Beekeeping Today Podcast

This week we've invited Rich Morris, of Broodminder, to provide updates on what's new and what's improved with his Broodminder Hive Monitoring sensor collection. Broodminder has been in the hive monitoring business for many years and Rich states they are starting to design and release their second and third generations of products. For starters, Broodminder has completely reworked their mobile app so it is faster, shows more information and is easier to use. This past year, they introduced a "SubHub", an information collector for up to 50 hive sensors in a beeyard. The beekeeper can then make one quick stop at a yard and download the data to their cellphone or iPad/tablet to the Internet. They've also reworked the scales this year so now you can use the original simple front-end scale, or use a scale that weighs the whole hive. A scale can come assembled, or unassembled for you to do yourself. You'll save money with this new scale. The BeeCounted web page is becoming very useful for Broodminder users, and beekeepers anywhere. A map shows where Broodminder users are by zip code, and you can look at the data from any of these users, yourself included, and see if your hives are similar, or different than nearby hives, which may give you a heads up on trouble. That's just a start of the products designed and built for beekeepers by beekeepers. They also have a variety of cellular and WiFi enabled collectors that keep your hives connected so you can monitor them from wherever you are at any given moment If distant hive monitoring, or even backyard hive monitoring is important, or you're just curious as to what's going on inside, you will be interested in what this episode! Listen and subscribe/follow today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Broodminder Website - https://broodminder.com BeeCounted - https://www.beecounted.org BeeCounted Map - https://map.beecounted.org/citizen_science/embedded_map One of Jeff's Monitored Hives on BeeCounted - https://map.beecounted.org/hive/summary/DQ0O Bee Hive Monitoring Group on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/471604447501945/ 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 the third time we've talked with Sven-Erik Spichiger about the Asian Giant Hornet in the state of Washington, and this time he shares some history, enlightens us with the discoveries they've made so far, what they managed to accomplish this past season, and what they plan for next year. All this to keep this pest, or better, get rid of this pest, before it becomes established in the Pacific Northwest. The good folks in Washington have spent their third season searching for that newest pest – sometimes called The Murder Hornet – with some amount of success, and a lot of good experience and a host of new techniques for finding, capturing and measuring what this new pest is up to. The AGH was originally found in British Columbia in 2019. In 2020 Citizen Scientists, USDA, APHIS and Washington State Entomologists set up thousands of traps in the northern part of the state. They captured one nest. But they began to refine their equipment, condense the areas they were looking in, and get more people interested in helping them find more. In 2021 they again set thousands of traps and caught several, used better tracking tags for live captured hornets, and began looking at where they were living, and what they were eating. Alder trees are popular, but so are holes in the ground at the base of trees. The researchers observed the AGH favored the paper wasp nests of the PNW. The wasp nests are a great source of food, and figuring out how the AGH attacked, destroyed and then ate their wasp lunch was an interesting find. They also determined the WA State AGH was genetically related to AGH in Korea. In 2022, more citizen scientists will help out, and Washington researchers will worth with counterparts in Korea to study the native population of these creatures. This will provide better insight to the biology, diet, nesting habits and more, of the AGH of Washington State. Oops... sorry, we couldn't find the photo of Sven-Erik eating a larvae... dipped or otherwise. Listen today and FOLLOW today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Washington State Department of Agriculture Asian Giant Hornet site - https://agr.wa.gov/hornets 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

Hey everybody. Kim and Jeff are taking the week off and will be back next week with a new episode. For this week's Holiday Reply, we bring you our talk with Dr. Sam Ramsey from April, 2021. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Thank you for listening and Happy New Year! --------- Dr. Samuel 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

