When the Bees Tell You It’s Time to Move On (Part 2)
There comes a point in beekeeping where persistence stops being productive—and listening becomes more important.
For us at Pure Coastal Honey, that moment came again at our Newrybar site.
After two challenging seasons battling small hive beetle (SHB) pressure, repeated setbacks, and more recently another round of deadouts, the signs were clear. This wasn’t just a tough patch—it was a pattern.
And patterns in beekeeping matter.
📍 The Final Check
Before making the call to move, we did one last inspection.
The trays told the story before we even cracked the lids.
High numbers of adult beetles
Active larvae present
Colonies under pressure despite intervention
Even after cleaning trays and maintaining strong colonies, the environment itself was working against the bees.
That’s the key lesson here—sometimes it’s not your management.
It’s the site.
🚛 The Move to McLeans Ridges
We made the decision to relocate all viable colonies to our McLeans Ridges apiary—a site that has consistently shown:
Lower SHB pressure
Stronger colony performance
Better overall balance between bees and environment
Before transport, we:
Cleaned all trays thoroughly
Removed as much SHB load as possible
Ensured colonies were secure and stable for the move
This wasn’t just about moving bees—it was about resetting conditions in their favour.
🗓️ Timeline of Events
March 2025 – First varroa detection, management begins (drone trapping → organic rotation)
Late 2025 – Continued SHB pressure builds at Newrybar
January 2026 – Hive losses begin
February 2026 – NUCs introduced, monitoring increases
March 2026 – Intervention applied (reduced space, removed excess comb)
March 2026 – Colonies stabilise, strong populations maintained
March 2026 – Final inspections show ongoing SHB + larvae pressure
March 2026 – Decision made and hives relocated to McLeans Ridges
A Note on HiveCast Thinking (and BeeSTAR on the Ground)
While still in development, this is exactly where our HiveCast AI approach comes into play.
Not as an in-hive monitor—but as another layer helping beekeepers understand:
When conditions are turning against them
What practical steps can reduce pressure
When it might be time to act early… not late
At Newrybar, one of those steps was simple but effective:
👉 Reducing excess space and removing uncovered comb
After following this approach, colony strength improved—and this was clearly reflected in our BeeSTAR monitoring, which continued to show strong (green) hive status.
That’s an important point.
The colonies themselves were not failing.
They were holding on.
But despite strong populations and active foraging, the external pressure from small hive beetle remained consistently high, with trays continuing to show beetles and larvae.
So the decision wasn’t made because the bees were weak—
It was made because the environment was.
At Newrybar, the signals were coming from multiple directions:
On-ground inspections
Tray observations
Monitoring data (showing strength, not collapse)
And that combination told the full story.
This time, we didn’t wait for failure.
⚖️ Success Isn’t Always Staying
In beekeeping, success isn’t always about pushing through.
Sometimes it’s about stepping back and asking:
“Are we giving these bees the best chance to thrive?”
Strong bees can still be in the wrong place.
Moving an apiary isn’t failure.
It’s good management.
🌱 Where To From Here?
The focus now is simple:
Build strength at McLeans Ridges
Reduce stress on colonies
Continue monitoring SHB pressure closely
Apply what we’ve learned moving forward
Because every difficult site leaves behind something valuable—
insight.
🐝 Final Thought
Bees are incredibly good at telling us what they need.
We just have to be willing to listen.
The hives after being opened on site
When the Bees Tell You It’s Time to Move On
Apiary relocation, Small Hive Beetle pressure, and what the data is showing us
Over the past two seasons, one of our apiary sites has been a constant challenge.
What started as a promising location gradually became a high-pressure environment—particularly from Small Hive Beetle (SHB). Despite ongoing management, interventions, and close monitoring, we’ve seen repeated setbacks including weak colonies, absconds, and most recently, a confirmed deadout.
What We Found
During our latest inspection, the signs were clear:
Advanced SHB activity and slime-out in one hive
Evidence of absconding behaviour
A weakened colony showing chalkbrood stress
Robbing activity already underway
This isn’t just a single event—it’s part of a pattern we’ve been tracking over time.
And that’s the key point.
Listening to the Data (Not Just the Bees)
One of the biggest advantages we have now is access to continuous hive monitoring through BeeStar sensors.
