It’s fast getting to that time of year again, when hives are being opened for the first time coming out of winter – a winter featuring New Zealand’s warmest June on record. Many beekeeping tasks await in the next few months, but prime among them is ensuring the queen at the heart of each colony is fit to perform.

Just days away from the first of a series of six one-day workshops around New Zealand discussing breeding for varroa resistance in honey bees, the Bee Breeding NZ Group, led by Rae Butler and Linda Newstrom-Lloyd, answer their most frequently asked questions.

The journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step; How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time; How do you build varroa resistance into your honey bees? You have to start looking. That is the philosophy and practice of bee breeder Rae Butler who says the results of several seasons in her breeding programme demonstrates to others how progress can be made.

Queen bees and drones exclusively mate in “drone congregation areas”, right? Although crucial to the survival of our livestock, as beekeepers we actually know very little about the mating locations of honey bees and, believe it or not, what we do know has been aided by research using radar technology originally designed to prevent car crashes…

Bees are livestock. Like all forms of livestock, they have been subject to selective pressure for a very long time...

This subject is important to me. When I was young I was working a poorly sited apiary beside a road when a girl walked past. If I close my..

Are you in the market for queens? Or perhaps cells, or nucs? Seven of the country's leading breeding programmes define their operations...

Last spring Betta Bees' nearly-two decades of genetic improvement looked at risk of being lost, as shareholders searched for a buyer...