Beekeeping Today Podcast

In this episode, we talk with Ben and Kimberly Carpenter of Hungry Bear Farms, current owners of Ross Rounds Honey Supers and Sundance Pollen Traps. Ross Rounds Honey Supers were created by Tom Ross several years ago, then the business was purchased by Lloyd Spears, who then developed the Sundance Pollen trap to increase his business. In 2017 he sold his business to Ben and Kimberly Carpenter, who run Hungry Bee Farms in New England as commercial honey producers, a bee supply business and now these very unique pieces of beekeeping equipment. Ben and Kim do an excellent job in describing what a Ross Round Super is, and better, how to assemble, manage, harvest, and market Ross Rounds Comb Honey. Comb honey doesn't have the built-in marketing advantage that a one-pound jar of local honey does, so initially marketing can be a challenge. Kim has developed several ways of introducing new customers to comb honey that you will want to take advantage of. Samples at farm markets, meat and cheese plates, and more will get folks introduced to these. And, she has several ways to use unfilled combs that will make you money. Ben discusses colony management to produce Ross Rounds, what time of year, honey flows, population requirements and more to make a good product. Not difficult, but you'll need to know the timing of honey flows in your area so you have the right population at the right time. Lloyd Spear developed the Sundance Pollen Trap and Ben and Kimberly have perfected the techniques for collecting and marketing the pollen you collect with these. Days on, days off, and more are important, but not critical because these traps are designed to not collect 100% of the pollen that comes back to the hive. Kimberly does a lot of collection and will check them at least once, often twice a day, to make sure the pollen collected stays fresh. Once collected, it is usually very clean, but is inspected, then frozen in open containers until sold. This dehydrates the pollen so it will not mold. Once you have a ready supply, marketing is easy to folks who claim it helps local allergies, athletes who look for the protein, and queen producers who use it raising queens. Both of these devices can easily pay for themselves the first year you have them, so they are worth looking at as an added dimension to your business. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Ross Rounds - https://rossrounds.com Hungry Bear Farms - http://www.hungrybearfarms.com Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow to Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode we talk with Dr. Gene Kritsky, who has authored or edited 10 books and over 250 papers on subjects as diverse as entomology, Egyptology, evolution, history of science, dinosaur biology, insect poetry and insect mythology. The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt is one of his Egyptology stories in a book, and Periodical Cicadas: The Brood X Edition was released this spring, just before Brood X began singing their mating songs (at up to 90 decibels at their peak) in the Eastern US this spring. He is the Dean, and a Professor in the department of Behavioral and Natural Sciences in Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. In this incredible interview, he weaves all of these things together and ties them all into his love of bees and beekeeping. We start with a discussion of the Brood X cicadas this spring, and his new book about them, but wander in and through the history of developing the timing of all of the Broods of cicadas that exist, how are they related, and do they harm bees in anyway. Long ago he read Eva Crane's book on the history of hives, and that started his exploration of, and a book about, In Search of the Perfect Hive. As a Fulbright Scholar, he traveled to Egypt to teach entomology, and there he really got involved in their beekeeping styles, government's role and organization. He relates stories on Egypt's history of bees and beekeeping, hive styles, and yes, there has been honey found in Pyramids that is thousands of years old that is still edible. His definition of "beekeeping" is the intentional prevision of an artificial container in which bees can produce. Have you ever thought you would use the words "Insects" and "Mythology" in the same sentence? Gene does. He knows museums and can direct you to the sections that cover all of these subjects. Dr. Gene Kritsky is one of the most interesting stories we've told. Come along for the ride. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Gene Kritsky Website - http://genekritsky.com/ Cicada Safari - Cicadasafari.org Gene's Wife's Bee Inspired Jewelry - Silverspotstudio.com At The Hive Entrance, H. Storch - https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/products/storch-at-the-hive-entrance/ Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

We continue this week exploring the work of the Honey Bee Health Coalition we started on the March 29th, Season 3, Episode 44, with Matt Mulica. The HBHC has several goals, tasks and programs it is pursuing and the one we are exploring today, with Dr. Dewey Caron, Representing the Western Apiculture Society and Mary Reed, Texas Apiary Inspector and Secretary to the HBHC organization. Together they represent the Pests and Predators arm of the Hive Management group. Of course, Varroa, and the viruses they transmit, are at the top of the list, and Dewey and Mary have several suggestions to help beekeepers handle this pest. First, certainly, is sampling for mites often enough, and then acting on the results of the sample just taken. Another aspect of the HBHC actions is a concerted effort, working with the USDA's Animal, Plant, Health Inspection Service, APHIS, looking for pests that are not yet in the US, and to make sure they find them before they become established. They are drawing up the fundamentals for this right now so they know what to look for, and what to do when and if they do find any of these invasive pests, before it's too late. Perhaps what's really an eye opener for beekeepers, is what climate change is doing, and going to do to bees and beekeeping and the plants both need to stay in business. They are looking at honey bee nutrition and climate change, and what will extreme weather events do to how, and where bees can be kept. They are also looking into what changes can we expect in the environment because of all this. Dr. Dewey Caron, and Mary Reed and the Honey Bee Health Coalition. Don't miss this one. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Honey Bee Health Coalition - https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Dr. Geoffrey Williams and Dr. Nathalie Steinhauer join us in this episode to discuss the just released survey of colony losses between April 1, 2020 and April 1, 2021 conducted by the Bee Informed Partnership, BIP. The numbers are not getting better after 15 years. In fact, beekeepers across the United States lost 45.5% of their managed honey bee colonies last year. The survey asks beekeeping operations of all sizes to track the survival or turnover rates of their honey bee colonies. This year, 3,347 beekeepers managing 192,384 colonies across the country responded to the survey, representing about 7% of the nation's estimated 2.71 million managed colonies. This effort helps to keep a finger on the pulse of what is going on with beekeepers to identify why high losses are persisting. These losses mark the second highest loss rate the survey has recorded since it began in 2006 (6.1 percentage points higher than the average annual loss rate of 39.4%). The survey results highlight the continuing high rates of honey bee colony turnover. The high loss rate was driven by both elevated summer and winter losses this year, with no clear progression toward improvement for beekeepers and their colonies. BIP hopes to use the survey results to better understand how colony losses are experienced by beekeepers, and what can be done to reduce losses in future seasons. This past year, winter losses were reported at 32.2%, which is 9.6 percentage points higher than last year and 3.9 points higher than the survey average. Summer losses were some of the highest ever reported again this year at 31.1%, which is 0.9 percentage points lower than last year, but 8.6 points higher than the survey average. Join us as we discuss the preliminary findings of this latest BIP survey! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Informed Partnership - https://beeinformed.org 2020-2021 Prelim Survey Online Results - https://beeinformed.org/2021/06/21/united-states-honey-bee-colony-losses-2020-2021-preliminary-results/ 2020-2021 Prelim Survey Paper - https://beeinformed.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/BIP_2020_21_Losses_Abstract_2021.06.14_FINAL_R1.pdf Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Returning to join us in this episode is Tammy Horn Potter. (She originally visited us back in Season 2!) Not only is Tammy the State Apiary Inspector for Kentucky, but she is also an accomplished author. She has just finished her fourth book entitled, "Work I Knew I Must. Reminiscence of Forty-One Years of Factory Life." Jane Cole worked for the A. I. Root Company for 41 years, starting when A.I. Root was making jewelry in his factory on the Town Square, in Medina, Ohio. She worked through the construction of the new factory built on the Country Fair Grounds on the edge of town to manufacture beekeeping equipment, and the many, many factory expansions they made after that. During those 41 years she did almost every job that could be done in a factory that sawed wood, made smokers, extractors, bottled honey, printed a magazine and books, and took orders and filled orders and delivered orders to customers, the railroad and the post office. She wrote about building the new factory, child labor, factory dangers (and there were many), factory politics, noon prayers, the hundreds of people she worked with over the years, the company sponsored picnics, the men, women and children she was in charge of, and the people she worked with, and for. When A. I. Root retired, he, too, wrote an autobiography, about running the factory that Jane Cole worked in. What Tammy has done is take Jane Cole's work and stand it side by side with A. I. Root's work to give you a very unique look at factory life, from the perspective of an employee, and her employer. Many of the events Jane found worthy of writing about were also mentioned by Root in his work. Because neither was aware of the other's work, the telling of these events is about as straight forward from each as you can imagine. The story Tammy as sewn together tells much about early beekeeping history and equipment, the evolution of factory equipment and science, about working as a single woman in what is mostly a man's world, and about life in a small town in northeast Ohio at the turn of the century. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: "Work I Knew I Must" - https://store.beeculture.com/books/ Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Calling all craft food and drink makers! Entry period for the 12th annual Good Food Awards is open now thru June 30th, and we're accepting entries from 18 different categories of food and drink, including honey. Entries are $78 a piece to help cover logistics, and entrants can add on the option to receive judge feedback from the Blind Tasting in August for $15. Head over to goodfoodfdn.org for all the details and use code BEEKEEPING at checkout for $10 off. We look forward to seeing your entries soon! Click here for Submission Information Click here for Rules & Regulations Click here for Honey Category details ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

