I recently had Bianca Walker as a special guest on my monthly live Q&A to talk about varroa mite — what she’s seeing, what she’s learning, and why she thinks Australian bees might just surprise us all.
Bianca is a beekeeper and mentor at the Medicinal Honey Company out of Byron Shire in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. She manages around 70 Top Bar Hives and 50 Warré hives across multiple apiaries — so when she talks about what’s happening with varroa on the ground, she’s drawing from a lot of real-world experience. She’s been working alongside Peter Kyle, who she mentors in natural beekeeping, and between them they’ve been hands-on with varroa across all of those hives.
What struck me most about our conversation was the bigger picture Bianca kept coming back to. Yes, varroa is here. Yes, it’s causing losses. But rather than just focusing on how to kill mites, she kept steering things toward a question I think is far more important: how do we help bees help themselves?
It Starts with What They Eat
One of the first things Bianca said really stuck with me. As she put it, “You can think about bees and their immunity just like humans. We get support for our immune system from the food that we eat — it feeds our gut microbiome, which is connected to our immune system. It’s just the same for the bees.”
And when you think about it, the parallel is spot on. Bees rely on the quality of their food to support their immune system. Pollen is where they get their vitamins, minerals, fats, and protein. It feeds their gut microbiome, which is directly connected to their ability to fight off disease and stress. But not all pollen is equal. What matters is diversity, quality and quantity.
If your bees are surrounded by a national park or diverse suburban gardens, they’re probably doing well for forage. But if they’re in an area with limited variety, that’s where nutritional stress creeps in. And nutritional stress is where things start to unravel — especially now that varroa is in the picture.
Bianca made a really important point about eucalyptus pollen. Australian eucalyptus tends to be high in essential amino acids, which means the bees get more of the protein they need to build strong brood and live longer. Stronger bees with better internal defences are naturally better equipped to handle the impacts of varroa, pollution, chemicals, and so on.
Filling the Gaps in the Floral Calendar
When it comes to planting for bees, a few plants in your backyard aren’t going to transform their diet. But it all contributes, and if you’re going to plant, think about filling gaps.
The times of year when forage drops off — that’s when bees are most vulnerable. You can often spot it yourself: the queen retracts her laying, bees start consuming their honey stores, activity at the entrance drops. Those are signs that there’s not enough food coming in, and that’s exactly when disease and pests can take hold.
If you’ve got a small garden, Bianca’s advice was simple: “If you’ve got a really small backyard, why not go for the medicinal species? It’s the resins, pollens and nectar in medicinal species that actually have beneficial compounds.” For larger plantings, she highlighted the borage family, the mint family, and in Australia specifically, the Fabaceae and Myrtaceae families.
Australia’s Wild Advantage
This is where the conversation got really exciting for me.
There was a count done recently in a national park in New South Wales that found between 100 and 150 wild bee colonies per square kilometre. To put that in perspective, Europe has around 0.2 colonies per square kilometre of forest, and America has about 4 colonies per square km of forest.
Les Crowder on his visit here back in August 2025 made the point that this incredible density of wild colonies is exactly why we might see varroa-resistant bees develop faster here than anywhere else in the world. And I think he’s absolutely right.
It’s a numbers game. A percentage of those wild colonies will die — there’s no doubt about that. But when you’ve got those kinds of numbers, the survivors are significant. Those surviving colonies will swarm, recolonise tree hollows, and spread their resistant genetics quickly. Combine that with the high-quality native forage Australian bees have access to, and you’ve got conditions that are genuinely unique globally. As Bianca pointed out, “The eucalyptus generally has really high-quality pollen — they’ve got more of the protein they need to build strong baby bees and live longer, and have more internal defence mechanisms against the impacts of varroa.”
And the evidence is already showing up. There’s a commercial beekeeper in the ACT who has been watching wild colonies around Newcastle — where varroa first arrived about three years ago. He and a couple of mates identified colonies that survived, caught swarms from them, and are now breeding queens from that varroa-resistant stock.
When Les Crowder and Nathalie B visited Australia in August 2025, they predicted we’d start seeing resistance emerging within three to five years. Based on what we’re already seeing, they may have been spot on.
The Problem with Commercial Queens
This ties into something I feel strongly about, and it came up naturally in our conversation.
