees wind down, so do I. Here are some updates as we move into late fall.

What a week. My eyes were opened wide as I learned of this fraud. Not surprisingly, I was a part of it. Here's the story.

In this rare interview on my podcast, I bring on Dr. Gary Brook whose article I recently discussed on the ability to have bees treatment-free. It's a fascinating look at the evidence and clearly begs the question, Why aren't we all doing this?

The evidence is pretty clear now that beekeepers need not treat for mites. In this podcast, I discuss the recently published article that says using these two strategies can get you treatment-free.