What better way to start Pollinator Week than to get the latest info on everything Pollinator from Kelly Rourke, Executive Director of Pollinator Partnership, and Miles Dakin, the Coordinator of Pollinator Partnership's Bee Friendly Farming program. This week's program also marks the beginning or Beekeeping Today Podcast's FOURTH year! Our first program way back then was with members of the Pollinator Partnership organization and we're at it again with them. It's been a good relationship each year. Kelly shares a lot of what this group is doing during the 15th year of Pollinator Week. She discusses the new poster, this year's t-shirt, how to get your Governor to produce a Proclamation Supporting Pollinator Week in your state, and this year's virtual congressional briefings from the group on the state of protecting pollinators, plus the announcements sent to the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Administrator of EPA. They are also sponsoring a cookbook, an announcement page on their web page that viewers can post their local events on and several FB Live Events this week. Miles discusses his role with the Bee Friendly Farming program, including what it takes to get certified as a BFF, how many BFF farms there are, and being a BFF Supporter that beekeepers can take advantage of. All of this for supporting native and honey bees, but all are also very good marketing tools for growers and sellers. The Poster this year is focused on BFF, with native plants, bees, flies, beetles and the habitat they need, including continuous blooms, pesticide responsibility and clean water. Solar arrays are becoming pollinator friendly too, and supporting pollinator friendly planting under them is good for everybody, and a lot better to look at. Learn more and better ways to help support pollinators with the Pollinator Partnership Group Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Pollinator Partnership - https://www.pollinator.org Bee Better Farming - https://www.pollinator.org/bff P2 2021 Pollinator Poster - https://www.pollinator.org/shop/posters Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Calling all craft food and drink makers! Entry period for the 12th annual Good Food Awards is open now thru June 30th, and we're accepting entries from 18 different categories of food and drink, including honey. Entries are $78 a piece to help cover logistics, and entrants can add on the option to receive judge feedback from the Blind Tasting in August for $15. Head over to goodfoodfdn.org for all the details and use code BEEKEEPING at checkout for $10 off. We look forward to seeing your entries soon! Click here for Submission Information Click here for Rules & Regulations Click here for Honey Category details ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Charlotte Ekker Wiggins, author of two books about beekeeping and beekeepers, is our guest today. Her first book, Bee Club Basics, Or How To Start A Bee Club, dealt with managing teachers mentors, students, classes and the basics of organizing a start-up beekeeping organization. Her second book, just recently released is A Beekeeper's Diary. Self Guide To Keeping Bees. [Late breaking news! "A Beekeeper's Diary" just won a Bronze Award in the Home & Garden Category from the Independent Publisher Book Awards! Congratulations Charlotte!] This is a beginner's book, certainly. But it is different than any you have looked at in the past. When confronted with a task for the first time, she will offer several perspectives on how to accomplish it. Which is the right one, well, IT DEPENDS, doesn't it? So, the reader finds where she fits in on this and accomplishes the task the best way for her. There are almost always several correct answers. She also uses checklists a lot. These are always handy and with them she often uses blank pages so you can write your own list, or make notes on something, or make a question for later. Why do you want to keep bees, anyway? A good question right at the beginning. And start with Langstroth equipment because there is so much written about it, and so much information on it. You can graduate to other equipment when you get the basic biology stuff behind you. There are a host of "Good To Know" tips, which cover whatever topic the chapter is covering but from a somewhat different perspective. For instance, Buying used equipment – good or bad, and why? Check out both of Charlotte's books. They are different enough from what you have that it will be worth your time. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Charlotte's Website - http://www.charlotteekkerwiggins.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Calling all craft food and drink makers! Entry period for the 12th annual Good Food Awards is open now thru June 30th, and we're accepting entries from 18 different categories of food and drink, including honey. Entries are $78 a piece to help cover logistics, and entrants can add on the option to receive judge feedback from the Blind Tasting in August for $15. Head over to goodfoodfdn.org for all the details and use code BEEKEEPING at checkout for $10 off. We look forward to seeing your entries soon! Click here for Submission Information Click here for Rules & Regulations Click here for Honey Category details ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode, we talk with Margaret Lombard (CEO) and Catherine Barry (Dir. of Marketing) from the National Honey Board. The NHB is an organization designed with the express purpose of marketing honey. There are 10 Board Members, consisting of Honey Packers, Honey Importers, beekeepers and Sioux Honey who handle more than 250,000 pounds of honey/year and who pay a penny and a half/per pound for every pound over that amount. They have USDA Oversight, and are involved in almost anything and everything honey. They have an incredible web page at www.Honey.com that has a wealth of information on: Honey bee research they fund working with Project Apis m, A Honey Locator, where you can find a local source of honey, A press kit with honey info, fun facts, press releases from the Board, and A host of visual material for news organizations to use. There's also the NHB Store, where beekeepers can get a lot of free promotional material including brochures, magnets, educational material, material for teachers and more. The research they do on honey includes the nutritional value of honey, who are honey consumers, who uses honey in retail including consumers, cosmetics, and other uses. Retail sales of honey are declining a bit, excluding the past year+ during the pandemic, but honey use in ingredients is rapidly increasing in a variety of products. The NHB is also looking at the sustainability of beekeeping, working with the HBHC, the Almond Board, and UC Davis, bringing all this together to form a Bee Health Collective, which you can find on their web page. If that is not enough, know they are working on developing an updated Standard Of Identity for honey. It is safe to say that almost everything you know about honey today, you know because of the research and/or messaging from The National Honey Board. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The National Honey Board - https://honey.com Honey Locator - https://honey.com/honey-locator Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Today, we invite Dr. Robert E. Page, Jr. to the podcast to talk about his research on honey bee genetics and his new book, The Art Of The Bee. Shaping the environment from Landscapes to Societies. Rob is an Emeritus professor at both Arizona State University and The University of California, Davis. He has published hundreds of research papers, and he is the author of two other books. And he is the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships and recognitions from institutions around the world. Rob Page is a geneticist and has studied the workings of honey bee genetics his whole career. He has perfected instrumental insemination of queen honey bees, studied the physiology and anatomy of natural mating of a honey bee drone and a queen, and the distribution of millions of sperm cells inside a queen when on a mating flight and hooks up with multiple drones. His work at selecting for certain behaviors is extraordinary as is his ability to organize and define his works of science, graduate level leadership and University organization. All of this comes into play in this book. The way honey bees actively groom their environment to fit their needs, paint their colony lives to best fit their environment, and still more about the evolution of social life in a honey bee society. Best of all, it is written in a style that is almost unscientific. It is down home in style and entertaining in content. He explains in detail the parallels between a honey bee society and our human society. Listen today as Dr. Page talks about all this and more! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Art of the Bee YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@artofthebee Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This is without doubt, the most technologically advanced, commercially available, honey bee hive monitoring system developed so far. Mike James has a background in home automation and when he started keeping bees not all that long ago, a first thought was supporting his package bees with some insulation. And, to no one's surprise, his insulated package colonies took off faster than those in his regular hive boxes. So, he developed an insulating technique using a polycarbonate foam sprayed on the inside of his boxes, moving them from a R-0.75 value to an R-6 value. The walls are about 1.75" thick, and the box is about 10% heavier than his old boxes, but the behavior changes he saw were pretty conclusive. But how to monitor? So, he began adding devices built into the hive itself. The floor became a both a scale that would transmit weight changes to your cell phone or computer, and a heating device, that can heat the internal temperature of the hive to about 103F to kill varroa but not bees. Temperature and CO2 are monitored, plus there's a GPS device, an accelerometer to tell if the hive is moving, and an organic compound sensing device that will tell you what's coming into the hive that maybe shouldn't be coming into your hive. And all of this is powered by 2 solar panels on the roof. The boxes interlock with busses, therefore the monitoring is maintained no matter how high the tower gets, so all the boxes are talking to each other. There are two doors on the front that can be automatically opened and closed, and the built-in queen excluder also contains both the temperature and humidity monitors so you can see exactly what's going on right in the brood nest. The cover with its two solar panels sits on top and is 3 inches thick for maximum insulation, plus there are some ventilation ports that can be adjusted. The frames inside are just the same you have now, but there is no inner cover. All these devices talk to each other, the data is plotted on your computer, and activities and changes are noted. So that this hive, by measuring all these variables, learns and can tell what will be in the future because of what it can measure now. Machine learning will be the next beekeeper. The future is here, now. Listen to Mike explain the HyperHyve in this episode of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: HyperHyve website - www.hyperhyve.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In Part 4 of our 5-part series on hive types other than the standard Langstroth, we talk with Paul Longwell about the AZ Hive. Paul has been keeping bees for quite a few years. He's a Master Beekeeper and has bees in Langstroth hives, top bar hives and has a shed with his AZ Hives. AZ hives, if you're not familiar with them were developed in Slovenia, which has a long history with bees and beekeeping. Basically, AZ hives are in a small shed that the beekeeper goes into to work the bees. To work these hives, they are opened from the back, not the top, and the back is inside the shed. Bees exit from the opening on the outside, and there's a double door that opens in the trailer, a screen closest to the bees, and a solid door to seal the hive. Frames are parallel to the long side of the hive, like a book case, and can be removed by sliding them out of the door in the back. Like Langstroth hives, they can be 2 or more boxes high, with the brood on the bottom and honey above. The boxes, and thus the frames are larger than Lang frames, and they don't hang on a rabbet, but rather sit on a very narrow metal support and beekeepers simply slide them out of the box to examine. Because the entire hive isn't opened, very little smoke is needed and beesuits are rare. Bees that fly when a frame is examined will leave the inside of the shed through a bee escape in the ceiling that offers the only light. The shed can be standalone (like Paul's) or it can be on a trailer so it can be moved around. It is completely enclosed so it can be warmed by a small heater and a beekeeper can examine the bees at night, using a red light, or even in the winter, with the heater on. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: PNW AZ Hives Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1384979521682962 AZ Hives North America - https://azhivesnorthamerica.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In Part Three of our five-part Hive Types Series, we talk with Colorado Master Beekeeper and columnist Tina Sebestyen about the Long or Horizontal Langstroth. Horizontal hives are very much like the traditional Langstroth hives, which are vertical stacks of boxes, except horizontal hives are only one box high and about three boxes long. The very best thing about horizontal hives is that you never have to lift a very heavy box off the top of a hive to get to what's below that box. Essentially, no lifting for the beekeeper. Horizontal hives, using 30 frames, can have the front door on either or both ends, or in the middle. If there is just one opening, it should be on the end, so the bees build their nest a frame or two of honey right next to the entrance, behind that some of the bee bread, then the brood next, and at the end away from the front door will be the honey. Not up, but back. Burlap can be used instead of inner covers, using 4 or 5 pieces laid on top of the top bars. The bees will stick some of this to the top bars with propolis, but also leave passageways so they can go over the top of the frames. This very much resembles what a nest in a tree would be like. Propolis is good. Tina explains there are additional advantages for the beekeeper: You use much less equipment. It's all in one box. No more supers in the garage, with frames, feeders and the like. Plus, swarm control gets a lot easier, especially if you have entrances on both ends. If you find swarm cells in the brood area, simply find the queen, move her to the other end with some brood and bees, and move the divider board from the very end to the middle, open the second entrance and you're set. You've made a split without using any more equipment. Tina has written several articles on horizontal hive keeping for Bee Culture magazine (starting with the February 2020 issue), has loads of info on her web page and is in the process of writing a book on the topic. She shares it all in this podcast. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Tina's Website - https://beequest.buzz/ Follow Tina on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bee.longing/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