These sensors have been quietly building a picture in the background:
Gradual decline signals before failure
Increased stress indicators leading into deadouts
“Red” flagged hives correlating strongly with real-world outcomes
In this most recent case, the hive had already been flagged as critical before inspection confirmed a full collapse.
That alignment between data and physical inspection is incredibly important—it validates that early warning systems are working.
Why We’re Moving the Apiary
At some point, good beekeeping means making the hard call.
We’ve decided to fully relocate all hives from this site.
Not one or two. All of them.
Because partial moves often leave you fighting the same environmental pressures:
Persistent SHB load in the soil
Ongoing reinfestation pressure
Colony stress that never fully resets
Instead, we’re consolidating at McLeans Ridges, where:
Colonies are currently thriving
SHB pressure is noticeably lower
Monitoring data is consistently stable
Hive strength is building, not declining
Strengthening Before the Move
We’re not just picking up boxes and leaving.
We’ve already started:
Removing honey supers from weaker colonies
Refocusing colonies on brood and population strength
Reducing internal space to improve defence
Supporting colonies to rebuild before relocation
Strong colonies handle SHB. Weak ones don’t.
BeeStar Update – What We’re Seeing
This period has been one of the clearest real-world validations of hive monitoring we’ve experienced.
At our stronger apiary:
Sensors are stable
Colonies are building consistently
No abnormal alerts
At the problem site:
Multiple warning signals appeared before visible collapse
Deadout confirmed after “red” status
Patterns repeated across hives
This reinforces something we strongly believe:
Monitoring doesn’t replace inspections—but it tells you where to look, and when to act.
Where This Is Leading
Experiences like this are shaping more than just how we manage our apiaries—they’re influencing what we’re building behind the scenes.
Over time, we’ve been working on a project called HiveCast AI.
It’s important to say—this isn’t an in-hive monitoring solution.
We’re not trying to replace tools like BeeStar, and we’re not trying to compete with sensors inside the hive.
Instead, HiveCast AI sits as another layer.
A layer focused on helping beekeepers better understand:
The impact of weather
Changing microclimates
Environmental pressure building over time
And how those factors influence what’s happening inside the hive.
It’s about combining:
What we see in the hive
What the environment is doing
What the data is quietly showing
…and turning that into clear, practical guidance when it matters most.
This apiary is a perfect example of why.
We weren’t just reacting to one bad hive—we were seeing a pattern build over time. Pressure increasing. Signals changing. Outcomes repeating.
HiveCast AI is being shaped by exactly these kinds of real-world scenarios.
It’s still evolving, but it’s already influencing the decisions we make—like when to intervene, when to reduce space, and in this case, when it’s time to walk away from a site entirely.
Lessons for Beekeepers
If there’s one takeaway from this experience, it’s this:
Don’t ignore repeated setbacks at a site
One dead hive is a warning—multiple is a pattern
Environment matters just as much as hive management
Data can confirm what your gut is already telling you
And sometimes…
The best thing you can do for your bees is move them.
What’s Next
All colonies will be relocated to McLeans Ridges, where we’ll continue:
Monitoring through BeeStar
Recording outcomes for HiveCast AI research
Sharing real-world case studies with the beekeeping community
This is exactly the kind of real-world learning that continues to shape both Pure Coastal Honey and HiveCast AI.
🌿 Hive Monitoring in Our Apiaries — Supporting Evidence-Guided Beekeeping
At Pure Coastal Honey, we believe strong colonies are built on careful observation, thoughtful timing, and continuous learning.
This week we installed hive monitoring sensors across our Newrybar and McLeans Ridges apiaries as part of our commitment to evidence-guided beekeeping.
This isn’t about replacing traditional skills. It’s about supporting them.
Why We’re Introducing Hive Monitoring
Beekeeping has always relied on hands-on experience. Reading brood patterns, assessing colony strength, checking stores — these are skills that can’t be replaced.
But between inspections, colonies are constantly responding to weather, forage conditions, humidity, and seasonal shifts.
Hive monitoring technology allows us to observe trends without opening the hive unnecessarily. For us, this means:
Reducing disturbance to colonies
Identifying environmental stress patterns earlier
Comparing apiary performance across locations
Refining inspection timing
Supporting better long-term decision-making
Used carefully, smart hive sensors can complement traditional beekeeping — not compete with it.