Happy Holidays Everybody! Come on along and listen in to Jeff and Kim and Kirsten and Jim when they get together around the virtual Christmas Tree and talk about the Holidays, the good and bad for last year and what they hope will be going on next year. Kirsten Traynor, and her 2MillionBlossoms podcast moved to Germany this year when she took a new job at one of the best beekeeping institutes in Europe, LAVES Institute of Bee Science Celle. Moving in the middle of a pandemic was a challenge, but her new job was worth it. Her new institute is involved basically in 3 areas of bees and beekeeping. They produce honey, and this year had a bumper heather crop. They also are involved in honey analysis, and in teaching the next generation of commercial beekeepers. Spring this year was cold and wet and Kirsten is hoping for better weather this coming spring. Kim (Beekeeping Today Podcast & Honey Bee Obscura) had a fairly good year with the bees, and so far, winter has been mild and easy. He did miss a lot of meetings this past year and hopes that changes this coming year. His connections in the beekeeping world are troubled with the current price of honey, and producing more bees and less honey seems like a better way to go. Jim Tew (Honey Bee Obscura) spent quite a bit of time wrestling with mite issues and queen issues this year, and hopes to be better prepared next season. He also is coming to grips with the fact that lifting 70-pound boxes of honey over the top of his head might not be the best thing any more, so downsizing his bee box size may be in his future. Jeff (Beekeeping Today Podcast) is still learning about the weather in the Pacific Northwest, which is cooler and wetter than his previous beeyards in Ohio and Colorado. He's looking to get better at figuring out how to keep his bees warmer and drier next year. Not to mention, keeping all three of podcasts up and running and getting better. The group is working on getting a regular newsletter out starting soon. They hoped it would be early December, but that obviously didn't work, but it's getting closer. Stay tuned, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US AT GROWING PLANET MEDIA!! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: 2 Million Blossoms podcast - https://2millionblossoms.com/thepodcast/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular newsletter and podcast focused on stories and photos of all pollinators and hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow 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. Ed Colby's short, "Possums in the Outhouse", Brightside Studio Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Joining the podcast today is Stephanie Bruneau, co-author of the new book, "Common Sense Natural Beekeeping." Stephanie Bruneau and our very own Kim Flottum, recently released this new book with Quarry Press. We talk with the authors about the basics of Natural Beekeeping and the role a beekeeper has to take to stay as natural as possible – all while aiding and guiding the colony so it stays healthy. For their latest work, Kim's desire to not put poison in a beehive is mirrored by Stephanie's. So to deal with the many pests and diseases bees encounter, a variety of management practices are used, and types of hives are described. According to Stephanie and Kim, this is where the "common sense" part comes in. Sound management, no chemicals, adequate housing, good nutrition, local stock and attention to detail, when combined by the bees and the beekeeper, add up to Common Sense Natural Beekeeping. Stephanie is also the author of The Benevolent Bee, looking at working and using honey bee products. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Common Sense Natural Beekeeping - https://smile.amazon.com/Common-Sense-Natural-Beekeeping-Bee-Friendly/dp/1631599550/ The Benevolent Bee - https://smile.amazon.com/Benevolent-Bee-Remedies-techniques-propolis/dp/1631592866/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular newsletter and podcast focused on stories and photos of all pollinators and hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow 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. Ed Colby's short, "Possums in the Outhouse", Brightside Studio Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Dr. Caydee Savinelli leads the Honey Bee Health Coalition's task force on Minimizing Pesticide Risk For Honey Bees. Caydee is a passionate entomologist and pollinators of all kinds are a big part of her life, so she has been very instrumental in helping the HBHC develop its best management practices for pesticide protection. Caydee stresses that both beekeepers and farmers need to understand the risks of pesticides to honey bees and works with both pesticide manufacturers and farmers so the labels are fully understandable. Good pollinator stewardship boils down to good communication between pesticide manufacturers, farmers, and beekeepers, knowing bee habits, understanding an awareness of local laws, and putting all of these together for a Best Management Practice so farmers and honey bees can both thrive. In addition to Caydee, one of our regional beekeepers and Bee Culture regular contributor, Ed Colby sends us a reading from his new book, A Beekeeper's Life - Tales from the Bottom Board, available on Amazon or wherever you buy your books! All-in-All, we have a great episode for you this week! Listen today and learn how the Honey Bee Health Coalition is working to make the world safer for honey bees and all pollinators! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Health Coalition - https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org HBHC - Part 1: Intro & Overview w/Matt Mulica - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/s3e44 HBHC - Part 2: Pests & Predators w/Mary Reed & Dr. Dewey Caron - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/s4e4 HBHC - Part 3: Forage & Habitat w/Pete Berthelsen - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/s4e13 Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular newsletter and podcast focused on stories and photos of all pollinators and hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow 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. Ed Colby's short, "Possums in the Outhouse", Brightside Studio Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Joining us is Bee Culture contributor and author, Ross Conrad. Ross is a commercial beekeeper in Vermont. He runs a small commercial operation running about 100 colonies and all are treatment free. He makes honey, does a bit of pollination and does a good bit of teaching. He is the author of Natural Beekeeping, a serious look at keeping bees without the use of disease or pest management chemicals, which is in its second edition. Just released is his new book, The Land Of Milk And Honey, with Bill Mares, a history of beekeeping in their home state of Vermont. Beekeeping in Vermont excels in overwintering and queen production that will help beekeepers anywhere. Today Ross talks about the pricing scandal around the EpiPen, the syringe used to apply epinephrine to people experiencing extreme allergic reactions to a variety of substances including honey bee venom. Extreme price increases have made these difficult, if not impossible to obtain by beekeepers to have around to prevent problems. Ross then talks with us about beekeeping history from several pioneers of Vermont beekeeping and ties it into his newest book with Bill Mare. Vermont's history is full of fascinating beekeepers, unique to the area, who's management techniques have touched us all. Listen to this noted Natural Beekeeper today on Beekeeping Today Podcast! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Ross' website - www.dancingbeegardens.com EpiPen Class Action Lawsuit (Filing date has passed) - https://www.epipenclassaction.com Natural Beekeeping Book by Ross, on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Beekeeping-Organic-Approaches-Apiculture/dp/1603583629/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular newsletter and podcast focused on stories and photos of all pollinators and hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow 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 invite Cliff Struhl on the show to talk about his company, Bee Smart Designs. Cliff actually got his start in manufacturing beekeeping equipment because his wife didn't want cinder blocks and 2x4's as hive stands in her very well-designed gardens around their home. Cliff, whose business is manufacturing plastic, blow molded sidewalk sign holders, figured out a way to make an appealing hive stand using the existing technology of making his sign stands. And he was off! After his hive stand, Cliff designed a feeder that now solves many problems of the typical Boardman and Miller feeders. It's very close to the bees, they can't get up into it, it has no drip and is easy to fill. Going to the bottom board was next, with a stainless screen that won't rust, and built-in mouse guard, robbing screen and entrance reducers that makes it an all-in-one bottom. His insulated inner cover has a foam layer on top for warmth, has an opening for a top entrance if needed, or closed so no ventilation for warmth. Moisture is condensed on walls for the bees, but the top stays warm….much like a tree. Coming soon is a magnetic hive tool holder belt, to keep you from losing your tool somewhere in a bee yard. And for everybody, Pry Point, to make separating sticky boxes much easier. All of these are available from nearly every bee supply dealer (including our sponsor – BetterBee) and you can locate one near you by going to BeeSmart Designs web page. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Smart Designs - https://www.beesmartdesigns.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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 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

