you mean LEAST productive.

I have an 8-hive apiary myself (plus nuc splits that I sell off). Italians are great starter bees, but if you go natural and don't re-queen with known Italians you'll end up with hybrids anyway. The more aggressive the hive, the faster the production. This is actually the Benefit to "Africanized" bees.

Fun hobby, time consuming as hell for the first few years, and NOT cheap to get into. I figure a 5~6 year ROI while keeping all I want and only selling off the excess.

Honey bees are also some of the worst pollinators. Can't do things like Squash because the squash blossoms open and close before honey bees even get out of the hive for the day. The solitary bees that have evolved into specialists are 10x more effective... they are also the bees that are actually in danger (honey bees are exploding, you want to "save the bees", you don't want honey bees).

Anyway, best of luck with yours. Be wary the small hive beetles (swiffer-pads trap them well), mites (few options here) and wax moths. Maybe you're somewhere with a real winter and won't have to worry about these as much as I do in the hot and humid south.

Try an old queen after a swarm during the dirth.

Nasty. Pinch that bitch

varroa mites categorically did not come from the equipment.

they come from the bees themselves. and they are so prevalent that if you have honey bees, you also have varroa mites. it's just a matter of controlling their numbers with testing and treating. the common methods for testing is either an isopropyl alcohol wash, or a powdered sugar roll. alcohol wash will kill the bees you test but it's faster, powdered sugar roll works just as well. basically just count the mites and anything over a thresh hold means you need to treat your bees or watch them struggle/die.

I honestly don't know whether it's possible to sterilise frames and such...

I think what I'm going to do is "make my own next time"

wtf. no.

please do research. varroa mites are the most common pest affecting honeybees. if you have honeybees, you have varroa mites too. it's just a matter of controlling their numbers with testing and treating if necessary, but if you just don't do anything you won't have bees for very long.

That's what we hoped, too <sigh>

Our hive was in our chicken run, and looked real healthy on the run in to winter... The only thing that was different to them being very healthy in the summer was the addition of a syrup feeder we bought to help them over the winter.