Colonies resistant to Varroa can detect mites underneath cells and uncap them when the bee pupae is at ‘purple eye stage’, which disrupts the mites breeding cycle. Worker bees then either remove the brood or re-cap the cell, thereby saving the developing brood.

Where Have the bees gone?

Over the past few years, barely a day has gone by without someone asking us ‘where have all the bees gone!?’

Farmers and orchardists have noticed the disappearance of bees on their pastures or apple trees, gardeners have gazed at their flowers devoid of bee activity, bushwalkers have commented on the silence they encounter when walking past wildflowers in full bloom. What is the cause for this precipitous decline of honeybees? The answer is Varroa! 

The tiny parasitic mite that arrived in Australia a few years ago is having a huge impact on bees, and therefore beekeepers and food growers. It has certainly received a lot of media attention as beekeepers are going out of business and crops are failing without the free pollination provided by wild honeybees, sparking concerns about food security and honey purity (due to reports of beekeepers using significant amounts of synthetic chemicals to control the pest). 

To give our customers a more in depth understanding of the situation as it concerns our operation, we have outlined how we actively planned for the arrival of Varroa for over twenty years and detail our lived experience during the last four years dealing with the mite. Despite the losses we have suffered and the immense challenges ahead, we are happy to report that our natural beekeeping methods have given us hope for the future with our bees.

Varroa mites crawling over a Drone pupae. Drones (male bees) are a preference for Varroa as they have larger cells and a longer development cycle than female worker bees.	Hundreds of mites on the bottom board of one of our hives. These mites were shed by the bees after a ‘shook swarm’. During the first wave of Varroa, colonies were often infested with many thousands of mites.

Varroa mites crawling over a Drone pupae. Drones (male bees) are a preference for Varroa as they have larger cells and a longer development cycle than female worker bees.

Hundreds of mites on the bottom board of one of our hives. These mites were shed by the bees after a ‘shook swarm’. During the first wave of Varroa, colonies were often infested with many thousands of mites.

So...What is Varroa? 

Varroa destructor is a parasitic mite that affects honeybees worldwide. Since jumping host from Apis cerana (Eastern Honeybee) to Apis mellifera (Western Honeybee) in the mid 20th century, it has spread worldwide, causing disastrous losses of both managed and wild honeybee colonies. 

Varroa often carries and spreads viruses that cause further harm to colonies, creating a constantly shifting triad of host (honeybee), vector (mite) and virus interactions that complicate the situation for beekeepers and researchers. 

When other factors such as environmental changes (epigenetic) and beekeeper management techniques (cultural factors) are considered, the complex and fluid situation means that conventional breeding and treatment options are often ineffective in the long term, or lose their effectiveness when transferred to a different context.

Varroa Hits our Shores 

Varroa destructor was first detected near Newcastle (East Coast, New South Wales) in June 2022. Australia was the last continent to be free of Varroa, so it was a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ Varroa would one day reach our shores. The following years have seen the biggest upheaval in the apiculture sector in its almost 200 year history, with many beekeepers going out of business or leaving the industry. It’s important to acknowledge that this situation is not unique, in fact it has mirrored closely what other countries have gone through when Varroa first arrives - a calamitous loss of both managed and wild bee colonies during the ‘first wave’, leaving an industry in disarray. 

The initial Australian Government Biosecurity response to the Varroa incursion included heavy handed containment measures such as the destruction of entire apiaries in eradication zones but these actions ultimately failed to contain the spread (which was a result of legal and illegal beekeeper movement). The emergency biosecurity laws were eventually abandoned and replaced with a ‘transition to management’ strategy (ending in February 2026), placing the onus on the beekeeping industry to manage the pest. Varroa is now considered endemic in NSW.

Varroa was found in the Hawkesbury region (Western Sydney) in Autumn 2023 (again a result of beekeeper movement), beginning our personal journey living with the mite. The same beekeeper also moved colonies with mites over the Blue Mountains to the Central West region of NSW and Varroa was eventually detected in our Central Tablelands apiaries in 2025.

At the time of writing, Varroa is widespread in New South Wales, South East Queensland and parts of Victoria and South Australia, causing dramatic losses of both managed and wild honeybee colonies (anecdotal reports suggest 90-99% of wild honeybee colonies have perished in the last 3 years), prompting concerns about food security. Widespread crop failures were first identified in the apple orchards of Bilpin in the Blue Mountains in 2025/26 and other horticultural industries are facing a potential future shortfall of 290,000 hives for pollination requirements (Pollination Security Status Report 2026).
 