What This Means for Our Northern Rivers Apiaries
Our apiaries at Newrybar and McLeans Ridges experience different microclimates, rainfall patterns, and forage availability.
By monitoring conditions across both sites, we hope to better understand:
How coastal humidity affects colony behaviour
Seasonal variation between locations
Environmental signals before visible colony changes
Patterns that influence honey production cycles
Every region has its own rhythm. Our goal is to listen more closely to ours.
Evidence-Guided Beekeeping at Pure Coastal Honey
Evidence-guided beekeeping is one of the core pillars of Pure Coastal Honey.
It means:
🐝 Measuring before reacting
📊 Using data to support experience
🌱 Intervening only when needed
📚 Continually learning from our own apiaries
We already apply this approach through mite monitoring, seasonal tracking, permanent NUC support systems, and structured apiary records.
Hive monitoring is simply another tool supporting that philosophy.
Technology With Purpose
No sensor replaces lifting a frame.
No graph replaces beekeeper judgement.
But if technology helps us:
Reduce unnecessary inspections
Better understand our coastal conditions
Support colony resilience
Make calmer, more informed decisions
Then it strengthens what Pure Coastal Honey stands for.
Healthy bees.
Thoughtful management.
Honey shaped by place and season.
Looking Ahead
This is a learning trial, not a shortcut.
Over the coming months, we’ll be reviewing trends, comparing apiaries, and sharing insights as we better understand how this technology supports our colonies.
Pure Coastal Honey will always balance tradition with careful innovation — because better understanding leads to better stewardship.
—
Jamie & Catherine
Pure Coastal Honey
Northern Rivers, NSW
Apiary Update: Healthy Hives and Strong Brood Patterns
Today was an inspection day across several Pure Coastal Honey apiaries, checking colony health and monitoring how our hives are progressing following recent management work.
We inspected:
our recent split from McLeans Ridges,
the Flow Hive, and
our Sentinel hive, used for ongoing monitoring and data collection.
Regular inspections are an essential part of responsible beekeeping, allowing us to assess colony strength, confirm queen performance, and monitor for pests such as varroa mites.
Monitoring Hive Health
Inspection trays were checked across the apiaries to assess natural mite drop. Monitoring mite levels helps us understand how colonies are responding after treatment and ensures we can act early if conditions change.
Encouragingly, mite drop levels remain low, supporting what we’ve been seeing during hive inspections — strong, active colonies continuing to perform well.
📷 Photo: inspection tray showing monitored mite drop
Strong Queens and Solid Brood
One of the highlights of today’s inspections was confirming healthy, laying queens across the hives. Marked queens were sighted, making it easier to track colony performance and maintain consistent hive management.
We observed solid brood patterns, a key indicator of colony health. A consistent brood pattern tells us the queen is laying well and that nurse bees are maintaining stable conditions inside the hive.
📷 Photo: marked queen during inspection
📷 Photo: solid brood pattern
Strong brood today means strong field bees in the weeks ahead — an important sign as colonies continue building strength.
🐝 A Tall, Working Hive
One of today’s inspections included our Flow Hive, currently running a full setup with a brood box, an ideal super, and a Flow honey super.
As colonies grow stronger through the season, additional space is added to support both brood development and honey storage. The brood box is where the queen lays eggs and new bees are raised, while the supers above allow bees to store surplus honey.
This taller configuration reflects a healthy, expanding colony with enough population to manage and utilise the available space effectively.
📷 Photo: Flow Hive showing brood box, ideal super, full deep super and Flow super during inspection
For many people, it’s surprising to see just how large a productive hive can become — but this space helps reduce crowding, supports colony health, and allows bees to store honey naturally as nectar flows
Apiary Update — Moving Hives, Monitoring Health & Growing Stronger
Today was a solid day in the apiary — the kind of work that quietly builds the strength of future seasons.
We moved one hive from our Codrington site across to McLeans Ridges, bringing that apiary up to four colonies. Keeping apiaries balanced helps colonies make better use of local forage and allows us to manage hive health more closely across our coastal locations.