Last year, we talked with The Good Food Foundation about their annual honey contest (S3, E14). This year, we bring you four of the 15 finalists to talk about their entries and their beekeeping operation. Winners will be announced the week of the episode's release! Honey for the contest is entered and only compared to honeys from the region it is produced and it can be liquid, comb or infused. The honey must be entered by the beekeeper who produced it. The judges look at how it was produced and harvested, overall animal husbandry, and is there any community engagement with bees, beekeeper and the people in their world. First up in the episode, we have Max Kirwin, the Good Food Awards leader, who oversees all 18 committees for this contest. Joining Max is Mark Carlson, the Honey Committee chair who will share what it is they are looking for in each honey submission category. Mark was with us back in August of 2020 in our first episode with the Good Food Foundation. We have 4 very different finalists this time. Jay Williams of Williams Honey Company and South Hall Farms, is working to build a destination luxury resort dedicated to sustainability, agricultural, culinary discovery and the circle of life. Of course, honey and pollinators play an important role to the theme. Ethan West, of Republic of Vermont Honey Company, they manage a treatment free apiary with bees spread out over 3 counties in the Champlain Valley of Vermont and the Green Mountains. Dustin Vanasse, along with Michael Gilbert of Bare Honey, produces honey in solar panel yards all over California. Dusty has learned the tricks of Solar Based Beekeeping, utilizing the acreages and space around these large installations to produce infused honey, using organic and local peppers for his flavoring. Before they left, we asked each of these finalists give tips on how to get ready for next year's competition. A whole lot of good advice in this final segment. Think you have good honey? Then think about entering next year's Good Food Awards. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Good Food Foundation - https://goodfoodfdn.org Good Food Award - Honey Competition - https://goodfoodfdn.org/awards/categories/honey/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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 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