We continue with our five-part series on hive types other than the standard Langstroth, with Christy Hemenway. Christy has been working with top bar hives for just over 14 years now and has developed a good sense of how they work. She started out liking them because – It's all about the wax – clean wax was important to her and top bar hives produce clean wax. No foundation to fuss with and no contaminants to worry about, so it's perfect for cut comb honey, or the crush and drain method of harvesting liquid honey. But there's a lot more. NO heavy lifting is a definite plus with these hives, because all you ever have to lift is a single frame at a time. The top bars are set such that they snuggle up next to each other, so no openings in the top of the hive when you open a top bar hive, which keeps the bees inside, not flitting around, giving you a hard time. And, because they are beveled on the bottom, there is actually more surface for the bees to attach the comb than if just a straight wooden stick. There are a few tricks to learn when handling top bar hive frames, but overall, pretty straight forward with lifting and turning and rolling frames. The only downside she sees is that these hives won't produce a ton of honey for you and they are a tad more difficult to move around than a Langstroth, but they are perfect for a smaller scale backyard beekeeper who worries more about the bees than the honey. In a lot of ways, these are very different from a Langstroth hive, but again, if it's good for the bees, it's probably not so good for the beekeeper. Which would you prefer? Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Gold Star Honey Bees - https://www.goldstarhoneybees.com Christy's Amazon Books Author's Page - https://www.amazon.com/Christy-Hemenway/e/B008C8BNAS Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This week, we start our multi-part series on hive types other than the standard Langstroth. We start with the Flow Hive. In this episode, we talk with Stewart Anderson, who, with his son Cedar imagined and then created the Flow Hive, certainly the most cosmic jump in the technology of honey harvesting developed since the first mechanical honey extractor conceived by Major Franz Elder von Hruschka in 1865. It started on a hot summer day 16 years ago when Cedar had spent a long day cranking his extractor harvesting his honey crop. Cranky bees, humid tropical weather and lots of work made Cedar ask his dad if there was some way to harvest honey without having to open a hive. So that evening they spent a couple of hours trying to figure out the equation that would change honey harvesting forever. They actually figured out that to make that happen they needed to make the honey flow vertically in the hive to be collected at the bottom, somehow. That simple discovery had to overcome opening ripe honey cells, dealing with the cappings, reclosing the cell, removing the now disrupted capping wax, and seeing if the bees would reuse the cells. Or even abscond. Their website photos show how they made that work and work well, with plastic frames inside the Langstroth deep hive body that could be offset with a crank on the outside of the box, offsetting the cells in the frame so the honey drained to a pipe below, to empty into honey bottles outside. Harvesting honey without opening the hive. But getting there took them a score of years, figuring out how to manufacture the frames needed, to make them fit, how to make it all fit, and how to market this. Their first intentions were to make this a tool for commercial beekeepers in their home country of Australia. But it turns out, it was the perfect tool for the hobby market, and, to their surprise, these customers wanted the whole hive, not just the deep super with all the gadgets inside. Life then got interesting for them. Listen as Stu talk with us about his and more! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Flow Hive - https://www.honeyflow.com Kim's Book on Cicadas by Gene Kritsky - https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0867271736/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Dr. Sam Ramsey is back with us again, looking at all sorts of questions than bother beekeepers, and working with smart kids and science! Sammy hasn't not let any grass grow under his feet since he was forced to return home from his research in Thailand studying Tropilaelaps mites (Tropilaelaps clareae and T. mercedesae) so we are ready if and when they arrive in the US. It turns out there is a very clever way to identify which species of Tropi-mite, as they call them in Thailand, is infesting a hive. Believe it or not, they actually "melt" the DNA of the creature and can ID them from what's left. That's a big step in the right direction for these nasties. While in Thailand, he also observed the Giant Asian Hornet, the "murder hornet" we now have poking into in Pacific Northwest. He worked with local beekeepers looking for nests, watching them destroy honey bee colonies and then harvesting the larvae of a destroyed hornet nest for a delicacy food. He also found out why some bees spread water buffalo dung on their hives to keep the hornets away. This is really a mind blower. Sammy's work on varroa and fat bodies didn't slow down one bit this year. They've uncovered that the female mite harvests certain proteins from the fat body and then funnels them directly into the developing egg without first digesting the protein rich meal. These whole, complete proteins are needed by the embryo to complete development. Now, how can that process be interrupted? That's the million-dollar question. Just imagine if the discovery leads to a control which doesn't involve putting poison into the hive… When Sammy was here last, he talked about forming his Ramsey Research Foundation, to replace the original "GoFundMe" site. Through the Foundation you can help support the work he's involved in - heading back to Thailand in the fall, working more with Giant Hornets, and finding out how to quit putting poison in our beehives. Check out the Foundation, and see if you, or better your beekeeping group, can help make this a better world for us, our bees, and beekeepers everywhere. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Ramsey Research Foundation - https://www.ramseyresearchfoundation.org Sammy's Website - https://www.drsammy.online Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Christina Grozinger, from Penn State's Department of Entomology. Her recent research and paper of climate changes impact on honey bee survival and plant growing season has confirmed many suspicions on the long term impact these changes have on all bees, both native and honey bees. Climate change, growing degree days, too warm, too wet, not wet enough, too cold, not enough nectar, last summer's weather, winter temperatures – all of these environmental experiences have some effect on honey bee behavior. But this research at Penn State indicates, interestingly, that the temperature last summer is the best predictor of that colony making it through to the winter and into the next season. In the northeast US the changing climate shows warmer winters, more intense precipitation in the winter and spring, and longer growing seasons with higher maximum temperatures. These changes are affecting the success of populations of both wild bees, and those we keep in hives. Bees are experiencing habitat loss and climate change simultaneously, plus greater exposure to the bad sides of agriculture. So, Penn State has started several projects, looking at these variables and surprisingly, found that, yes, varroa is still the greatest problem beekeepers have with their bees, but that doesn't explain why the abundance and diversity of wild bees is declining at the same time. Listen today as Christina discusses the important findings of this research and on Penn State's continuing projects investigating the questions they're exploring. And there are many ways you can participate! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Beescape.Org - https://beescape.org Bee Informed Partnership - https://beeinformed.org Kim's Book Review, Pollination: The Enduring Relationship between Plant and Pollinator by Timothy Walker - https://www.amazon.com/dp/069120375X/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode, we have a return visit with Washington State Department of Agriculture's Sven-Erik Spichiger, to see how our honey bees' newest threat, The Giant Asian Hornet, did last season in the Pacific Northwest. The AGH was wildly sensationalized last year, picking up the moniker of "Murder Hornet", which actually helped garner some attention to both this beast and the Department's quest to locate nests and capture specimens. Over 900 traps were placed in very northern Washington by department officials, 325 by private land managers and park officials, and private citizen scientists in the state put up over 1200 traps to assist in the venture. The promotional efforts of the Department were very successful and with this many traps, they caught 31 individual specimens, 15 from government traps and 16 from public outreach. They did learn a lot about the traps and what to use for bait. Those that don't kill a captured hornet were the best, so the specimen could be radio-tagged and followed, hopefully, back to its nest. This is where the USDA's APHIS came in handy because they were able to supply additional tags for the program. They were able to capture, and tag one individual and follow it back to the nest, and eventually they found the nest it came from. Score 1 for the good guys. What they still don't know is how far virgin queens go when looking to mate, what else do they eat here (besides honey bees), and are there any natural predators or any diseases here that can be used in the fight. It's also unknown how hard a Washington winter can be on overwintering queens. As of the date of this episode, it's early April when we talked, the Department needs an army of volunteers to trap queens to stop them from forming additional nests. To find out more, or to volunteer, touch base at https://agr.wa.gov/hornets and see if you can help. Tell Sven we sent you. He can use the help. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Washington State Department of Agriculture, Asian Giant Hornet Update page - https://agr.wa.gov/hornets WASDA Hornet Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hornets Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Meet Matt Mulica, Senior Project Director of The Honey Bee Health Coalition a group of more than 50 organizations who have come together to implement solutions to achieve a healthy population of native and managed pollinators. These include beekeepers, growers, researchers, government agencies, agribusiness, conservation groups and production agriculture. Working together, they have identified several major areas they feel need the most attention. These include forage and nutrition, hive and certainly varroa management, and crop pest management. They've developed best management practices for corn, soybeans and canola, outreach to growers, beekeepers, agribusinesses, the pubic and anybody needing more information on any of these topics. Over the course of several years, they have identified many, if not most of the issues affecting pollinators. In so doing, have discovered or created, solutions to reduce many of the problems honey bees and beekeepers face on a routine basis. The HBHC has developed hundreds of documents any of these groups can use to educate their members, along with hours and hours of videos on all of these topics. Best of all, all of this material is available FOR FREE. Though this group is incredibly well versed in solving problems, there's one issue they struggle with and that's letting the world know they exist. Self-promotion can be difficult and we hope this episode exposes more of their work and the tools they've developed for everybody, especially beekeepers. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Honey Bee Health Coalition - https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org Northern Bee Books - Ed Colby's book, "A Beekeeper's Life" - https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