While onsite, alcohol washes were carried out at both Newrybar and McLeans Ridges as part of our regular monitoring routine.
Encouragingly, both apiaries returned a zero mite count, which is always reassuring to see following treatment periods. Regular monitoring gives us confidence that colonies are healthy and continuing to recover well.
We also took a split from one of the stronger McLeans Ridges colonies to gradually increase hive numbers. Splitting strong colonies helps reduce swarming pressure while building future production hives.
Beekeeping is often a series of small decisions made week by week — moving colonies, checking health, and supporting growth at the right time.
Looking ahead, we’ll soon be trialling the Beestar hive monitoring system across our remote apiaries.
The goal is simple: better insight into colony conditions between inspections, helping us respond faster to changes in temperature, humidity, and hive activity without disturbing the bees.
Technology will never replace hands-on inspections, but tools like this may help us care for colonies more proactively — something we’re excited to explore and share as we learn.
Every strong hive today becomes future pollination, future honey, and a more resilient apiary tomorrow.
Apiary locations: Codrington • McLeans Ridges • Newrybar
Adding Technology to Our Varroa Management Plan
Over the past season, beekeeping in NSW has changed dramatically.
Varroa is no longer “over there” — it’s here, established, and evolving. With confirmed pyrethroid resistance now detected in some NSW apiaries, the pressure on beekeepers is increasing. For those of us running standing hives in coastal environments, the combination of varroa pressure and Small Hive Beetle (SHB) can be brutal.
We’ve experienced that firsthand.
The Toll of Dead-Outs
There’s something people don’t talk about enough — the emotional toll.
Opening a hive and finding a dead-out isn’t just a financial loss. It’s a colony that was building, foraging, raising brood. It’s time, care, and responsibility. When varroa and SHB combine, collapse can happen quickly.
It breaks us every time.
As beekeepers, we don’t take losses lightly. We analyse, reflect, adjust — and try again.
Resistance Changes the Game
Recent confirmation of pyrethroid resistance in NSW changes how we think about treatment rotations. Chemicals like Bayvarol and Apistan have been important tools, but resistance means we cannot rely on any single product or approach.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is no longer optional — it’s essential.
That means:
Monitoring
Rotating treatments correctly
Avoiding under-dosing
Removing strips on time
Watching for reinfestation
Being honest about what’s working and what isn’t
Transparency matters.
Why We’ve Added Hive Monitoring
This season we’ve decided to trial hive monitoring technology using Beestar across two of our remote apiaries.
This isn’t about replacing inspections.
It’s about reducing blind spots.
The goal is simple:
Monitor hive weight trends
Track temperature stability
Watch for sudden changes that may indicate stress
Identify potential swarm or collapse patterns earlier
Support our inspection decisions with real data
We travel weekly between Codrington, McLeans Ridges and Newrybar to inspect hives. As we expand, that becomes harder to manage manually. Monitoring allows us to see patterns between visits.
The data stays ours.
We’ll analyse it, learn from it, and share what we can publicly.
Technology Is Not a Silver Bullet
Let’s be clear — no sensor kills mites.
Monitoring does not replace:
Alcohol washes
Drone brood checks
Timely treatments
Strong hive management
But it may help us detect:
Brood temperature instability
Rapid population decline
Queenless Hives
Hives preparing to swarm
If we can catch stress earlier, we can act earlier.
And in a varroa environment, time matters.
The Future: Full Product Traceability
One of our long-term goals at Pure Coastal Honey is full traceability across every product line.
Not just batch numbers.
Not just “packed in Australia.”
We want to be able to trace a jar of honey right back to:
The apiary it came from
The specific hives that produced it
The season it was harvested
The treatment status at the time
The forage conditions during flow
With hive monitoring technology, we can take this a step further.
Because Beestar units use GPS location data, we can verify that our monitored hives are located within our registered Australian apiaries. That means we can demonstrate that our honey was produced from standing Australian hives — not blended, not imported, not relocated interstate during flow.
As imported honey and blended products continue to create confusion in the market, provenance matters more than ever.
Our vision is this:
In the future, customers will be able to:
Scan a code on a jar
See which apiary produced it
View general seasonal notes
Understand the conditions the bees worked in
Not marketing fluff.
