The Apiarist

• Talking the talk

  The winter may feel never-ending, but in person and online talks offer the opportunity to improve your understanding, learn something new, and make the 'off season' seem just a little shorter.

• Repellent smellents

  It might be possible to create pesticides repellent to honey bees that reduce the accumulation of the sub-lethal chemicals that have a long-term detrimental impact on colony health.

• Drone congregation areas … or not?

  Some equinoctial thoughts on success and failure in beekeeping, and attempts to understand my woefully poor queen mating this year. Mating occurs in drone congregation areas (DCAs) … or does it? A recent review questions the evidence supporting the role for DCAs in queen mating.

• Here's one I repaired earlier

  Looked after properly, beekeeping equipment should last for years. Looked after improperly, it will need to be repaired … but will also last for years. Here are some fixes to major damage and minor holes in poly hives, and repairs/rebuilds of two essential pieces of equipment.

• Wiggly mites, waggly dances, and queen cell cups

  Tropilaelaps in Turkey, recent studies of the complexity of the waggle dance, and (yet more studies on) the influence of queen cup size on the size of the resulting queens. Bigger is not always better.