The Apiarist in 2024 – The Apiarist

Synopsis: The once a year evaluation of the 12 months on The Apiarist. What, when, the place? What’s well-liked and what’s no longer … and what does this let us know concerning the state of beekeeping?

Advent

Some of the rewarding facets of maintaining bees in temperate northern climates are the converting seasons. The cool springs and the – all the time sudden – rapid growth of our colonies for the early nectar flows, the never-ending summer season days with the incessant droning accompaniment of bees foraging from break of day ’til nightfall, the cooler mornings, heather glide and impressive autumn colors, after which the lengthy, chilly, rainy, darkish winters.

As a beekeeper it makes for numerous paintings between April and September. But it surely’s what I’d imagine ‘fair’ paintings; professional, bodily arduous, intellectually difficult, rewarding.

Completed effectively, deeply rewarding.

With the honey safely saved, the colonies fed, miticides carried out and roofs strapped down, it leaves a number of months to concentrate on different priorities. Now’s time for friends and family, a chance to tick off some issues from that long-ignored ‘To-Do’ checklist, or to delight in different leisure pursuits and pursuits.

However … the beekeeping blogger will get no such smash.

A Friday cut-off date in overdue December is essentially the similar as one in mid-June.

Time and tide waits for no guy.

Beekeeping at the around the world internet is a full-time job.

On the other hand, the good a part of the around the world internet is that it’s geographically agnostic.

You’ll be “in while you’re out”.

I will be able to write anyplace and will time table posts anytime. I may have written this evaluation of 2024 on a depressing, gray iciness’s day, huddled in a blanket whilst suffering sniffily with a respiration tract an infection.

On the other hand, it will had been penned in February between daiquiris and kite browsing periods on Fuvahmulah sea coast within the Maldives … the place the temperature used to be 29°C and the tides are insignificant.

According to the content material of the put up I’ll help you wager which it used to be.

A evaluation of the 2024 season

I’ve no longer were given a lot more so as to add to the put up I made long ago in August bemoaning explaining the woeful summer season honey crop.

As well as, possibly greater than in recent times, there seems to had been extra geographic variation this season.

I regularly ask organisers right through the setup for my talks ‘How did the season pass?’

Some seem to have had a bonanza 12 months, others a soggy crisis.

If beekeeping is anything else, it’s native.

My disappointing summer season honey yield used to be bookended by way of a very good spring crop – the most efficient I’ve had since 2015 each in general weight and weight/hive – and a beautiful decent heather crop.

Beautiful decent this is for bees saved in a area this is at very best (in my opinion) borderline for heather honey manufacturing. I’ve nonetheless to extract all of the heather honey, nevertheless it’s transparent I were given extra heather than blossom, all of which has already been offered.

Queen rearing used to be moderately a hit. A minimum of, it used to be for the queens that were given out and mated prior to the heavens opened in overdue June. The 2 to 3 week deluge that adopted put an finish to each honey bee hanky-panky and nectar collecting.

Make hay whilst the solar shines.

Errors have been made, courses have been learnt.

A number of for the n^th time.

I had some amusing attempting new (to me) queen rearing strategies. Some labored, some will paintings higher now I’ve reviewed what went improper.

I dabbled usefully with enforced supersedure – with some luck – and can indubitably be investigating this extra in long run seasons.

After all, mite ranges had been persistently low and I’m feeling very sure concerning the well being of colonies I’m overwintering.

Deliver it on!

Best of the posts

OK, sufficient beekeeping fact … what concerning the final 93% of my ‘beekeeping’ 12 months?

What’s been learn on The Apiarist this 12 months? Which posts had been well-liked? What matter has generated probably the most feedback?

And what’s been omitted, unloved and unread, left languishing in a dusty virtual nook?

That is in most cases the closing put up of the season. On the other hand, since I wish to write about one thing else subsequent week, this handiest covers the 50 posts that experience already seemed this 12 months.

The ones 50 posts already general over 163,000 phrases, a mean of greater than 100 phrases/put up over the, already prolix, ~3100 phrases/put up in 2022.

Remark numbers also are up on 2022 and, since no longer they all are telling me of the issues I were given improper within the posts, I welcome the dialogue and am thankful.