Recent studies show that a second incursion of a different strain of Varroa destructor has entered Australia with authorities yet to determine how and when it arrived. This strain is resistant to synthetic chemical treatments which has caused further alarm in the commercial beekeeping and pollination dependant horticultural industries as they rely heavily on chemical treatments to guarantee hives for pollination contracts. 

Populating the first Warré hive in Australia with a shook swarm on a late summer honey flow of Red Stringybark (Central Tablelands, NSW, 2009).	Establishing small, permanent apiary sites with local wild swarms has been a critical part of our Natural Beekeeping philosophy from the outset (Central Tablelands, NSW, 2010)

Populating the first Warré hive in Australia with a shook swarm, on a late summer honey flow of Red Stringybark (Central Tablelands, NSW, 2009)

Establishing small, permanent apiary sites with local wild swarms has been a critical part of our Natural Beekeeping philosophy from the outset (Central Tablelands, NSW, 2010)

Our planning for Varroa 

We started our bee business in 2006 when Varroa was acknowledged as the primary future threat to beekeeping in Australia. The Australian parliamentary inquiry into the honey bee industry in 2008 acknowledged ‘The potential for pests such as Varroa destructor to annihilate feral bee populations and decimate managed bees is real’ (More Than Honey: the future of the Australian honey bee and pollination industries).

Around the same time (2006-7) Varroa and associated viruses were strongly implicated in severe losses in the United States, prompting heavy media coverage and the coining of the term ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ (CCD). 

However, Varroa had decimated colonies around the world for decades prior to the CCD phenomenon. It seemed that a combination of existing stressors - intensive management, poor nutrition, environmental changes and chemical residues in the hives - were a deadly combination with Varroa mite and the viruses it spreads.

Our beekeeping business was established with the knowledge that Varroa would one day arrive in Australia (it had already appeared in New Zealand in 2000) and have an enormous and ongoing impact, with the problems appearing to get worse every year in some countries due to the combination of factors above. For example, last year saw 1.6 million colonies perish in the US as a result of Varroa and viruses despite it being endemic for decades. These losses account for approximately 62% of all commercially managed hives in the United States.
 
When founding our business, one of our key missions was to investigate ways to reduce stressors on the colonies, and in the process, develop a holistic approach to this seemingly impossible problem.

All of our bees are housed in Warré hives which mimic the natural home of honeybees, a tree hollow. In these bee-friendly hives, colonies are allowed to build natural comb as they do in the wild.	This photo shows a single comb from one of our Warré hives and depicts the classic configuration of a honeybee nest. A solid brood core is surrounded by a wreath of pollen (bee bread), sitting underneath a thermal dome of honey.

All of our bees are housed in Warré hives which mimic the natural home of honeybees, a tree hollow. In these bee-friendly hives, colonies are allowed to build natural comb as they do in the wild.

This photo shows a single comb from one of our Warré hives and depicts the classic configuration of a honeybee nest. A solid brood core is surrounded by a wreath of pollen (bee bread), sitting underneath a thermal dome of honey.

Natural Beekeeping - A Grassroots Revolution  

Although there was a lot of doom and gloom about bees and beekeeping in the early 2000’s, thankfully a new style of natural ‘bee-friendly’ beekeeping was emerging with a positive mindset around reframing our approach to keeping bees. 

Natural beekeeping represented a huge departure from the widely practised, conventional intensive approach as it shifted focus from prioritising honey yield to the health of the bees themselves. Alternative hive designs were adopted, such as The People’s Hive of Warré (often just called the Warré hive) as these hives suit the biological needs of the colony and when combined with sensitive bee-friendly management, reduce stress and allow the bees to develop resilience. 

While the natural beekeeping scene was blossoming, reports were emerging of wild bee colonies surviving the ravages of Varroa without human intervention in different regions around the world. These wild colonies became the focus of study for prominent bee biologists and formed the scientific foundation for the further development of natural beekeeping methodology.

We were early adopters and promoters of this style of apiculture, pioneering the approach here in Australia, teaching the first Natural Beekeeping courses (2009-2016) and designing, building and populating our unique version of the Warré hive for Australian conditions. We even travelled to the world beekeeping conference ‘Apimondia’ in France in 2009 to attend the first session on natural beekeeping and meet with other Warré and bee friendly apiarists. 

As Natural Beekeepers we establish small permanent apiaries and utilise locally adapted bees. We use Warré hives that closely mimic tree hollows, the natural home of honeybees. We allow swarming (natural reproduction) and natural comb building, colonies only ever winter on their own honey and we never feed sugar or pollen supplements. Treatment for Varroa, the most contentious issue, is not practised, instead, by creating genetic diversity and mimicking how bees live in the wild, we allow natural selection to occur in the apiaries - a practise that is now referred to as ‘Darwinian beekeeping’. 