A lot of commercial queens have had their natural laying cycles bred out of them. They simply don’t know when to stop laying eggs. That’s one of the reasons why commercial beekeepers often need to kill their queens and replace them with younger ones every year or two, because they run low on eggs!
Buying queens in isn’t necessarily ideal, especially now. Replacing locally adapted queens for queens from another area can be detrimental. Bees that have adapted to the food resources and seasonal rhythms of their local area carry the genetic diversity of that area. They know when to build up and when to contract. That resilience has always mattered, but it matters even more with varroa in the mix.
If you’ve got wild bees or bees you’ve been keeping in one location for years, those genetics are valuable. They’ve evolved to suit that place. Bianca’s own apiaries are a great example — as she told me, “Our bees have adapted to this location without any new genetics for 20 years. So they’re significantly adapted to all the other existing pressures.” Hang onto that kind of resilience if you’ve got it.
Something’s Changing — Washboarding
Peter raised something interesting that both he and Bianca have been noticing: a dramatic increase in washboarding behaviour since varroa arrived.
If you haven’t seen it before, washboarding is when bees line up at the entrance of the hive — sometimes across the entire face of it — tongues out, moving rhythmically back and forth, almost like they’re cleaning the surface. Nobody really knows what this behaviour is about. It’s one of those bee behaviours that remains genuinely mysterious.
Peter said he’d seen it occasionally before, but since varroa arrived he’s been seeing it constantly — across his hives at home, at other apiaries, everywhere. Bianca described one time she saw the entire face of a Langstroth covered in bees, all facing the same direction with even spacing between them, all doing this same rhythmic movement. She’s also noticing some hives becoming more defensive.
I asked Bianca what she thought it meant, and I loved her answer: “I think it’s okay for us to not know everything. That’s the magic of beekeeping sometimes.”
I think it’s well worth noting and maybe one day we’ll understand if there’s any connection to this behaviour and bees dealing with pests and diseases.
Catching Swarms in the Varroa Era
We also talked about catching swarms, which is something a lot of natural beekeepers rely on for growing their apiaries.
Bianca’s current advice is to be cautious. As she put it, “I would probably avoid catching any swarms right now, ’cause it’s probably an absconding colony that have left under stress from varroa.” That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re carrying poor genetics, but it’s worth being aware of. (Bianca is talking about catching swarms at the end of this season, which is the end of summer here in Australia.)
If you’re wanting to catch swarms from favourable genetics, her suggestion is to put bait hives in or near dense, old-growth forest — away from commercial apiaries — where the bees are more likely to be adapted, wild stock. If you do catch a swarm, you’ve got a choice: treat it with oxalic acid to knock back mites, or leave it completely untouched and see if it survives on its own. (If you want to go deeper on how to manage swarms and work with bees naturally, that’s exactly the kind of thing we cover in the online course.)
One practical tip she shared: having space to place swarms away from your existing colonies is really valuable. Isolation reduces the risk of cross-contamination between hives. If you’ve got access to a friend’s property or a separate location, use it.
My Perspective: Letting Bees Find Their Way
I want to be clear about something — I’m not telling anyone not to treat their bees. If that’s the road you want to go down, then that’s your choice. You’re doing what you feel serves you and your bees.
Warning: there are biosecurity regulations and mandates in place so learn what they are and make a decision from there. Here is a link to the code of practice.
But I do keep coming back to a question that I think is worth sitting with: if we’re perpetuating bees that can’t naturally manage varroa, are we also breeding bees and mites that depend on our intervention?
This is something Les Crowder and Nathalie B have talked about extensively. Their observation from decades of experience is that when you stop treating, colonies without the genetic capacity to manage varroa will die. That’s hard. Nobody wants to watch that happen. But the colonies that do survive carry something incredibly valuable — genetics that can handle varroa without us. Those survivors swarm, multiply, and spread those resistant genes forward.
Now, I completely understand that commercial beekeepers can’t afford to wait three to five years for natural resistance to develop. Their livelihoods depend on keeping colonies alive now. But for those of us keeping bees in our backyards, we have a genuine choice: let our bees die out and wait for resistant stock to show up in your area, or treat.
