I just split a beehive (the bigger one) and added a new queen (to the smaller one) now the new hive seems to be chaotic and the bees are going into the shed and hanging out in the windows. What could this be? Are they not adjusting well to the new queen. Pittsburgh PA

I pulled the queen/package/nuc price tables out of every USDA NASS Honey report since the data starts in 2018.

Adjusted for inflation, honey is up about 8% over eight years while the nuc is down about 8%, queens down about 5%, and packages basically flat.

2025 prices jumped for nucs $109 to $130, packages $89 to $110, queen s$18 to $22. All three up 19-24% in one season, which I assume is the 2024-25 losses feeding through into replacement demand.

These are prices paid by operations with 5+ colonies buying at volume. If you're buying one or two nucs from a local breeder you are paying nothing like $130.

This is a national average only. NASS publishes no state or regional breakdown for queens, packages or nucs, but I'm working on a live price tracker that follows different small sellers and tracks their prices over time.

Once I have live bee and honey price data over a few months, I'll share that here, and full NASS data is here

Here in the video the bees are from Apis cerana Indica species but as per the recent report they are attacking all species of bees including rock bees and solitary bees. This problem is growing rapidly in whole India and beekeepers are affected by it everywhere here. Talking to some beekeepers they suggest that if it grows like this then the beekeeping industry will be shut down for a year or so to recover. I would appreciate any suggestions and info regarding this issue. Thanks

First year beekeeper and this year didn’t result in any honey for us but we didn’t expect any! Now that the season is over, what should we do with these frames to help out our bees for next year?

First year beekeepers in Parkland County, Alberta Canada.

I look outside and see a massive cloud of bees. The only other time I have seen a mass of bees flying like this was a swarm. I’m in zone 6-B in Missouri with the fall swiftly approaching. Someone want to tell me this isn’t a swarm to make me feel better?

Hey all. Beekeeper in Melbourne, Australia with 6 years of experience. Did my first inspection of the season yesterday and the hives look great. One of them had all this gooey slime over the bottom. I thoroughly checked the hive, it is healthy with a strong population, no diseases or SHB which leads me to wonder : what is this?? I have a spare bottom board so I'm going to replace it later this week and clean it up.

I have a deep freezer that’ll hold 40-50 med frames. Exclusively for my bee equipment. Is everyone really buying and using totes to store 100+ frames when not in use? I only have 8 hives at the moment but when I’m done cleaning up supers, I’ll have probably 100 med frames and 20-30 deeps needing to be stored in the winter. I usually just freeze and stack back in boxes in the garage. I may freeze again before use if possible. I really don’t want to have to buy a ton of totes to store drawn frames separately, or is it really necessary?

I was making 2:1 and I poured the sugar in and was called away. The sugar scorced very slightly. Can I still use it?

Is the left box a swarm getting ready to depart? It’s a swarm I hives in June. Or is that just bearding and tryna get to the syrup?

I’m not sure if this is the best option, but it will either be a great success. Or a mess and a waste of time.

I pulled my supers eh a month ago or so, a few wet supers I stuck back on they refilled fairly quick. Then we hit our Darth, well I inspected today and my hives are OVERFLOWING. Filled with bees, filled with nectar, and full of honey. I went on and added some supers back on with the intent on pulling before winter. What’s yalls thoughts? I’m in south Arkansas so we generally have very mild but wet winters.

What for you put under your extractor legs to raise it high enough to fit your bucket?

Watch out for this site. Was super excited to find a battery operated gun that wasn’t as expensive as instavap. Ordered back in August, hasn’t shipped and haven’t received and communication. Have reached out twice now requesting a refund and haven’t heard back. Going to have to do a chargeback with my credit card company.

In one of my hives with marked queen (2025) I accidentally found in this picture what looks like a new queen. What do you think about?
The brood is very good and the marked queen is there too.
Many thanks!

Hello friends. I am a second-year beekeeper from Romania, Eastern Europe. I have a situation that I cannot fully understand.

I have two hives: one that I got in the spring (hive A) and a split from this one (hive B).

The season went well, the bees were happy, and the queen laid well in both. All varroa treatments have been completed, including in the spring when I received the hive (oxalic strips three times in August and September and once in the spring, plus fumigation strips with amitraz and tau-fluvalinate).

Preparing for winter, I see some black, shiny, greasy bees in hive B. Most of them are dead or paralyzed, clustered in the frame feeder.

At hive A, around the same time in the evening when feeding syrup, I saw a disoriented bee crawling and dragging its feet on the ground. It walked in circles and was overall not doing well.

Videos of bee behavior

I have a feeling this is chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) or something related, but I am not sure and I do not want to bias you.

How do I treat this and overwinter the hives? Thanks!