We welcome back Dr. Brittney Goodrich, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist at the University of California, Davis. Brittney joined us originally on October 5, 2020 to talk about her research on the importance of Almond Pollination contracts. Today, she joins us to discuss just how the success (or lack thereof) of the almond pollination season impacts the rest of the nation's beekeeping for the year. Here is a truth: No matter how large or small your operation is this year, almond pollination in California is going to have some effect on how your season goes. Almond pollination uses about 90% of available honey bee colonies each spring, and many, many of those colonies are used later for queen production, package shaking, nuc and split production and make in honey later in the season. Almond pollination affects colonies in orchards in many ways. Primarily - colony health. Almond pollen is a rich source of food for these bees, so that helps, but because 90% of US bees are in just a few counties of California, every colony out there has a good chance of catching whatever any colony within flight range has . Almond season has the real potential to become a superspreader event. Almond pollination WILL affect your beekeeping next season. Be as ready as you can for all that can happen. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Brittney's Website with useful almond research information - http://www.brittneygoodrich.com/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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 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

For this episode, we invite back our regular regional beekeepers to sit down with us and discuss how their season went, what surprises they had, what worked, what didn't and what they were planning for in 2022. In their discussions with each other, they talked about making comb honey, mead, honey prices in their area, swarm preventions techniques, and regional varroa populations. Mark Smith is from North Carolina. He's a chemical free beekeeper and has been for a decade or so. He is pretty isolated and relies on his own survivor stock for mite control. Tracy Alarcon lives in north east Ohio and is running about 10 colonies. He did good with early honey this year, but the goldenrod didn't produce like he thought it would. He makes mead and comb honey along with liquid honey, but keeps much of the liquid for himself. Ed Colby lives on the western slope of the Rockies, and his book came out this summer. Entitled A Beekeeper's Life. Tales From The Bottom Board. Each chapter is from one of his Bottom Board columns in Bee Culture magazine and is doing well. He experienced some drought this summer, the higher elevation beeyards did well. He runs about 70 colonies. Normally he sells spring splits, but next year is looking to expand so will keep most of those. Listen to our Regional Beekeepers as they discuss their years. Are they like you? Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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 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 Jonna Sanders about AŽ hives (NA Beekeepers say "AZ". We learn today that it correctly pronounced "AH-shah". Jonna is a lifelong AŽ Hive beekeeper and sells AŽ hives in the US. Today we talk with her in depth on how beekeepers manage these hives. We talked with Regional Beekeeper, Paul Longwell back in May as part of our Five-Part Series on Different Hive Types, where he introduced us to the AŽ Hive. Slovenian in origin, these hives are inside a building or wagon and the bees exit their hives from openings on the outside wall or side. Beekeepers, however, go into the building or wagon and are able to open these hives from a 'cabinet door' on the back, so the bees barely notice the beekeeper's activity. When asked what's the best thing about these hives, the immediate answer is NO LIFTING! When the beekeeper opens the hives from the back inside the building, removing the frames to examine them is much like removing books off a shelf. They sit in metal supports so there is very little propolis, they are kept in exactly beespace distance, and they slide out very easily. Jonna talks about frame size, shape, bee escapes, pollen traps, the types of bees Slovenian beekeepers typically use, overwintering in a building, installing packages, the fact that you can examine your hives no matter the weather outside, and much more. Remember, no lifting. Listen today and an AŽ Hive just might be in your back yard next summer. In the episode, Jonna talks about her annual tour of beekeeping in Slovenia. Details are not yet available for a 2022 trip as the pandemic complicates international travel. Contact Jonna through her website to receive updates and announcements. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: AZ Hives North America - https://azhivesnorthamerica.com AŽ Hive Inspection - https://youtu.be/ws5nbLyfNiI AŽ Hives Group on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2134465946665350/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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 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