Therefore, our approach to, and preparation for, Varroa is part of a wider Natural Beekeeping ethos which incorporates ethics and sustainability and is married with the latest apicultural science (to read more about how we adopted and pioneered Natural Beekeeping and the Warré hive in Australia, you can read a longer account here).

We were the first beekeepers in Australia to teach Natural Beekeeping with alternative hives, attracting between 100-150 students a year (2009-2016).	Apimondia in Montpellier, France where we attended the first conference session on Natural Beekeeping, organised by Nicola Bradbear from Bees for Development.

We were the first beekeepers in Australia to teach Natural Beekeeping with alternative hives, attracting between 100-150 students a year (2009-2016).

Apimondia in Montpellier, France where we attended the first conference session on Natural Beekeeping, organised by Nicola Bradbear from Bees for Development.

Our ‘Darwinian beekeeping’ experiment

Darwinian Beekeeping is a term used to describe an evolutionary approach to beekeeping that embraces Charles Darwin's principles of natural selection as its guiding philosophy and relies on mimicking the natural environment and living conditions that honeybees have evolved to thrive in. 

In that sense, many Natural Beekeepers already employ Darwinian Beekeeping as a central tenet of their beekeeping philosophy, although the natural selection component of the Darwinian method can also be practised by conventional beekeepers. 

A small number of apiarists from around the world had been pioneering this approach post-Varroa but it wasn’t until 2016 that the term ‘Darwinian Beekeeping’ was coined in the scientific paper ‘The Darwin Cure for Apiculture: Natural Selection and Managed Honeybee Health’ (Neumann and Blacquière) that interest in this approach among api-centric beekeepers and researchers coalesced. 

Other prominent and influential bee biologists such as Thomas Seeley have been advocating for Darwinian beekeeping and published articles and papers on the theory based on their work studying honeybees in the field for decades.

Needless to say, these papers and texts point towards re-evaluating our relationships with honeybees and our approach to beekeeping, a perspective that harmonises with the philosophy behind natural beekeeping.

Our Aims

Over the last 20 years we have established dozens of small, permanent apiaries in isolated locations using local wild swarms, in the hope of mimicking the evolutionary processes that are already occurring in the forest. The genetic diversity of wild bees in our apiaries, the style of wild type hives used (Warré) and the isolation are critical factors in any success we might have. 

Scientists have observed that varroa resistance or tolerance occurs over time in a regional context due to natural selection. Many factors are involved, however, allowing colonies to develop strategies to deal with Varroa without any chemical inputs helps to accelerate adaptation.


Our aim is to encourage and develop a community of self sustaining wild honeybees so that we can continue our livelihood and provide chemical-free wild honey to our customers, as we have been doing for 20 years. 

We set up bait hives based on the recommendations of Thomas Seeley, renowned bee biologist. These hives have been critical in capturing wild swarms of bees with resistant genetics in isolated areas.	Perfect brood on 100% natural comb from one our survivor colonies, an incredible result showing that some level of adaptation to Varroa via natural selection has occurred.

We set up bait hives based on the recommendations of Thomas Seeley, renowned bee biologist. These hives have been critical in capturing wild swarms of bees with resistant genetics in isolated areas.

Perfect brood on 100% natural comb from one our survivor colonies, an incredible result showing that some level of adaptation to Varroa via natural selection has occurred.

Our experiences

Varroa was first identified in the lower Blue Mountains in Winter 2023. It spread fairly quickly through the local environment (although it did take 2 years to spread to the upper Blue Mountains) and the first collapse event for beekeepers in the area occurred in Autumn 2024. 

Our own colonies appeared to recover strongly in spring and summer before an even more dramatic collapse event in Autumn 2025. By that stage, we had lost 88% of our colonies in the region. 

These numbers are anecdotally similar to what was experienced by other local beekeepers, even those who were treating. Field experiments conducted by Western Sydney University confirmed an almost complete collapse of colonies in the region. 

Thankfully conditions improved dramatically in spring 2025 with numerous large honey flows and excellent weather. We were able to catch survivor bees in isolated bait hives and also re-populate many of the apiaries from our own survivor stock. Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) was noted in all surviving colonies, with uncapping/re-capping identified.