John Miller is a commercial beekeeper based in Gackle, North Dakota and New Castle, California. His family has been keeping bees since 1894. Their season starts each spring when John and his sons take their bees to the almond orchards in Central California. In this episode, John gives us an update on the 2021 almond pollination. For the past three years, John overwintered his thousands of colonies in a specially designed building in Gackle. Moving them indoors has reduced his winter losses from about 35% to about 8%. It is a very special building. The red light in the building allows people to see, but because bees don't see red, they stay inside their colonies. Carbon dioxide, humidity and temperature are monitored continuously, and temperature is controlled by letting fresh in if it gets too warm and it's colder outside, or, keeping the doors sealed if it gets too cold inside. Five percent of the air inside is replaced everyday to maintain healthy carbon dioxide levels. If any levels reach unacceptable levels, the building phones John so he can take corrective actions. The colonies are fed before going into the building and he monitors colony food consumption all winter by placing 12 colonies on a platform scale, taking a reading every day. It turns out a colony loses about 2 ounces a day. But it also loses bees. The building generates a 275-gallon tote full of dead bees a week. He cautions, what goes into that building is what comes out. Colonies don't get better overwintered indoors…. sick in, sick out. Healthy in, healthy out. What's really exciting is that California Food and Ag inspectors have coordinated with Almond Board reps and the North Dakota Department of Ag, so that just before John moves bees to almonds in the spring, CA inspectors come to ND and check the bee's health and the pallets for weeds, bugs and the like. They inspect his 15,000 colonies in about 2 hours. That way, when the semi's reach California, they can breeze right by the Truckee Inspection Station and head straight to the almond orchards. Inspectors, truck drivers, beekeepers and almond growers all appreciate this blinding flash of common-sense approach to inspections, afforded all because of indoor wintering. John is a positive and influential advocate for beekeepers and the beekeeping industry. He writes on occasion for Bee Culture Magazine, served on the National Honey Board, is featured in the 2011 book by Hannah Nordhaus, "The Beekeeper's Lament". This is John's second time with Beekeeping Today Podcast. You can learn more on our second ever show: Season 1, Episode 2. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Miller's Honey Farms - https://www.millerhoneyfarms.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode, we invite Dan Conlon back to learn how the Russian Honey Bee Program is progressing, since now is the time to consider trying packages, nucs or queens for the coming season. Arguably, Russians are the most tested breed of honey bee in the US due to the fact that the USDA Honey Bee Genetics Lab has had a hand in the selection and breeding program from the very beginning. Not only that, they have stayed involved, with improvements in breeding, selecting for the right traits, making sure the genetics of resistance and honey production stay firmly entrenched in every queen that gets sold. Dan also gives us an update on the coming summer's EAS Conference. Eastern Apiculture Society in 2021 will be different. It was supposed to meet in Massachusetts this year, but the University decided to postpone all outside events until 2022, so the MA Beekeepers were out of luck. But Kentucky stepped up. So this year, EAS will be at the Paroquet Springs Conference Center in Shepherdsville, KY for a three-day event. It will be different – no social, only 300 attendees, no walk-ins…but there will be a BBQ, and Auction, the Master Beekeeper program and vendors. Check out the EAS web page for all the details and plan on heading to KY in August. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Russian Bee Breeders Assn - http://www.russianbreeder.org Dan Conlon more about Russian Honey Bee - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/dan-conlon-its-all-about-the-russians-russian-honey-bees-that-is-013/ Steve Coy and Dr. Tom Rinderer on the Russian Honey Bee History - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/talking-russian-honey-bees-with-dr-tom-rinderer-and-steve-coy-s2-e32/ USDA/ARS Update on the use of Oxalic Acid - https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/beltsville-md-barc/beltsville-agricultural-research-center/bee-research-laboratory/docs/oxalic-acid-faqs/ Eastern Apicultural Society - https://www.easternapiculture.org Bee Equipment Essentials by Ed Simon - http://wicwas.com/project/bee-equipment-essentials-20-00/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Today, we talk with Jessie and Bobby Louque, of Louque Agricultural Enterprises. Testing the interactions of pesticides and honey bees is what this company does on a daily basis. They have combined their passion for bees with their passion for science. They are what is called a Contract Research Organization, or CRO. Companies hire them to do the specialty research required with honey bees to provide the EPA with the measures and data needed to make decisions on the introduction or expansion of a pesticide or honey bee food label. When a new product is going to be introduced or its use expanded, the EPA requires a lot of data on interactions with humans, mammals, birds and pollinators. The companies start with lab studies then ultimately to very controlled field studies. They want various rates, times and techniques of application studied on different crops measured. They want to know if exposure kills on contact in the field, or is it brought back to the hive and kills bees there. Then they want to know if the colony is able to continue to reproduce and if will it survive the winter. Thousands of Colony Collection Assessments are made, where every frame in every hive in the study, and there are often 150 or more, is measured for bees, open and sealed brood, nectar and honey percentages. This is done at least nine times for a study. They hire CROs to perform this independent testing. For field testing with honey bees, they call Jessie and Bobby. And at the end of a test, what happens to all the equipment, from hives to tools? Listen today to find out! The answer may surprise you! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Jessie's Instagram Feed - https://www.instagram.com/jessie.l.louque/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com Bee Informed Partnership - https://beeinformed.org Kim's Book Review, "Commercial Beekeeping - A Field Guide" - https://www.bipinc.org/store/p7/Commercial_Beekeeping%3A_A_Field_Guide.html ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Our guest this week is Boris Baer, Professor of Entomology at UC Riverside. Boris is the recent recipient of a $900,000 grant from the University of California's Office of the President. He is the Principal Investigator of a four-campus network of bee researchers and engineers to boost dwindling honey bee populations working in the Center for Integrative Bee Research (CIBER). Boris is working with a team of researchers and students looking at the interaction of nutritional supplements when bees have been exposed to pesticides, and how to harness the natural honey bee microbiome to this assault. The research team will also be looking at the successful genomes of honey bees with influence of African genes that have developed increased resistance to the common diseases that currently plague the industry. As part of the grant, researchers from Davis and Merced campuses are looking to develop a breeding program to produce bees better able to cope with environmental stress. A second goal is to develop medications and treatment for sick bees. A third group is coordinating efforts to develop tools beekeepers can use to better monitor what is going on inside their hives. Essentially, electronic veterinarians. Listen today to hear all about the leading edge of practical research is taking the beekeeper of the near future! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Center for Integrative Bee Research - https://ciber.ucr.edu Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com Brittney Goodrich Almond Pollination Contract Survey (You'll know where to use this when requested "Apism2021") - https://ucdavis.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3VjNePVvz9H0F6u?Source=BTP Build Beekeeping Equipment by Ed Simon - https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/edwin-simon/build-beekeeping-equipment/paperback/product-jjvg8n.html ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Steven Coy, Executive Board Member of American Honey Producers Association (AHPA) returns to the podcast. This time, he discusses the USDA-APHIS call for comments on the elimination of the Chinese Tallow Tree and the impact the elimination of this tree could have on honey producers from Texas to Florida. PLEASE NOTE: At the time of the podcast recording, the published comment period ended on Feb. 22. It has been extended to April 23. You have another 60 days to comment, but please do if the issue is critical to you. Also on the show, Jim Tew stops by to talk about Honey Bee Obscura, the new weekly beekeeping podcast he and Kim host. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: American Honey Producers, Chinese Tallow & APHIS - https://www.ahpanet.com/tallowinfo APHIS Request for Comments on Chinese Tallow Tree Elimination - https://www.regulations.gov/docket/APHIS-2020-0035/document Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com WAS Mini Conference -"Bee Gut Microbiome" - https://www.westernapiculturalsociety.org/events-1 ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In today's episode, we talk with Bridget Mendel and Becky Masterman of the University of Minnesota Bee Lab's "Bee Squad". Dr. Marla Spivak created Bee Squad as an outreach group 10 years ago in the Twin Cities area to help local beekeepers and other people just wanting bees in the backyard, with just a couple of volunteers. It has blossomed into a dynamic, nationally known UMN Extension Program that is helping hundreds, even thousands of people – beekeepers and non-beekeepers alike. The Bee Squad was originally headed by Becky who recently 'passed the hive tool' of leadership to Bridget. Together, they have paired up with a host of other programs including the BIP Sentinel Program, the American Honey Producers Association and their habitat program, the University of Michigan's Veteran's programs, and thousands of beekeepers across the US. The Bee Squad's list of programs is extensive – and they are not just for Minnesotan's. Funded by sales from their store, payment for managing other's bees, grants and donations and community partners, they have nearly a dozen talented people managing all of these programs. Listen today and bookmark their website as a knowledgeable and trustworthy site to gain current beekeeping information! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Bee Squad - https://www.beelab.umn.edu/bee-squad Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com WAS Mini Conference -"Bee Gut Microbiome" - https://www.westernapiculturalsociety.org/events-1 American Honey Producers, Chinese Tallow & APHIS - https://www.ahpanet.com/tallowinfo ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This week we talk with Ellie Symes, CEO of The Bee Corp. We met Ellie at the recent Almond Growers virtual conference. With pollination hives in almonds renting for around $200 each, almond growers want to make sure they are getting good, strong hives so they get maximum production from their orchards. Beekeepers want to make sure they are not spending time and money moving hives that don't measure up to a grower's standards. So, what's the best way to make sure both beekeepers and growers get the biggest bang for their bees? One answer - fast, accurate grading using Bee Corp's technology and their cloud-based software, Verifli. Bee Corp staff visit beeyards, holding yards or orchards at night and take IR photos of two sides of each colony on a pallet. The image is uploaded to the cloud and their sophisticated software reports exactly how many frames of bees are in each of the colonies by the next morning. One person can do 1,000 colonies in one night if they need to. Beekeepers can do this even before trucking out to the orchard or while in a holding yard, saving money, ensuring growers they are sending strong colonies and meeting contract specs. Grade at night, get results the next day. Hive technology may not have changed much since the 1850's, but how we monitor and measure hives sure has. Listen today as we talk with Ellie about The Bee Corp, hive grading and the benefits of this exciting advancement available today for beekeepers and growers alike! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Bee Corp - https://www.thebeecorp.com The Bee Corp Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/TheBeeCorp/ The Bee Corp Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thebeecorp_/ The Bee Corp Twitter - @TheBeeCorp_ The Bee Corp LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-bee-corp Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com American Beekeeping Federation: Chinese Tallow Tree Call To Action - https://myemail.constantcontact.com/CALL-TO-ACTION-.html?soid=1132973782819&aid=UizyOauKvls Hive Tracks - https://hivetracks.com ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In today's episode we talk with Ben Dictus, beekeeper for Bee Downtown. The good people in the Bee Downtown organization have taken bees and beekeeping to a new level of education, promotion and opportunity. They have combined beekeeping and leadership training, with business leaders and employees: Bee yards with corporate landscapes. Ben manages about 150 colonies in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, working with the likes of corporations such as SAS, Delta Air, Burt's Bees, Blue Cross to establish colonies on their corporate grounds. The hives are not hidden behind an outbuilding or the 'back acreage', rather, these companies like to place them in prominent spots. Employees often help paint and prep the woodenware in structured work parties. Bee Downtown supplies the hives, installs safety barriers, manages the bees for them to maintain health and stability, and holds informal events like hive tours, honey harvesting events, hive decorating sessions and discussions. This has led to the development of the Bee Downtown Leadership Institute lead by retired Colonel Joe LeBoeuf, Professor Emeritus Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Using storytelling and other techniques, including biomimicry from their colonies, the BDT Leadership Institute team help attendees (re)establish team communication and trust, resulting in a workplace that's more efficient and effective. Listen today as Kim and Jeff talk with Ben about the bees he manages, Bee Downtown and how bee culture is taking corporate culture to the next level! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Downtown - https://www.bee-downtown.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