Real data.
Why This Matters
Trust in food production is built on transparency.
Beekeeping has changed. Varroa has changed it. Treatment strategies have changed. The economics have changed.
What shouldn’t change is honesty.
We don’t claim to be fully organic — because bees fly 5–10 km and forage wherever they choose. Absolute claims in modern beekeeping are unrealistic.
What we can claim is:
We operate standing hives.
We report mite detections.
We treat responsibly when necessary.
We aim to return to softer strategies when pressure allows.
We are building systems to trace and verify our product.
The industry is evolving.
So are we.
The Bigger Picture
Varroa is not a temporary wave — it is a new baseline.
We can either resist change or adapt with it.
For us, that means combining:
Traditional hive skills
Data-driven monitoring
Full traceability goals
Transparent communication with our customers
Continuous improvement
Our aim is simple:
Keep bees in boxes.
Keep colonies strong.
Keep building trust.
We’ll continue to share what we learn — the wins and the setbacks.
Because transparency builds trust.
— Jamie
Pure Coastal Honey
Codrington / Northern Rivers NSW
When Doing the Right Thing Still Feels Wrong
A hard but necessary step in our hives
In our earlier post about the Varroa Wave, we shared how mite pressure rose suddenly and unevenly across our apiaries, forcing us to adapt in real time. Some hives responded well to brood breaks and organic treatments. Others didn’t.
This is the part of the story we hoped we wouldn’t have to write — but real beekeeping doesn’t always follow the plan.
Over the past fortnight, despite earlier interventions, our final hives experienced re-infestation levels that put their survival at risk. After careful monitoring and mite washes, we made the call to place these hives under a synthetic varroa treatment.
It’s not a decision we’re comfortable with. But it is a responsible one.
Why the Varroa Wave forced our hand
Varroa doesn’t move in neat lines. It surges, collapses, rebounds, and spreads — often from hive to hive that looked stable just weeks earlier.
What we’re seeing now is a secondary wave:
Reinvasion from surrounding hives
Mite numbers climbing faster than organic methods could suppress
Colonies heading toward a point where intervention becomes urgent, not optional
At that stage, doing nothing isn’t natural — it’s neglect.
We keep bees in boxes. That means we don’t get to step back and “let nature decide” when we know the outcome is collapse.
Why this still aligns with our values
Our approach hasn’t changed — only the tools required for this moment have.
Synthetic treatments are not our preference. They are:
A last resort
A temporary measure
Used only when monitoring shows that other methods are no longer enough
Our goal is not to eliminate treatments entirely, but to minimise intervention wherever possible, and to return to organic and mechanical methods once mite pressure stabilises.
Think of this as a reset — not a new direction.
What this means for our honey
This is the question we know many people will ask, so we want to be completely clear.
Honey currently available from Pure Coastal Honey:
Was harvested before these treatments were applied
Comes from hives not under synthetic treatment during harvest
Meets all food safety and withholding requirements
Any hives under synthetic treatment:
Are not producing harvestable honey
Are managed with dedicated treatment supers where required
Will not contribute honey until all withholding periods are complete and the hive is cleared
In short:
Our honey remains pure, local, and responsibly produced.
Looking forward, not backing down
The Varroa Wave has reminded us that beekeeping is no longer about following a fixed rulebook. It’s about:
Observation
Adaptation
And sometimes making uncomfortable decisions to protect the bees in our care
Once mite pressure eases, our focus will return to:
Brood breaks
Splits
Monitoring-led management
Organic and mechanical treatments wherever possible
This isn’t the end of the story — it’s simply the next chapter.
We’ll keep sharing what we’re seeing, what’s working, and what we’re learning, because transparency matters — especially when things get hard.
— Pure Coastal Honey
Varroa mites from past wash
What Comes After Varroa? Our Approach in the Hives
n our last post, we talked about the arrival of varroa and how it’s changed beekeeping across Australia. This post is more practical. It’s about what that looks like on the ground — in our hives — when mite levels reach the point where action is needed.
Recently, a few of our hives reached treatment levels. That’s always a moment where decisions matter. The goal is simple: protect the bees. How you do that depends heavily on conditions at the time.