These traits, present in most Varroa resistant populations around the world, are socially organised hygienic behaviours in which workers detect and remove Varroa infested brood. Recapping is a related behaviour where bees open, inspect and disrupt the Varroa and then re-seal the cell, thereby saving the bee brood.

Unfortunately a hot, humid summer and enormous pressure from both Small Hive Beetle (another serious pest of honeybees, present in the lower Blue Mountains since the early 2000’s) and Varroa caused another severe collapse event in Autumn 2026 - resulting in the loss of 60% of the colonies. 

Although heartbreaking to lose so many colonies again after rebuilding the apiaries, we were thrilled to have increased our survivor percentage (12% to 40%) and observed that the remaining colonies continued to thrive despite not having been treated for Varroa. At the time of writing (early Spring 2026), almost 100% of the survivors are still alive and many have been strong enough to swarm. 

Genetics from these colonies have been gifted to the local university so other experienced beekeepers can confirm that desirable Varroa tolerant/resistant traits exist in our bees.

A beautiful natural swarm in one of our apiaries. Swarming is critical for bee health as it reduces Varroa numbers and refreshes the genetics of the mother colony.	Small, isolated Warré apiary in the Blue Mountains wilderness. Our wild bees develop distinct traits suited to their specific region as they are not moved around to increase yield.

A beautiful natural swarm in one of our apiaries. Swarming is critical for bee health as it reduces Varroa numbers and refreshes the genetics of the mother colony.

Small, isolated Warré apiary in the Blue Mountains wilderness. Our wild bees develop distinct traits suited to their specific region as they are not moved around to increase yield.

The survivor colonies are not overly defensive and produce excellent stores of honey, dispelling two common myths about ‘survivor bees’, that they are aggressive and don’t produce commercial quantities of honey.

Our experience in the lower Blue Mountains apiaries over the last three years is informing our approach in our other apiaries in the upper Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands where Varroa has only been present for 12 to 18 months. So far the experience in these regions has been quite different due to a number of factors. However, as our approach has been to observe, interact and trial methods for at least 3 complete seasons before sharing any results, more information will be provided in the coming years. 

Diversity promotes stability in ecological systems. Allowing colonies to swarm (reproduce) naturally and raise and mate their own queens has resulted in some spectacular and diverse physical variations seen here in two wild queens and wild drones. They not only look different to any commercially bred bees we have seen, but display unique characteristics as a result of their deep genetics.

Diversity promotes stability in ecological systems. Allowing colonies to swarm (reproduce) naturally and raise and mate their own queens has resulted in some spectacular and diverse physical variations seen here in two wild queens and wild drones. They not only look different to any commercially bred bees we have seen, but display unique characteristics as a result of their deep genetics.

Some conclusions so far

• Losses have been higher than expected, a combination of a few terrible seasons (wet summers) and the high colony density of wild colonies in the area causing a ‘domino’ effect as mites transfer from dying colonies to living ones

• Genetic diversity seems to increase the total percentage of survivors. Our experience is similar to the famous Gotland Island study where 5% of 150 diverse colonies survived in the first 3 years compared to our 12% result. This is higher than the well known natural selection experiment by the Weaver family in the early 1990’s in the US, where less than 1% of their commercially bred colonies survived (9 out of 1000)

• Losses are lower (50%) and occur more slowly in cooler climates during the first phase. A long cold winter where the bees go broodless helps as mites do not breed in these conditions. Collapse events in warmer climates are more dramatic, particularly if Small Hive Beetle is present

• Varroa comes in ‘waves’ and the first few are particularly vicious for the bees, I call this the chaos phase. How many waves there are depends on many variables. Renowned treatment free beekeeper Kirk Webster claims that at least two collapse/recovery events are necessary to achieve any level of Varroa resistance 

• Small Hive Beetle (SHB) complicates the situation with Varroa as they work in partnership to destroy colonies. Varroa weakens colonies and SHB opportunistically destroys these colonies in late summer. In many ways, SHB is a more serious pest of honeybees in some areas than Varroa. Most regions of the world do not have both pests

• Natural beekeeping management techniques such as splitting (creating two colonies from one) and shook swarming are useful ways to reduce mite load during the first phase without compromising the wider goals of the Darwinian beekeeping experiment

• Varroa moves in the apiary between colonies via bee drift - apiary design and specific management techniques can be used to minimise drift and even use this phenomenon as an advantage to ‘catch’ mites

Why hasn’t Darwinian beekeeping been more widely adopted?

As noted above in our own experiment and documented elsewhere in the world, natural selection has shown that Apis mellifera can potentially evolve to adapt to Varroa mite.