Australia is in a unique position. We’ve got huge numbers of wild bee populations, world-class native forage, and we’re already seeing resistant colonies emerging just three years in. The conditions here are arguably better than anywhere else in the world for bees to find their own way through this.
This isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about creating the best possible conditions — quality habitat, diverse forage, minimal stress — and then trusting that bees have been solving problems for millions of years. As Bianca said during our conversation, “You just gotta work with nature. You’ve just gotta think like a bee. Zoom out, understand what’s actually at play here, and help the bees adapt.” We just need to give them the space to do it.
Wrapping Up
I’m really grateful to Bianca — and to Peter — for this conversation. Talking to beekeepers who are in the thick of it, managing real hives with real losses and real successes, is worth more than any amount of theory.
Nobody has all the answers with varroa yet. We’re all learning as we go. But if there’s one thing I took away from this conversation, it’s that the foundations of good beekeeping haven’t changed. Quality forage, minimal intervention, respect for the colony as a whole organism — these things matter now more than ever.
If you’re dealing with varroa in your hives, or you’re worried about it arriving, connect with other beekeepers in your area. Share what you’re learning. Plant for your bees. Protect the native habitat around you. And stay curious — because the bees are showing us something new every day.
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FAQs
Does the type of hive I use affect how my bees cope with varroa?
Top Bar Hives allow you to adjust the internal volume one bar at a time, which helps bees maintain strong coverage across the comb — and strong bee coverage is one of the best natural defences against both varroa and small hive beetle.
Top Bar Hives also let you manage honey without disturbing the brood, which means less stress on the colony and fewer broken propolis seals that can trigger pest pressure.
Are varroa-resistant bees already emerging in Australia?
There are encouraging signs. A commercial beekeeper in the ACT has already caught swarms from wild colonies near Newcastle that have survived three years with varroa, and he’s now breeding queens from that stock.
Bianca also mentioned beekeeper Tim Moultrie, who has colonies in the Blue Mountains that have survived a full season — which aligns with Les Crowder’s prediction that Australia could see resistance emerging within three to five years.
Why do Australian bees have an advantage against varroa compared to bees in other countries?
Australia has an extraordinarily high density of wild bee colonies — recent counts found 100 to 150 colonies per square kilometre in some national parks, compared to 0.2 in Europe and about four in the United States. More colonies mean more survivors, and those survivors spread resistant genetics quickly through swarming.
On top of that, Australian native flora — especially eucalyptus — provides exceptionally high-quality pollen rich in essential amino acids, which helps bees build stronger immune systems and better internal defences.
What should I plant to support my bees' immune system?
Focus on filling gaps in your local floral calendar — the times of year when forage drops off are when bees are most vulnerable to disease and pests. Medicinal plant species are particularly valuable because their resins, pollen, and nectar contain beneficial compounds.
For larger plantings, the borage family, mint family, Fabaceae, and Myrtaceae are all excellent choices — but conserving and advocating for native habitat remains the single most impactful thing you can do for bees.
Why might treating for varroa actually slow down natural resistance?
When we treat colonies that can’t manage varroa on their own, we keep those genetics in the population — and we’re also breeding mites alongside those bees. Colonies that would otherwise have died are instead passing on genes that lack natural varroa defence.
The alternative — as Les and Nathalie Crowder have observed globally — is that untreated colonies without resistance do die, but the survivors carry and spread the genetics needed for long-term resilience, which accelerates natural adaptation across the wider bee population. If you want to go deeper on the treatment-free approach, it’s something we cover extensively in the online course.
Actionable Tips
Plant Medicinal Species
Even a small backyard planting of medicinal herbs like borage, mint, or native Myrtaceae species gives your bees access to pollen and nectar with beneficial compounds that support their immune system.
Observe Before You Intervene
Watch for signs of nutritional stress: reduced laying, bees consuming honey stores, less entrance activity. These observations tell you more about your colony’s health than cracking the hive open.
Place New Colonies Away from Existing Hives
If you catch a swarm or start a new colony, isolate it from your established hives where possible. A friend’s property or separate location reduces cross-contamination risk.
Learn What Your Bees Are Telling You
Increased washboarding, defensive behaviour, changes in laying patterns — your bees are communicating. Keep notes and compare across seasons.
