The Journal of the Victorian Apiarists' Association
Lindsay Callaway Hi members, For this month’s President’s Report, I thought I would do something a little different and introduce you to the nine people who make up your VAA Board. It’s a diverse group, bringing together commercial and recreational beekeepers, science and research, education, biosecurity, business, governance and industry experience from across Victoria. Between … Read more
Randy Oliver, ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in the American Bee Journal, March 2024. Formic acid is the trickiest miticide to use in hot weather, so I continue to experiment with various application methods to improve its efficacy, and to better understand why it sometimes causes queen losses. Last summer I ran several small “quick and dirty” … Read more
From The Conversation What’s the best way to manage a forest? Australians have argued about this for decades. The debate is often framed as binary: do we protect forests entirely, or harvest trees to support local economies and communities? The reality is more interesting, as our new research on a long-forgotten experiment in Victoria’s mountain … Read more
CEO Report September 2026 The last two months have seen AHBIC taking the pressures facing beekeepers directly to government, while continuing the practical work on treatment access, pollination and the Australian Colony Loss Survey. As spring gets underway, the cost of keeping colonies healthy and getting them ready for the next job remains front and centre. These are the issues … Read more
One full year living with varroa By Lindsay Callaway “There is no finish date to life with varroa. So, I keep coming back to a full circle.” Proudly mounted on my office wall is our first varroa “captured” by my diligent lead apiarists Greg and Lewis, 2nd September 2025. Yes, likely to have been “delivered” … Read more
Jamie Trimby We’ve had a warm winter through Central Victoria. As a result cape weed (Arctotheca calendula) flowered two to three weeks early, at the start of September, canola crops to the east of Bendigo were three to four weeks early, whilst bottlebrush (Melaleuca viminalis), which on an average year sees buds breaking by the … Read more
September 2026 The beekeeping landscape here in southern Victoria has changed a lot in the last fifty years due to canola. In the 1970s some farmers at Balliang were growing rapeseed, and my father would shift his hives to the flowering crops. The crops flowered in October, and the bees bred rapidly and made 20 … Read more
By Nathan Whitford, President Ask a member of the Geelong Beekeepers Club what makes it hum and you’ll rarely hear about hives, equipment or honey. You’ll hear about people. We are a not-for-profit, volunteer-run club of around 275 members, and everything we do, from delivering our fully booked Beekeeping Essentials Course to staffing a stall … Read more
By Kris Fricke You like beekeeping, and you like where you live. Where you live is a nice, peaceful place out in the countryside. There’s just one problem – you wouldn’t mind having other people around you to talk bees. You could talk over how you’re all mutually dealing with the local conditions, assist each … Read more
By Gill Greenstein Thanks to Bruce Diggles, VAA Melbourne Section Librarian, for choosing this book. Before you read the review, here is a potted history of Brother Adam. Brother Adam was born in 1898 and died in 1996, and in between he spent over 70 years breeding and evaluating Buckfast bees. He was sent to … Read more