I vastly respect the loads of readers who’ve made positive, insightful, knowledgeable and engaging feedback at the subjects I’ve coated. Some remark as soon as and disappear perpetually. Others are common participants. All are welcome and valued.

After all, in spite of the ephemeral nature of running a blog, a evaluation of probably the most learn posts/subjects of this 12 months has additionally to imagine posts that have been written in earlier seasons.

Actually, 4 of the highest 10 posts have been written 4-5 years in the past. Those are subjects that experience stood the take a look at of time and might be thought to be the closing phrase at the topic.

Or possibly they’re simply the ultimate I made at the matter.

No longer the similar factor in any respect.

On the other hand, possibly those posts are so essentially improper that everybody reads them to easily have a just right snort.

I will be able to’t inform from the stats.

In opposite order …

Like any just right award ceremonies I’ll stay you looking forward to the highest scores.

Ooh, the suspense!

There are successfully two overlapping lists; probably the most learn posts of 2023 and probably the most learn posts from 2023.

I’m handiest going to imagine the ‘best 10’ of both, and six of the posts seem on each lists anyway. I’ll subsequently in brief care for positions 10, 9, 8 and seven of posts made in 2023 which did not get into the highest 10 ‘general’ checklist. Those are successfully the ‘additionally rans’.

The additionally rans

Website and odor (2023): the place must bait hives be sited to draw swarms from your personal apiaries? The odor a part of the badly punned name referred to experiments I made portray the interior of bait hives with a wax/propolis combine. This used to be disappointingly unsuccessful, although ‘one or two empty bait hives does no longer a failure make’ , a minimum of statistically talking.

Dancing at nighttime (2023): a science-rich research of the complexity and inherent mistakes of the waggle dance … or an instance of me ‘considering aloud’ right through a chilly, overdue spring, desperately hoping issues would select up for the OSR. It did. Strangely well-liked taking into consideration the content material. In all probability readers idea it used to be a prequel to the following put up?

Adultery (2023): disappointingly boring content material taking into consideration the lurid name. A dialogue of the hot EU evaluation of ‘pretend honey’. This matter frequently will get aired on social media, in most cases by way of beekeepers who haven’t learn the EU file (or my put up). There used to be a contemporary ‘Breakfast Directives’ modification vote within the Ecu Parliament in this matter. EU legislation will trade and (Quelle marvel) the United Kingdom honey packers don’t love it. I’ll be writing extra about QR codes and the provenance of honey subsequent 12 months. 

Supersedure (2023): one of the crucial fascinating and least understood facets of queen bee biology. A minimum of to me and by way of me. I’m positive any individual understands why the queens don’t struggle … extra in this subsequent 12 months.

The highest 10 (no longer at the podium)

10 Without equal hive stand? (2022): clickbait titles do paintings. That is not more the ‘final’ hive stand than a stack of previous tyres. On the other hand, it does paintings effectively. Right here’s my “Best Tip for ’24” … don’t learn any beekeeping posts titled ‘The ten very best [anything]’. Maximum will elevate promoting, had been written by way of ChatGPT and shall be nonsense. That’s and, no longer or.

9 Coordinated Varroa keep an eye on (2023): regularly really useful, nearly by no means carried out. Pass on, give it a check out. We did the science so beekeepers may have one thing else to disagree about.

8 Swarm keep an eye on – it’s no longer rocket science (2023): poorly taught in maximum beekeeping iciness classes in all places. An outline of the rules and apply.

7 In a position, stable, GO! (2023): some early season musings at the first inspections of the season, brace comb and queen ‘problems’.

6 Excellent occasions forward (2023): a three,017 phrase caution revealed in mid-February not to open hives too early. Additionally a dialogue and a few (swanky deficient) animated graphics illustrating facets of phenology, one thing I intend to go back to subsequent 12 months.

5 The best way to get started beekeeping (2023): a put up written with the purpose of decreasing the ‘churn’ of latest beekeepers who surrender inside of 12-18 months. Did it paintings?

4 The most efficient laid plans (2023): every other unusually well-liked put up specializing in the fascinating, albeit definitely area of interest, matter of ambient temperatures and OSR nectar yield. You lot want to get out extra.