Imagine a completely automated beekeeping operation. Well, BeeWise has created the Bee Home, housing 24 colonies that is a solar powered, insulated, and completely automated for every beekeeping management task. Saar Safar, our guest today, was approached by a beekeeper that had a rough idea of what he wanted, and Saar put his own skills at mechanical and digital automation to work and BeeWise came to be. The Bee Home is totally self-contained and requires almost no beekeeper assistance. There are 24 colonies in each unit, 12 colonies on each side of the bee home that open to the outside. Inside the bee home box there is a space between the two sides that a robot occupies. It can move from front to back, and it can inspect each of the hives from inside. It removes a frame, examines its condition relative to brood, disease, food and more, and sends the data to the cloud where a beekeeper can make appropriate management decisions. Annual losses in the Beewise bee homes are less than 10%, which is a real plus. Labor costs to manage and supply food for the robot to feed colonies, or remove the extracted honey are minute when compared to traveling to remote beeyards, having to examine each hive and then managing it for survival. The costs are evolving, but at this time there is no initial upfront purchase cost. Then $400/month for each unit containing 24 colonies. That's $200/year for each colony with essentially no labor costs and less than 10% annual loss. Almond pollination will pay the rent, and the honey made is only a plus, along with the many extra bees available to split and sell. They've been at this for several years, improving and adding features and testing these units, and thousands of colonies have been managed in them, and it seems they have it down. Take a look at the web page and see for yourself. BeeWise. Completely automated beekeeping. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Beewise - https://beewise.ag Marla Spivak on Wait What, "How The Bees Saved Me" - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-the-bees-saved-me-by-dr-marla-spivak/id1472106563?i=1000538436515 Bee Blower - https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/33287174447 Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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 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 Steve Repasky about his book, Swarming Essentials, published by WicWas Press in 2014. Steve is in the middle of updating his book and we found him ready to talk about swarming in general, and what's new in the world of swarms that he's putting in his next edition. Basically, the biology of swarms hasn't changed much, although there seems to be an uptick in fall swarms in his part of the world. But what has changed is we now have a better understanding of honey bee biology. This helps the beekeeper make better hive management choices to help reduce the colony's urge to swarm. When a colony is in equilibrium, that is a laying queen, a healthy population, lots of nectar and pollen coming in and plenty of brood, life is good. However, change any of these suddenly and the equilibrium gets unbalanced and swarming can happen. We talk with Steve about how nectar management is critical to reduce swarming. This is why Steve uses only a single deep for brood and lots of boxes for nectar. Making sure most of the bees are close together and there is lots of room for incoming nectar is paramount in controlling this most common problem with keeping bees. Listen today. Swarming… what do you think? Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Swarming Essentials - http://wicwas.com/project/swarm-essentials-23-00/ Beginner's Beekeeping Guide on Porch (Kim's article) - https://porch.com/advice/beekeeping-tips-experts Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow 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

Today, we talk with Dara Scott of Advanced Science out of Galway, Ireland, makers of HiveAlive. Off the west coast of Ireland grows a variety of see borne plants, commonly called sea weeds, that have evolved defenses against their biotic pests that live in the ocean. Bacteria, antifungal organisms and other biotic pests are well controlled by these seaweeds. Farmers have taken advantage of the defenses these plants have developed and are feeding sea weeds and sea weed extracts to their land-based animals to take advantage of these sea borne benefits against land-based pests. Land based pests generally have no immunity to the defenses produced by a sea borne organism, and the effect has been incredible for dairy, horses, fish and now, honey bees HiveAlive is a mix of several sea weed extracts, along with added lemon grass oil and thymol. Research indicates the extracts work very well to deal with spores of Apis cerenae, chalkbrood, and helps boost the immune system of the bees so they are better able to deal with the other pests haunting our bees at present. Moreover, the plants these compounds are extracted from are sustainable and renewable, so supply and over harvesting is not an issue. Listen as we talk with Dara about seaweed extracts and how you can leverage their benefits as part of your overall hive management strategy. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: HiveAlive - https://hivealivebees.com/ Kim's Book Review: Crop Pollination by Bees. Vol 1., Evolutionb, Ecology, Conservatiobn and Management. 2nd Edition. By Keith Delaplane Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow 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