On today's show, we chat with Kaylee Richardson, who runs the Farm on Quail Hollow and posts about her life as a modern-day homesteader @the_honeystead. She shares the nitty-gritty details of what it takes to produce most of your food from your own farm both in beautiful photos and via informative YouTube videos. She's grown her apiary substantially, building up from a couple of hives into a small, sideline business. Currently she's in the process of relocating her colonies from her garden to a separate spot, where their flightpath won't be obstructed by foot traffic. We had a chance to talk about what it takes to live the life she has embraced with her family, the ups and downs, the joys and the hardships. She's learning about herbalism, so she can incorporate more of the plants she grows and forages for on their farm in Virginia into her diet and the skincare products she produces. Join us, as we learn more about The Honeystead. Additional information: The Honeystead Website: http://www.thehoneystead.com Follow Kaylee's The Honeystead on YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/TheFarmOnQuailHollow Follow Kaylee on Instagram: https://www.instagram/the_honeystead.com Kim & Jim's Honey Bee Obscura Podcast: https://www.honeybeeobscura.com _______________________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thank you to Global Patties for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode of Beekeeping Today Podcast, we reconnect with our beekeeping friends from Season 2, Episode 29. They come from across the country including Central North Carolina, North East Ohio, the western slope of the Rocky Mountains and the West Coast of Washington. We talk with them about last season, this winter and what they expect for next season. We start out in North Carolina with Mark Smith, who has had bees since 2014 and is running 20 – 30 treatment free colonies. His season last year had some real surprises and he was playing catch up most of the summer. He has some good plans for this spring though that should help out this season. Next, on to North East Ohio, with Tracy Alarcon, an Inspector in Portage County. The weather played tricks with his honey flow last summer and he made a boatload of honey he wasn't quite prepared for. Surprise! So, he's going to be prepared this year. Next, on to the western slope of Colorado with Ed Cobey, the Bottom Board author in Bee Culture magazine every month. Ed runs about 70 colonies and keeps them at low, medium and high altitudes, so has a very mixed season. He had excellent overwintering last year, but some drought got in the way of the honey crop. Finally, meet Paul Longwell, a 12-year beekeeper in Olympia Washington. Paul uses topbar, Langstroth and AZ Slovenian beehouse hives, and volunteers to treat neighboring hives to reduce mite pressure. Lots of rain means lots of honey, some years, and you have to be ready for that, and do things at the right time, and he's getting good at that. Four different regions. Four different beekeepers. Four different approaches to managing their bees through the seasons. Listen today and see how you compare and perhaps what you might do differently this year! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: First Episode with the Regional Beekeepers (Season 2, Episode 29) - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/regional-beekeeper-perspectives-east-midwest-and-mountain-states-s2-e29/ Mark Smith: Flatwoods Bee Farm on Instagram -flatwoodsbeefarm Flatwoods Bee Farm on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/flatwoodsbeefarm/ Flatwoods Bee Farm on YouTube - https://youtube.com/channel/UC0gbVzebQUscVKmmwGeYh2w Read Ed Colby in Bee Culture Magazine Western Apicultural Society Monthly Conference - https://westernapiculturalsociety.org/mini-conferences/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Marla Spivak is a honey bee researcher at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Her work has covered a variety of subjects over the years including queen breeding and disease prevention and lately she has been working on the relationship of honey bees and propolis. Propolis is simply a mixture of resins honey bees collect from a variety of plants. These resins protect these plants from diseases and pests that would otherwise harm them. She first became interested when she read that some properties of propolis had a positive effect on human HIV disease. Then she attended a meeting where she learned how ants collect these resins to use in their nests and she was hooked or should we say, propolis stuck with her… to her… to, everything. Propolis has a definite antimicrobial effect on dangerous microbes in the hive and at the same time, manages to help maintain, even increase the positive microbiome in a honey bee's gut and even their mouth parts. It doesn't cure AFB or EFB, but is does help keep it in check in an infected colony. Propolis in a beehive moves the needle, researchers feel. It is the foundation for honey bee health. Find out even more by listening to Marla Spivak explain the joys of propolis. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: University of Minnesota Bee Lab: https://www.beelab.umn.edu Research - Seasonal benefits of a natural propolis envelope to honey bee immunity and colony health: https://jeb.biologists.org/content/218/22/3689.long "Why Care About Propolis", Marla on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Xsj8mB4KKZs Marla's TedTalk on the Disappearance of Bees: https://youtu.be/dY7iATJVCso ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In this episode, we welcome back Colorado beekeeper, Tom Theobald. Tom had a small commercial operation in Colorado in the late 70's, running up to 200 or so colonies when he first started using two queen colonies. The biology of running two queens in a colony does make sense if you use the technique Tom perfected, but the better you get, the more lifting you are going to do. His finished production hives had three deeps for brood production and seven mediums for honey storage. At the time, an average to strong colony in his part of Colorado would make about 70 pounds of honey in a season, Tom's two queen colonies averaged between 240 and 270 pounds! The advantages, beside huge honey crops, were that these colonies started with last year's queen, and a new, second queen was added in early spring. When the season was over, the new queen almost always prevailed, thus starting the next season with a proven queen. Plus, with a foraging population as large as these colonies produced, there was a vast store house of pollen the next spring for that season's buildup. Two-queen honey production is becoming a lost art as it takes a lot of work, timing and an understanding of your area's nectar flows. However, the payoff is big! If you have bees in a location with lots of forage and not too much varroa or pesticide pressure, this approach may work for you. Tom and we would like to know if you or a beekeeper you know uses the two-queen approach. Let us know on our website! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Our First Season Interview with Tom about Neonicotinoids: https://beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/tom-theobold-the-problem-with-neonics Honey Bee Obscura Podcast with Kim & Jim: http://honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