Bronze

3 Demaree swarm keep an eye on (2019): written – as identified to me not too long ago – as carried out reactively no longer proactively. So more than likely no longer the Demaree means in any respect. On the other hand, whether or not correct or improper, it stays unpopular with me as a result of the massive choice of drones that get caught on the excluder. This put up used to be positioned 4^th closing 12 months.

Silver

2 Mad honey (2018): surreal, completely surreal. A piece of writing about hallucinogenic honey (see what I did there?). In large part beside the point to UK beekeepers; if I will be able to’t make it with the acres of rhododendron I’ve were given at the west coast, then no-one can.

Learn – with sadness – by way of ~40 stoners an afternoon, on a daily basis. Additionally positioned 2^nd closing 12 months … however learn extra regularly this 12 months .

Gold

1 Queen cells … don’t panic! (2018): topping the tables for the 4^th 12 months working. I believe the ongoing approval for this put up tells me extra concerning the issues beekeepers face, probably most commonly (a minimum of I’m hoping most commonly) new beekeepers, than anything. I believe it additionally tells me it must be in the back of a paywall for subsequent 12 months. This put up by myself attracted ~3% of all visitors to the website online in 2024.

What can I conclude from this checklist?

No longer a lot truly. The readership of this website online has a variety of beekeeping enjoy – from outright newcomers to these with a long time of ‘hive time’. The subjects I duvet span duvet the whole lot from hardcore science, in large part impenetrable to readers who aren’t rocket scientists , to asinine ramblings reputedly written by way of any individual who has fed on a jar of mad honey.

Some posts enchantment to newcomers, some to skilled beekeepers … and it seems that some to just about no person. Of the 561 posts I’ve written over the past decade, one – paradoxically the identical put up to this one again in 2021 – used to be handiest learn 19 occasions.

I don’t have a target market. Writing solely for newcomers would finally end up getting boring and repetitive. For me and them. There’s a just right index and I try to refer again to related earlier posts somewhat than simply retyping stuff.

In a similar fashion, the issue with simply overlaying the ‘bleeding edge’ of medical subjects related to beekeeping is they’re every so often no longer related to sensible beekeeping.

And, it therefore seems, they’re every so often no longer even proper.

So, it’ll stay as a potpourri … with the recklessly formidable purpose of maintaining all the folks glad probably the most time.

Readers, subscribers, hackers and bots

Reader numbers are up 20% on 2022 however they’re every studying much less as web page perspectives have handiest higher by way of about 13%.

Subscriber numbers – the ones receiving an electronic mail notification of latest posts – also are up considerably, however WordPress intentionally obfuscates this knowledge so it’s time-consuming to get any significant figures out.

Who cares? I do, however extra on that subsequent week.

What’s additionally up are the choice of ‘unhealthy actors’ intent on both hacking the website online, promoting at the website online (usually botox therapies, asian brides or pretend sun shades) or ‘scalping’ the content material. Those are manifest as 1000’s of failed login makes an attempt, loads of unsolicited mail feedback and dozens of ChatGPT-bot visits.

The ones figures are consistent with day.

Lately – a quiet Sunday – there were 342 makes an attempt to put up content material, 129 unsolicited mail feedback, 663 failed logins, over 2,500 undesirable bot visits and a few dozen ChatGPT visits .

Bona fide readers (a minimum of so far as I will be able to inform) both arrive right here from the e-mail notification I ship pronouncing new posts, by way of Google (unsurprisingly the bulk) or every other seek engine, or from Fb, Pinterest or Twitter X.

Curiously, although no longer sudden taking into consideration contemporary problems, X generates dwindling quantities of visitors (a few thousand visits a 12 months). Increasingly more X is a poisonous cesspool of conspiracy theories and incorrect information. This web site tries to keep away from the previous and would favor to not be related to the latter. It’s more than likely not value pronouncing new posts on X, or for that subject on Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, Threadz or Fact Social.

Supporters

Writing takes time.

Writing 163,000 phrases takes a very long time, although it’s in damaged down into 3,000 phrase chunks.

Weekly posts would possibly get started as a kernel of an concept months previously. Not like my faculty and school dissertations I regularly do numerous studying across the matter prior to beginning to write.

Posts seem each and every Friday and are hardly began greater than every week prior to the newsletter date.