Right now, we’re in the middle of warm coastal weather. Some common organic varroa treatments carry higher risks to bees and queens when temperatures are high, so we needed an approach that would be effective without adding unnecessary stress to the colonies.
This is where a brood break came into play.
A brood break is a short pause in brood production. Varroa mites reproduce inside developing brood cells, so when there is no brood, the mites lose their ability to multiply. This pause isn’t something we’ve invented — it happens naturally in bee colonies during seasonal slowdowns or when a hive replaces its queen.
To create this pause, we temporarily prevented the queen from laying eggs using a purpose-built cage inside the hive. She remains part of the colony and is cared for by the worker bees. Over the following weeks, existing brood emerges and no new brood is started. The hive becomes temporarily brood-free.
Once the hive reaches this broodless stage, we can treat with oxalic acid, a naturally occurring substance that’s already present in honey. Treating at this point is important — without brood, almost all mites are exposed on adult bees, meaning a single, light treatment is usually effective. The queen is then released and normal brood production resumes.
At the same time, we also performed a split on one of the stronger hives. Splitting reduces mite pressure by interrupting brood cycles and spreading bees across colonies, while also allowing us to build up new hives from healthy stock. Like brood breaks, splits are a management tool that works with bee biology rather than against it.
During this period, we also reduced excess space in the hives and removed honey supers where needed. With fewer bees emerging during a brood pause, keeping the hive compact helps the bees defend against pests like small hive beetle and maintain control of their space.
None of these decisions are taken lightly, and none are permanent settings. Varroa management isn’t about finding a single perfect treatment — it’s about responding to conditions as they change: weather, colony strength, pest pressure, and season.
This is what “after varroa” looks like for us. Careful monitoring, measured responses, and choosing methods that balance effectiveness with bee welfare. It’s slower than quick chemical fixes, but it keeps the focus where it belongs — on healthy bees and resilient hives.
Varroa Wave Update:Adapting to Protect Our Bees
Varroa Wave Update
The arrival of varroa has changed beekeeping in Australia in ways many of us never expected. Like beekeepers across the country, we’ve been navigating an intense learning curve while trying to do what matters most—protecting our bees.
Over the past season, our region has experienced a significant varroa pressure wave. During this time, keeping colonies healthy and stable inside managed hives has been increasingly difficult. Bees that once thrived began to decline rapidly, even under close monitoring and intervention.
Treatments We Tried
Our first approach focused on softer and organic-style management options, combined with increased monitoring and hive management. These included:
Increased hive inspections and brood checks
Formic Acid
Oxalic acid vapour treatments
Brood breaks and hive strengthening strategies
Drone brood removal
While these methods can be effective under lower mite pressure, the intensity of the varroa wave meant they were not enough on their own. Despite best efforts, some colonies continued to decline faster than they could recover.
The Reality of the Varroa Wave
One of the hardest parts of this period was watching strong colonies struggle to maintain balance. Varroa doesn’t just weaken bees—it disrupts the entire colony system. During peak pressure, even well-managed hives can reach a tipping point quickly.
This was not a matter of effort or care, but biology and scale. The mite load simply outpaced the control methods available at the time organically.
Making the Switch to Synthetic Treatments
After careful consideration, consultation with other beekeepers, and reviewing available data, we made the decision to introduce registered synthetic treatments where appropriate.
This decision wasn’t taken lightly. However, our responsibility as beekeepers is to reduce suffering and prevent colony collapse. In this context, switching to synthetics was about saving bees, not abandoning values.
All treatments were applied according to label directions and biosecurity requirements, including appropriate honey supers management to ensure food safety and compliance.
What This Means Going Forward
Varroa has made it clear that flexibility and honesty are essential in modern beekeeping. No single approach fits every situation, and adapting management strategies is now part of responsible hive stewardship.
We remain committed to:
Bee health and welfare
Careful, minimal-use treatment strategies
Transparency with our customers and community
Ongoing learning and collaboration with other local beekeepers
Why We Share This
We believe customers deserve honesty about how their honey is produced—especially during challenging times. Beekeeping isn’t static, and neither are the pressures facing bees.
Sharing both the tough seasons and the successful ones is part of building trust and supporting a more resilient beekeeping future.
Varroa has changed the rules, but our commitment to our bees has not.