On this special Holiday Replay, we bring back one of our favorite episodes from the first season, when we invited Dr. Sam Ramsey to the podcast to talk about the Varroa Mite. Sam Ramsey is a life long entomologist. His interests in all things insects started in his youth along with his parent's encouragement and his siblings displeasure! He continued his studies in college (Cornell) and just recently completed his PhD this year at The University of Maryland under Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp. Dr. Ramsey made headlines earlier this year with the publication of his doctoral research on the feeding behaviors of the varroa destructor mite on the honey bee. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss with Dr. Ramsey why he studied what was thought to be a closed subject and proved that the varroa was not feeding primarily on the bee's blood, but rather a liver-like organ called the 'Fat Body'. This is a fascinating discussion that all beekeepers should listen to. There are many interesting facts, that run counter to popular press and education. Following are the links mentioned in this podcast: Dr. Ramsey's website: https://www.drsammy.online 3-Minute YouTube Video on the Varroa Mite findings: https://youtu.be/Fyfyj-2O47Q GoFundMe site for Dr. Ramsey's new research on the Tropilaelaps mite in Asia: https://www.gofundme.com/fundhoneybeeresearch Dr. Ramsey's ground breaking research on the varroa, published in January, 2019: https://www.pnas.org/content/116/5/1792 For fun and diverse thinking, Dr. Ramsey's 'jazzy' departure from American Idol: https://youtu.be/UWwuxlkm7_4 ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

On today's episode, we talk with Newfoundland beekeeper, Peter Armitage and Dr. David Peck, a Professor from Cornell University, David Peck. Those of us south of the Canadian border tend to mispronounce the name of that big Island off the east coast of Quebec and just north of Prince Edward Island. We tend to slur it, saying 'Newfundlund' instead. But that is wrong. How do you say it right? "Understand New Found Land". Onomatopoeia to the rescue! (One of the cohost's still can't get it right…) The good people who live on Newfoundland Island have managed to keep this rather inhospitable island completely free of Varroa mites. Not one mite. And Newfoundlanders are determined to keep it that way, using their Varroa Action Plan. There's only one way to get to Newfoundland and that's by boat, so they have some control on what gets onto their island. But they are in no way taking any chances. They have established the Plan to keep varroa off the island, educate the beekeepers all about varroa, and continuously monitor colonies for any accidental, or even illegal, incursion. Learn about the Newfoundland Varroa Action Plan and more on this informative episode! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Newfoundland Varroa Action Plan - https://www.nlbeekeeping.com/varroa-action-plan Research paper detailing how varroa will transfer from flower to bee - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0167798 YouTube video of a mite vaulting onto a bee from a flower petal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oij1HOxD3iU ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue" v2

QSI–America is a Germany based company that is in the business of testing honey for anything. Their US lab in Corona, California is led by Tobias Wiezorek, and employs about 35 scientists looking at the biochemical, microbiology, chemical and pollen aspects of the honey and wax samples. They can perform many tests, including moisture content, the presence of antibiotics or pesticides, the HMF content to determine if the sample has been overheated, sugar ratios to tell if it's a blend, pure or something else, they can identify the pollens found in a sample to identify the source and/or country of origin, presence of GMOs, and heavy metals. The sophistication of these tests continues to grow as the people who are in the business of adulterating honey also get more sophisticated. Honey is a good indicator the quality of the environment the bees who make the sample have to live in. QSI-America's testing is indicating almost every sample has some level of glyphosate in it (and there is no level of that chemical that is allowed), and it turns out, pretty much across the board, urban honeys are cleaner than those from the farm. Testing isn't just for the largest beekeeper. Anyone can send in a sample. It takes 5 days and when done, you can claim to have the best honey around and provide the documentation to prove it! Listen to this informative episode today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: QSI-America - https://www.qsi-america.com News Story about the Destroyed Green River College Apiary - https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/bear-destroys-beehives-used-research-local-college/HZM6SBDC5VELHFX6NVPYCA65RM/ Green River College Bee Yard Assistance - https://www.gofundme.com/f/bees-in-the-039burbs-apiary-repair ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In this week's episode, guest host Kirsten Traynor speaks with Emily Bondor of the Santa Cruz Bee Co about how she manages her colonies and those of other beekeepers without chemical intervention. Emily discuss the types of losses beekeepers should expect when foregoing varroa treatments, how to be an ethical treatment-free beekeeper, so that your sick colonies don't impact hives in the vicinity, and how her attitude toward treatments has evolved, because she also manages other people's investment in bees. Tune in for this in-depth discussion about the pros and cons about stopping varroa treatments of your bees. Also, just in time for the Holidays, Kim reviews a new book about bees, written for children, "H Is For Honey Bee" by Robyn Smith van Frankenhuyzen and illustrated by Eileen Ryan Ewen. Additional information: Santa Cruze Bee Company - http://santacruzbeecompany.com H is for Honey Bee on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/H-Honey-Bee-Beekeeping-Alphabet/dp/1534110704/ _______________________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thank you to Global Patties for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

Starting several years ago, Steve Donohoe wanted to find out more about beekeepers and how they kept bees. His travels took him to California, where he talked to Randy Oliver and Ray Olivarez, to Vermont to talk to Mike Palmer, then back the UK to talk to Murry McGregor in Scotland and Peter Little, who used to work with Brother Adam, then on to a New Zealand honey packer and finally to France to visit that country's largest queen breeder. These people were sort of his heroes, successful at their occupation and fairly well known in the beekeeping world. What he wanted to know was, what does it take to get to their respective positions, what do they have in common, and what don't they have in common. He explored the biggest challenges they faced as a group, and as individuals. It took several years to analyze the data collected, recount the interviews and gather the collective wisdom these beekeepers shared with him. He gathered this all and his book is now available so you don't have to travel the globe to gather the information yourself. Steve spent some time with us recently unwinding the tangle of his travels and finding the best in what he has learned. You will be glad you read this book and even better, glad you sat back and listened to this episode: Interviews with Beekeepers. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Walrus and the Honey Bee - https://thewalrusandthehoneybee.com Business With Bees - https://www.amazon.com/Business-Bees-Honeybee-Including-Pollination/dp/1631594591 ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