Researchers have recently made pleas for Darwinian beekeeping to be more widely adopted, pointing out that modern breeding programs and chemical treatments have ultimately failed to achieve their goals (mites develop resistance to chemical treatments and the traits from breeding programs dedicated to Varroa tolerance/resistance lose their effectiveness over time or when the bees are placed in a different context). However, it remains the case that Darwinian beekeepers are in the strong minority (most likely a fraction of a percent of beekeepers).

The main reason for this is the extremely high colony losses in the initial years, which are economically disastrous for commercial beekeepers and practically impossible for hobby beekeepers. If all beekeepers lose the majority of their colonies, food growers will struggle to meet pollination requirements and this in turn may impact a regions food security. In our own experience, losing 88% of our colonies was economically challenging as it severely impacted our ability to supply honey to our customers. Establishing permanent apiaries across three different bio-regions certainly has helped to stagger the losses, but it remains a significant barrier for most beekeepers, even if they were interested in taking this approach. 

It is also practically difficult to achieve any success with this method at the immense scale required for modern commercial beekeeping, which over the last 50 years has become a critical component of industrial agriculture. A typical commercial beekeeping operation involving thousands of colonies constantly being moved on large trucks is unrecognisable from how bees live and adapt in the wild. 

However, the high losses have not deterred some beekeepers, who operate outside the industrial model, from taking a long term api-centric approach. We are implementing this approach so that we are able to continue to provide chemical free Wild Honey, Honeycomb and Beeswax to the public, produced from colonies naturally adapted to Varroa. 

Our methods are only a small part of the wider solution to the complex problems concerning industrial food production listed above. As part of our educational outreach we have advocated for bee-friendly practises in our landscapes, including massively increasing planting for bees, establishing habitat for native bees and other pollinators and incorporating organic, biodynamic, regenerative and permaculture practises into our agriculture so that we are able to produce food while supporting wild bees of all kinds. 

Although the last few years have been immensely challenging, seeing our survivor bees thriving has filled us with hope for the future.

Summary

Although we are only three years into our journey living with the mite, we can already see the benefits of our long term planning as our survivor bees are showing traits consistent with populations resistant to Varroa in other parts of the world. Our colonies are currently thriving despite the presence of Varroa and are even producing swarms and crops of honey.

Now that many of our apiaries have experienced multiple collapse and recovery events, we hope that overall losses gradually decline and some level of stability is attained in our honeybee population.

Selected Reading List

Scientific Papers	Author
The Darwin Cure for Apiculture? Natural selection and managed honeybee health Evolutionary Applications (2016)	Peter Neumann and Tjeerd Blacquière
Darwin’s solution: Honeybees survive mite vectors and viruses through natural selection  Trends in Parasitology (2026)	Peter Neumann et al
Rapid parallel evolution overcomes global honey bee parasite Nature (2018)	Melissa Oddie et al
Selection for resistance to Varroa destructor under commercial beekeeping conditions Journal of Apicultural Research (2016)	John Kefuss et al
How Honey Bee Colonies Survive in the Wild: Testing the Importance of Small Nests and Frequent Swarming PLoS One (2016)	J. Carter Loftus, Michael L. Smith, Thomas D. Seeley
Parallel evolution of Varroa resistance in honey bees: a common mechanism across continents? Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2021)	Isobel Grindrod, Stephen J. Martin
Natural Varroa mite-surviving Apis mellifera honeybee populations Apidologie (2016)	Barbara Locke
Norwegian honey bees surviving Varroa destructor mite infestations by means of natural selection PeerJ (2017)	Melissa Oddie, Bjørn Dahle, Peter Neumann
Survival of mite infested (Varroa destructor) honey bee colonies in a Nordic climate Apidologie (2006)	Ingemar Fries, Anton Imdorf, Peter Rosenkranz
Articles	Author
Darwinian Beekeeping:  An Evolutionary Approach to Apiculture	Thomas Seeley
Dealing with Varroa: natural selection or artificial selection?	David Heaf
Collapse and Recovery : The Gateway to Treatment Free Beekeeping	Kirk Webster
Feral Honey Bees (What the Arnot Forest Study Revealed About Survival)	The Apiary Project
Books	Author
The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild	Thomas Seeley
Treatment Free Beekeeping	David Heaf
The Honey Bee Solution to Varroa: A Practical Guide for Beekeepers	Steve Riley
Honeybee Democracy	Thomas Seeley
Buzz About Bees: Biology of a Superorganism	Jurgen Tautz
The Bee Friendly Beekeeper: A Sustainable Approach	David Heaf