Platform for Professional Beekeeping Knowledge and Practice

Too often, the drawer is used solely to detect the presence, more or less abundant, of natural debris from dead varroa mites. Yet the drawer is a mirror of the life of the colony just above it… If the beekeeper takes the time to examine it regularly, the observed elements, waste, fragments, and other residues provide valuable information about colony dynamics and health. Examination of the drawer must always be correlated with the beekeeping calendar: the interpretation of a drawer inspected in summer will be very different from that of the same drawer opened at Christmas.

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The bee’s gut microbiota plays an important role in digestion, pollen utilization, and certain defenses against pathogens. This overview also shows that feeding is not merely a matter of providing sugars or proteins, and that natural pollen remains the biological standard. For beekeepers, the key message is therefore a word of caution: it is better to strengthen the foundation of the apiary and the quality of resources than to rely on additives that have not yet been sufficiently validated.

Ideally, high-quality honey has a water content not exceeding 17.5%. This allows the beekeeper to sell honey of high quality that does not ferment once it reaches the consumer.

For a long time, scientists believed that an organism’s genetic code alone determined its biological characteristics, its development, and its adaptation to its environment. Under the influence of various chemical or “external” factors, epigenetics can not only modify an organism’s appearance or behaviour, but can also transmit some of these modifications to subsequent generations…

Beekeeping in Switzerland is not regulated by a single law, but is subject to several areas of law, in particular animal disease law and—in the case of honey sales—food law, as well as other regulations such as animal welfare or building and environmental law. This article presents the core obligations under federal law in a practical and legally precise manner and clarifies questions regarding registration, documentation, disease outbreaks, and sales. A concluding checklist enables systematic self-assessment of legal compliance.

This article provides a structured synthesis of current scientific knowledge on the factors influencing honey quality. It is based exclusively on a recent literature review, examining honey composition, quality criteria, the impact of beekeeping and environmental practices, as well as the links between colony management, honey processing, and biological properties.

It sticks, it stains, and we sometimes curse it when inspecting our beehives; yet it gives beekeeping one of the fragrances that contribute to its charm and is also an increasingly sought-after product, representing a growing source of income for beekeepers. Although omnipresent in our hives, propolis is the result of a harvest and a processing effort that is anything but simple for the bee. A demanding but indispensable task; for this resinous substance, whose medicinal properties have been appreciated since Antiquity, fulfils multiple functions within the colony.

In Switzerland, ants are commonly found in or on beehives, but they are not generally considered a major pest of healthy colonies. This does not mean they are insignificant: they can exploit available resources, disrupt already weakened colonies, skew interpretations of natural varroa mite mortality, and play a role in the ecology of pathogens around the apiary.

When a beekeeper looks at the head of his bees and sees the two large, immobile compound eyes positioned on either side of the head, as well as the three ocelli located on the forehead or vertex, he inevitably asks himself the question: with these two large eyes, can my bees see the same things as I do, or do they perceive the world differently? And why are there additional eyes on the head?

Part 1

This article provides a structured introduction to queen rearing for beekeepers who want to become self-sufficient in their apiary. It presents, in an educational manner, the necessary equipment, rigorous planning of the rearing schedule, and a simple, proven method suitable for an annual series. The aim is to enable everyone to produce their own high-quality F1 queens, while drawing on the selection work carried out by the Breeding Instructors.

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This study shows that the royal jelly produced by nurse bees is not only used to feed the brood and the queen, but is also distributed to a significant portion of the adult bees. It thus sheds light on the central role of nurse bees in the redistribution of proteins within the colony. Pollen remains in the background as the primary resource, but it is the circulation of this glandular food that the study directly highlights.