Protecting pollinators and improving the habitat for honey bees often entails planting nectar and pollen rich plants. In this episode, Kirsten talks with Calvin Ernst, founder of Ernst Seeds, who has been deeply involved with growing native plants for over 50 years. Learn how providing seeds for erosion control to the Department of Transportation helped him start his company and how he transitioned the company's focus to natives over time. He provides solid advice on preparing the ground prior to planting for pollinators. Learn more about this family run business and how it provides for pollinators in this week's show. Also in this episode, Kim reviews The Art of the Bee: Shaping the Environment from Landscapes to Societies by Dr. Robert Page. Additional information: Ernst Seeds - https://www.ernstseed.com Ernst Planting Guides - https://www.ernstseed.com/resources/ Beekeeping Today Podcast Episode with Randi and Lindsey of Ernst Pollinator Service - https://beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/large-scale-planting-large-scale-pollinator-habitats-with-lindsey-white-and-randi-grout-s2-e12 Ernst Pollinator Service - https://www.ernstpollinatorservice.com Bee Culture's "Catch The Buzz" on Honey Bee Vaccines - https://www.beeculture.com/catch-the-buzz-honey-bee-vaccine/ The Art of the Bee on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0197504140 _______________________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thank you to Global Patties for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In this episode, Master Beekeeper, Katharina Davitt reveals the nutritional benefits honey bees derive from bananas. Yes, you read that correctly, bananas! We all know that bananas are good for people. They are full of carbs, minerals, vitamins, are good for digestion and just taste good. But the one thing all beekeepers learn when they start out is that when bees are threatened, they release alarm pheromone and that smells like bananas. So up to now, wise beekeepers didn't bring bananas to the bee yard. But it turns out feeding bananas to honey bees is actually a good way to get good food into a hive. Really. Katharina Davitt tell us why and how. Her University of Montana Master Beekeeper research project explored the nutritional requirements of honey bees and the properties of bananas. Katharina shares data behind this! The conclusions reached from this study found that colonies cannot live on bananas alone, but bananas will help in the spring, during a summer dearth and in the fall. But who would have thought – bananas for bees?! Before the talk with Katharina, Kirsten, Kim and Jeff discuss the ongoing debate pitting the honey bee against native bees and pollinators. Why the debate? What's the issue and what's the real problem? Kim, Kirsten and Kim explore it all. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Klamath Bees - https://www.klamathbees.com Davitt Apiaries - http://davitt.com Cavendish Bananas and their Nutritional Benefit to Honey Bees - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j3TdyD1Nb7FTBECcuBoRwSzh6Y_CfAnT/view?usp=drivesdk Cavendish Bananas Increase Brood Rearing in Apis Mellifera - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p1fK3BxWjpq98sIHuXSe3XU7nGCteg1h/view?usp=drivesdk Kirsten's referenced Gordian knot paper - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016953472030207X Historical reference to beekeepers advocating for environmental protection - https://academic.oup.com/envhis/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/envhis/emaa059/5921133 ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

This autumn wildfires cut through large swaths of Oregon, destroying towns, homes and habitat. In this episode, Kirsten talks with Sharon Schmidt, founder of Cascade Girl Apiary, who lost her home and apiary in Phoenix, Oregon. Sharon was visiting a friend when the fires roared into her town. The police would not let her return to her property. She expected the fires to be brought under control, but as she watched from the ridge line, her town went up in flames. Talent and Phoenix, Oregon were both early members of the Bee City USA program, changing their towns into bee havens. Luckily one of her out apiaries at a local fire station survived. Tune in to listen to this heart-wrenching story of loss and community. Our good wishes go out to all those impacted by fires. Additional information: Cascade Girl Organization: https://www.cascadegirl.org _______________________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thank you to Global Patties for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

Dave Doroghy works in the worlds of advertising and sports marketing and lives on a house boat on the Frasier River in southern British Columbia near Vancouver. His discovery of beekeeping wasn't the common story of being swept off his feet with this new found passion. No, his interest was primarily financial. Show me the Money was a part of his professional sports life, so 'show me the honey' became a part of his beekeeping life. His story is familiar to many new beekeepers. He makes just about every mistake that can be made with a hive full of bees and his journey is both educational for him, and entertaining for the readers of his book. What he did wrong and what he did to fix it are lessons all of us need to examine, explore and learn from. Dave joins Beekeeping Today Podcast on this episode to talk about his beekeeping experiences and his book (reviewed in both Bee Culture magazine and The New York Times). Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Dave's Website: www.houseboathoney.com Show Me The Honey on Amazon:Show Me The Honey Bee Hive to Beekeeper: https://www.bee-craft.com/shop/books/bee-hive-to-beekeeper Updates on Developments with the Asian Giant Hornet in Washington State: https://agr.wa.gov/hornets ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In this episode, Kirsten sits down with Matthew Pettersson of Madhu Honey, who fell into beekeeping after a chance encounter with a giant jar of honey in a New York City apartment. Fascinated by honey bees and the golden honey they create, he ended up working for a commercial organic beekeeper in Germany, who runs four to six thousand colonies – much larger than one typically thinks about organic beekeeping, envisioning small bucolic apiaries with a beekeeper very much in-tune with their bees. Hooked, he didn't want to stop over the winter and so headed to New Zealand in the southern hemisphere to keep working bees. One of his beekeeping buddies offered him four barrels of Manuka honey to sell in Europe. Because he had left a job in logistics, he knew all about imports and exports. And so, he founded Madhu Honey, importing high quality manuka honey to the EU market—a business born from the successful sale of his first imported pallet, sold before it even arrived in the harbor. Madhu Honey will be available in the USA the winter of 2020-2021. Additional information: Contact Matthew directly at: [email protected]. Madhu Honey: https://madhuhoney.com Unique Manuka Factor Honey Assn: https://www.umf.org.nz Comparison Between MGO and UMF Manuka Scales: https://www.manukahoneyorganic.com/what-is-umf/ Asian Giant Honey Updates in Washington State: https://agr.wa.gov/hornets _______________________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thank you to Global Patties for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

Marina Marchese is the President of the American Honey Tasting Society. She refined her learning and teaching skills in Italy and Raffaele Dall'Olio was one of her teachers. Today we discuss with them all of the aspects of honey tasting – the basics of how to taste a honey, using your tongue, your nose, your eyes. Learn the vocabulary to describe, and then to remember the flavors, the taste and aromas of all of the many varieties of honey available. Marina's American Honey Tasting Society offers honey tasting classes, similar to the three years of classes she took in Italy. What will you learn? To start, the difference between taste and flavor. Then you'll learn the adjectives to describe what you are tasting. You will taste without smelling, and smell without tasting, and you will learn the actual techniques of how best to smell, and then savor a honey. Check out The American Honey Tasting Society, and Marina's and Kim's book on this fascinating subject "The Honey Connoisseur'. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: American Honey Tasting Society: https://www.americanhoneytastingsociety.com Washington State Department of Agriculture, Asian Giant Hornet information: https://agr.wa.gov/hornets ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In this week's episode, guest cohost, Kirsten Traynor, editor of 2 Million Blossoms, talks with Michael Smith, Ph.D. Michael grew up in Panama, then went to boarding school in Wales, where he chanced upon a beekeeper with honey in a hallway. Together the two ended up launching a bee club that just celebrated its 15th anniversary. After being a gofer for a bee lab at a women's university, Smith convinced Tom Seeley to take him on as a graduate student. At Cornell, he investigated what triggers drone comb building plus ran a side project on who steals from a honey stand. He's currently in Konstanz, Germany as a postdoc, but returning to the US this fall to start his own bee research lab at Auburn, Alabama. The discussion is a rollercoaster ride filled with quirky humor, serious bee science and his work with the BEESBOOK tracking system. Additional information: Michael's Lab Website (The Smith Bee Lab at Auburn): https://smithbeelab.com Follow Michael on Twitter: @SmithBeeLab _______________________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thank you to Global Patties for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In this episode, we invited Dr. Brittney Goodrich to discuss what her research has found in almond pollination contracts. Brittney is a Cooperative Extension Specialist at the University of California, Davis. She is an Agricultural Economist and one of her favorite topics to research are the contracts between beekeepers and growers for pollination services. She is sitting in the middle of the biggest pollination contract industry in the world: Almond Pollination. She did a survey of almond growers to find out what they think about pollination contracts. She looked at colony strength, number of colonies per acre, and number of frames per acre and cost. She asked about actual contracts, both formal and informal even including just a handshake and what happens when a beekeeper can't fulfill a contract. She also looked at the expanding role of pollination brokers, and beekeepers acting as brokers and the shared risk each of these three players have in this business. Almonds growers continue to expand their acres, but they are using essentially all of the commercial honey bee colonies in the US right now. What happens when another 10,000 acres or more come on line in the next few years and what role do pesticide applications play in all this? And what pesticides are OK and which ones aren't? And what happens if colony health issues don't go away? Can growers pay a little more so beekeepers can afford to keep colonies healthy? Can some of the risk be divided so everybody does better? Brittney Goodrich explores all of these issues, and more. Listen in and learn. __________________________ Brittney provides Beekeeping Today Podcast listeners these points to include in a pollination agreement, whether written or verbal. Specific contact information for grower or owner, and beekeeper, or broker Crop and specific location Number of colonies needed Payment per colony based on agreed upon maximum and minimum strengths Payment schedule, e.g. half on delivery, half when removed, other terms Minimum strength and health of colonies that will be paid for and frames of bees, brood, queen, food Minimum average frame count Average strength to be paid for Bonus for colonies exceeding average strength, per frame Evaluation/inspection procedure and payment for services Colony strength enforcement mechanisms Delivery notification agreement, or per cent bloom, or specific date Colony density per acre Delivery access – gates, irrigation pipes, flooding, roads, assistance from grower Removal date, per cent bloom, advance notice Liability while on location for bees and equipment, injury of crew or non-crew individuals Access during bloom for maintenance, advance notice, time of day or night Location and colony count/drop minimum and maximum Pesticide application warning and procedure Compensation for pesticide damage applies by grower/owner Additional fees for additional moves Continuous water access Contract cancellation or transfer Acts of God Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Brittney's personal website: http://www.brittneygoodrich.com/ Contract Resources: https://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/pollination-service-markets-evolution-and-outlook/contracting-for-pollination-services-overview-and-emerging-issues ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