Topicality is helping stay the content material related.

Or a minimum of much less beside the point.

In the summertime, with lengthy days spent beekeeping (or hillwalking, canoeing, kite browsing and consuming daiquiris), posts are in most cases written after darkish … and in midsummer this implies between 11 pm and three am.

After all, in iciness they’re all the time written at nighttime. Daybreak as of late used to be simply prior to 9 am and the solar set effectively prior to 4 pm.

I’m subsequently thankful to the supporters who’ve Purchased me a Espresso to gas those writing marathons. Those have helped stave off my slumping insensible over the keyboard, dribbling and mumbling incoherently . Any price range no longer transformed into milligrams of caffeine are used to offset the device and server prices (see beneath) had to produce and ship the website online.

You’ll make stronger the website online and my writing the usage of the buttons within the right-hand margin, or by way of pointing your telephone at this suave QR code which fits similarly to my labelling machine for honey provenance.

I’m specifically thankful to these supporters who’ve made repeated or common donations. You realize who you might be. This website online more than likely would no longer exist with out your lend a hand.

Thanks.

Out of sight, out of thoughts

Posts are written in Markdown the usage of Obsidian, referenced the place wanted with Zotero, illustrated the usage of pictures controlled and processed in Lightroom or Photoshop, with graphics ready in Keynote or Inkscape … or the usage of my craptastic™ hand-drawn scribblings.

The website online is a self-managed WordPress set up working on an AWS server in the back of a Cloudflare firewall and CDN. The place wanted – and imagine me, it’s wanted – automation (of a kind) is accomplished the usage of my badly written customized perl scripts.

If none of that closing paragraph method anything else to then you I’m in just right corporate. It supposed not anything to me prior to I began all this.

If there are any gaps within the seamless transition from a fascinating germ of an concept to a elegant Friday afternoon put up, it’s because of criss-crossed lashings of duct tape …

… and quite a bit of espresso.

Thanks once more.

Satisfied Christmas

Any readers who’ve were given this a long way are both:

• looking forward to their Christmas visitors (family and friends … every so often even one and the similar factor) to reach so they’ve an excuse to open the sherry or pass to the pub
• desperately warding off the teetering pile of dishes that they must be washing or drying, whilst as a substitute surfing the internet and consuming a 3rd – or is it fourth? – mince pie, or
• playing their 2d daiquiri in this beautiful overdue February afternoon whilst catching up with some beekeeping studying from the closing 12 months or so

If that closing one applies to you, have a look alongside the sea coast … I’m at the lounger over by way of the palm timber. Sure, that’s me, dressed in a floppy hat and a hideous pair of board shorts. My incognito ‘bee blogger’ outfit.

Don’t interrupt me. I’m writing my “end-of-the-year from the end-of-the-beach” put up for subsequent December. I’m suffering, no longer as a result of I’m in need of issues to write down about (it’s a put up at the obvious rarity of the solitary bee Megachile laticeps within the central atolls of the Maldives; see Biella et al., 2022), however for the reason that solar is so brilliant I will be able to slightly see the display screen.

Or possibly it’s the daiquiris?

This beekeeping running a blog malarky is more difficult than it seems to be.

Anywhere you might be this vacation season – at house, with circle of relatives, at paintings and even at the sea coast – take it simple, don’t meddle unnecessarily together with your bees, construct some frames and plan for the season forward.

Satisfied Christmas!

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Notes

As an apart, Obsidian has been an entire revelation as a note-taking and writing app, changing the more-than-competent Ulysses. Obsidian is strong, well-supported, open supply and runs on any platform – Mac, Linux, Home windows, Android, the toaster and so on. For fundamental utilization, not like lots of the different issues discussed above, it’s ‘unfastened as in beer’ however there are per 30 days charges for sync and publishing. Should you write anything else – buying groceries lists or novels – it may well be value a glance.

References

Biella, P., Ssymank, A., Galimberti, A., Galli, P., Perlík, M., Ramazzotti, F., et al. (2022) Updating the checklist of flower-visiting bees, hoverflies and wasps within the central atolls of Maldives, with notes on land-use results. Biodiversity Knowledge Magazine 10: e85107 https://bdj.pensoft.web/article/85107/.