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