If you're interested in starting a honey festival in your city, you have to speak with Steve Rogenstein who founded the Ambeesadors. A former event manager, he fell in love with bees and has used his unique skills to organize honey festivals in both New York City and Barcelona. Currently he lives in Berlin, Germany. Steve is also involved with the COLOSS Survivor Taskforce, coordinating the citizen science project Honey Bee Watch. This project seeks to connect beekeepers, bee enthusiasts and scientists in identifying feral and wild honey bee colonies to help preserve their genetics and learn more about their survival traits. In this episode of Beekeeping Today Podcast, Steve sat down with guest host Kirsten Traynor to talk about unique honey profiles, the hoarding tendency of honey lovers, and what it takes to organize a giant citizen science project. Listen today! Additional information: The Ambeessadors - https://www.ambeessadors.com The Honey Bee Watch - https://www.honeybeewatch.com The College of Melissae - https://www.collegeofthemelissae.com Learning From The Bees, Berlin - https://www.learningfromthebeesberlin.com BCN Honey Festival - https://www.bcnhoneyfest.com NYC Honey Week - http://nychoneyweek.org North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) - https://www.pollinator.org/nappc 4th International Bee and Hive Monitoring Conference - https://colonymonitoring.com/events/ _______________________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thank you to Global Patties for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

Dr. Dewey M. Caron's latest book, The Complete Bee Handbook is quite the book. Not a scientific text, not a how-to beekeeping book, but one that's meant for all those folks who think they might want to keep bees, but don't know what's involved. Plus it includes sections on honey recipes, making candles, mead and honey beer, gardening for all bees, bee biology in just the right amount. Beautiful art highlights each chapter, with each chapter given an overview and summary. It is truly delightful. But wait: There's more. Dewey is very involved in working with the Honey Bee Health Coalition. The Coalition is looking at all beekeeping problems from very different perspectives and solving many of them because of this approach. Dewey is also involved in the BeeMD website with the Univ. of Florida, adding references and greater depth to each solution. It's going to be a phone app pretty soon, so you can solve problems while still in the field. Very, very useful. Listen in today and find out about his new book and the problems he is solving. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Complete Bee Handbook on Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1646119878/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_wIKzFbT1CXBXX The BeeMD: http://www.thebeemd.com 4th International Bee and Hive Monitoring Zoom Conference, October 5 – 9. Registration: https://colonymonitoring.com/events/ ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

The Bee Audacious conference brought together beekeeping luminaries like Mark Winston, Marla Spivak, Tom Seeley and many others. The event was created and organized by Bonnie Morse, who recently sat down to chat with guest host Kirsten Traynor. In today's episode they talk how Winston's editorial in Bee Culture encouraged audacious thinking about bee health inspired the event. It was an unusual conference focused on dialogue instead of talks, bringing together bright minds to try and find creative solutions to pressing issues in the bee industry. And what has she been up to since that first conference in 2016? Based in California, she's been working closely with fire safety officials to ensure that fire prevention policies don't obliterate important nectar and pollen sources. With her husband Gary, she runs Bonnie Bee & Company, helping others learn to keep bees successfully in their climatically diverse region near San Francisco. Listen today to learn more about this high-energy beekeeper, who is helping to shape pollinator friendly policy in California. Additional information: Bee Audacious: http://beeaudacious.com Bonnie Bee & Company: http://bonniebeecompany.com Ten by Ten Plus Ten: http://www.tenbytenplusten.com/about _______________________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thank you to Global Patties for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In today's episode we talk to Britteny Kyle, DVM, President of the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium (HBVC) and Alexzandra (Allie) Mosel, DVM, who is the President Elect. Both are beekeepers and small animal veterinarians interested in getting more vets trained and interested in bees and beekeeping. Recall that as of January 2017, if a beekeeper needs to administer antibiotics to their honey bees, they are required to have a prescription or feed directive from a licensed veterinarian. The HBVC is made up of students and professionals from all segments of veterinary medicine and animal science who care about bees and beekeeping. The mission of the HBVC is to provide continuing education to veterinarians about honey bees and to provide a resource for beekeepers to locate a veterinarian who is willing to work with honey bees. Right now, there are fewer than 100 vets who can or will work with beekeepers in the US, but there are over 340 who are working to get on this team. We'll talk about how this is working now and what goals the group hopes to accomplish. We discuss the tools vets have to learn about bees and what do beekeepers need to do to make this work for them. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium: https://hbvc.org The BeeMD: http://www.thebeemd.com 4th International Bee and Hive Monitoring Zoom Conference, October 5 – 9. Registration: https://colonymonitoring.com/events/ ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In today's episode we talk with Sarah Weiner, the Executive Director of the Good Food Awards Foundation and Mark Carlson, the Committee Co-Chair of the Honey Category. Sarah brings a global perspective to her position having worked with Slow Foods International in Italy and the US, produced the Organic Food Festival in the UK, and has co-founded seedling projects. In his spare time, Mark is a California State Beekeepers Association Master Beekeeper and a Chemist at Micro-Tracers, Inc. They both sat down with us recently to talk about the Good Food Awards Foundation and what it takes to gain recognition as one of the best honeys in the contest. You can enter honey in the liquid or naturally crystalized category, comb, or creamed categories. Good Food Awards divides the USA into five regions with winners from each region, recognizing the wide variety of honey across the US. Find out what you need to know and how to become one of the Best Honey Ever winners with us this time. You'll be glad you came along for the sweetest, best tasting podcast you've ever heard. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Good Food Awards Foundation: https://goodfoodfdn.org Honey at the GFA: https://goodfoodfdn.org/awards/categories/honey/ 4th International Bee and Hive Monitoring Zoom Conference, October 5 – 9. Registration: https://colonymonitoring.com/events/ ______________ Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong", Musicalman, "Epilogue"

In this episode, Kirsten Traynor meets up with Dr. Rachael Bonoan, a bee biologist and ecologist. Bees have some unusual and quirky behaviors. They discuss bumble bee high fives, why honey bees like stinky, dirty water, and how our pollinators may be seeking out unusual food sources to gain important minerals. Rachael tells us about doing science in Costa Rica, where she looked into the foraging habits of vulture bees that turn carrion into slurpy meat soup. To her astonishment, some bees that normally collect pollen also loaded up bits of meat into their pollen carrying corbicula, wearing little packets of shredded chicken. Rachael has spent the last two summers searching for the rare Puget butterfly in the Pacific Northwest. She and her team were hoping to locate the caterpillar in the wild so they could document its feeding habits and interactions with ants. But despite roaming the prairie landscape with up to nine people, they found only a handful—definitely not enough to say anything conclusive. She's just taken a new job as an assistant professor at Providence College in Rhode Island, where she will once again be studying honey bees—her favorite pollinator as they both stay busy, work tirelessly and fuel their adventures with sweets. Listen to the discussion today! Additional information: Rachael's personal website: https://www.rachaelebonoan.com/ Rachael's TedX talk: https://youtu.be/KsA8V-yooFA Dress Like A Scientist Day website: https://dresslikeascientistday.com/ ______________ Kirsten's interviews are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"

Strong Microbials got their start producing probiotics to improve the health of cattle, dairy cows, poultry and swine. Their products improved animal food digestion resulting in overall animal health. In 2012 they became interested in doing the same thing for honey bees. In this episode, we talk with Vera and Slava about their probiotic use to aid honey bee health and well-being. Multiple bacteria are present in all nectars, pollens, propolis and the environment. Honey bees need these bacteria to aid not only in digestion, but also to improve immune response and combating stressors detrimental to their health. Strong Microbials' product, Super DFM-Honey Bee, is a probiotic of naturally occurring bacteria. The probiotic aids in restoring the natural gut biome of bees challenged by unbalanced food sources from monoculture crops, holding yards, drought, food shortages, antibiotics, pesticides and several pathogens, including chalkbrood. Listen today and learn more from the producers of Super DFM-Honey Bee and Strong Microbials. Websites and links mentioned in the podcast: Strong Microbials Website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com/ Strong Microbials Science Blog: https://beesciencenews.com/ Strong Microbials on Twitter: @strongmicrobial Strong Microbials on Instagram: strongmicrobials Bee Space to Bee Hive - Kim's Book Review: https://www.bee-craft.com/shop/books/bee-space-to-bee-hive ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"