This week we talk with researcher and author, David Aston about his book, Good Nutrition, Good Bees. It's exciting to see how much information on honey bee nutrition is becoming available. This is happening as both new research and looking at existing research in a new light. David Aston, and his coauthor and wife Sally Bucknall, have focused on presenting much existing information, along with some of their newer work in a unique format. Imagine, if you will, all of the things a bee does during his or her life. Starting with being a larva, pupa, then adult. Each of these stages requires a different diet, either in content, amount or timing. What happens if there isn't enough food, or the quality is below what's needed, or suddenly there isn't any at all. Then imagine the series of tasks an adult bee undertakes. Feeding larvae, raising queens, flying and foraging, making beeswax, dancing, laying eggs, mating, producing venom, and all of the rest of the tasks in their busy lives. Does the diet of a worker bee need to change as she matures? Once a queen starts laying eggs, how much food does she need to produce 1000, 1500 eggs a day? Does a bee know where to find the food needed to produce venom? What plants are fatty acids, lipids, vitamins, inorganic elements, sterols and all the rest found that are needed to do all the things bees do? And if you are feeding you bees, what do you feed them? And how much, and when? David Aston tackles all of these questions in his podcast and in his book. It is simply a wealth of information, so you can make sure your bees have enough good food, all of the time, for every bee in the bunch. Listen Today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Good Nutrition Good Bees - https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/products/good-nutrition-good-bees-aston-and-bucknall/ Tom Theobald's "Notes from the Beeyard" podcast - https://notesfromthebeeyard.buzz Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their suppor

Today we talk with Dr. Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman. Gloria is the Research Leader at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. Gloria and the researchers there are involved in several projects, but today we talked to her about just two that are both new and promising for beekeepers and their bees. Modeling honey bee nutrition requirements on a seasonal basis is an area that has not received much attention to date, as they have been for many other animals. It turns out that the pollens that bees collect satisfy those requirements on a seasonal basis. High energy in spring with large amounts of amines and fatty acids for brood rearing, less so in summer and more towards storage use in the fall for overwintering. This may affect pollen feeding, and pollen substitute formulas to optimize their diets at the right time. But there are both seasonal and regional differences in pollen quality, and what is being noted is that with climate change affecting the phenology of blooming dates, bees may not be able to get the food they need when they need it. Another project being studied is overwintering colonies in climate-controlled buildings. They are looking at how much food will a colony need to do this, what the population should be when they enter a building, and when should they come out of storage so that they are ready to build fast for early pollination work, or later for honey flows. In addition, they are researching the best time for a season's mite controls to be placed for optimum control and honey bee health. Along with this they looked at cost efficiencies relative to winter losses, feed costs, colony strength and labor and made some interesting finds relative to these costs. Listen in to hear more about this exciting research! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Carl Hayden Bee Research Lab - https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/tucson-az/carl-hayden-bee-research-center/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beek

Today, we pick up on the third installment of our exploration of the Honey Bee Health Coalition's programs as we talk with Pete Berthelsen. Pete runs the Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund, a non-profit organization working to improve the habitat for all bees and butterflies, anywhere people can make it happen. They have projects in 12 states and are looking to get as many more as they can. They work with the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), trying to get seed mixes used on these 24 million set aside acres more bee and butterfly friendly, among many other projects. That means working with and coordinating activities between the USDA, seed company organizations, farmers, commercial beekeepers and others. The CRP has been in place since 1985 and has been successful in improving the soil, water quality of the land rented from farmers so it can be improved. Mostly, however, it is planted to grasses, and not pollinator friendly habitat. It's no wonder then that he's intimately involved with the Honey Bee Health Coalition's Honey Bee Nutrition and Forage program. Focusing on pollinator health and habitat is what he does, every day. The 12 states his Bee and Butterfly projects are in are prime locations for commercial honey production, the monarch butterfly migration route and very productive agricultural land. So, when all of the members of the HBHC sat down at the table – Ag Supply companies, conservationists, food producers and food buyers, commercial beekeepers, honey packers and a host of others – there was some uneasiness in the room. But as Pete puts it, to solve a problem as big as turning around modern agriculture, you have to be a lumper, not a splitter. All of the people involved have to be part of the solution. No one can advance at the cost of other's moving down. And Pete is working to make this happen for all the bees and all the birds, and better soil and clean water. Find out what more this arm of the Honey Bee Health Coalition is doing to improve the health of our honey bees, and butterflies, too. First, though we talk with Zach Techner of Cascadia Venom Collection. Zach recently stopped by Jeff's house to 'collect' a large Bald Faced Hornets' nest and a smaller in-ground Yellowjacket nest. This time of year, beekeepers are typically the first to receive calls to remove 'bees'… and they're typically not honey bees but hornets. Zach talks with Jeff about his full-time business collecting hornets for labs who use the venom and provides some information all beekeepers should know about hornets. It's an exciting episode so listen today. If you like what you hear, subscribe/follow, leave a review and let all your friends know about Beekeeping Today Podcast. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Health Coalition - https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org Bee and Butterfly Fund - https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org Cascadia Venom Collection - https://www.cascadiavenomcollection.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple

What on earth is a microsponge? And what do beekeepers do with them? In this episode, we talk with James Webb, CEO, and Nate Reid, Operations Manager at Beemmunity Labs on the exciting research and product development underway. They fill us in on a very creative way that our honey bees can now manage exposure to common agricultural pesticides. They have created a microparticle that is composed of a detoxifying treatment encapsulated in a protein shell that can be fed to your bees in a sugar syrup solution. This treatment detoxifies pesticides that are consumed by your bees in pollen or nectar and are then passed through their systems, then removed during their next cleansing flight. So far, it seems that any pesticide that they have fed to their bees has been neutralized at or very near 100%. Plus, you can use this during honey flows if you feed your bees a treated pollen patty. Instant protection, all of the time. If you are treating for mites, remove the strips before applying the the microsponge treatment. Other positive features are that you only need to feed every three weeks or so, but, if you live in an area where pesticides are applied often, you can feed just before spraying or treated seed is planted and ensure protection for the whole season with treatments every three weeks. Plus, it has a long, uncomplicated shelf life so storage is inexpensive. Finally, your bees can be safe from agricultural pesticides. It's getting better out there. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Beemmunity - https://www.beemmunity.co Effects of OAV on Honey Bees Effects of Oxalic Acid on Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) by Eva Rademacher, Marika Harz, Saskia Schneider Institute of Biology/Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 28-30, 14195 Berlin, Germany Insects 2017, 8(3), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects8030084 Sublethal effects of oxalic acid on Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae): changes in behaviour and longevity By Saskia Schneider, Dorothea Eisenhardt & Eva Rademacher Apidologie volume 43, pages218–225 (2012) Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.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 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 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. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your ques

Jerry Hayes' journey to become the current Editor of Bee Culture magazine makes him uniquely qualified to lead the A.I. Root Company's 149-year-old Magazine for Beekeepers. He started as a high school teacher in Georgia, but soon found that was not what he wanted to do, so he left that and began working in the plastic industry. That's where he met his first beekeeper and started this journey. He went back to school in Wooster, Ohio, studying commercial beekeeping under the watchful eye of Dr. Jim Tew. From there to the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Baton Rouge studying African Honey Bees. Then the Dadant organization offered him a job in their Michigan branch, but shortly John Root offered him a job as Product Manager for their bee supply business. Dadant countered and brought him to the Hamilton location, where he worked in product development and began his 40 years writing the Q&A Column for ABJ. From there he became Florida's Chief Apiary Inspector for a bit, then working with an Israeli company trying to develop a RNAi treatment for Varroa. Monsanto bought that company and Jerry headed in that direction and finally on to Medina, Ohio. Being Editor gives some insight into the industry he hadn't had before – what are the biggest changes, what's not changed, the incredible advancement of educational opportunities for beekeepers everywhere, and the rise of the internet as both a good and bad source of information for beekeepers. Working with writers is an ongoing job, but his contacts from all of his previous experiences is proving valuable as he knows almost everybody in the worlds of government and university research, the business of beekeeping, and the world of industry regulation. He guides several industry organizations, and works constantly to make his readers more environmentally aware of the world around them. Listen to the details of the journey Jerry Hayes took to get to the Editor's chair at Bee Culture magazine. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Culture Magazine: https://www.beeculture.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 ______________ 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 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 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. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount onl

Eugene Makovec has been Editor of the American Bee Journal for only a short time and isn't well known in the Beekeeping world. He is working to change that. He grew up helping his father keep the family's bees, so has a good background in the craft. He spent time building his career for a few years after graduating with a journalism degree, but when he came back to bees when his father was around to help him get started. When that happened, he began working with some local associations, drifting to the communication side and working on newsletters. As newsletter editor, he attended many local and regional meetings and he got to meet a lot of the industry leaders. Eugene was awarded beekeeper of the year and stayed active in the group. He pushed the state of Missouri to change the laws regarding home production and bottling of honey, for which the Association awarded him with a second Beekeeper of the Year. Dadant hired Eugene as editor of ABJ after long time editor Joe Graham retired and after transitional editor, Kirsten Traynor. He likes working with writers and has good advice for someone wanting to write for the magazine. He is gradually moving the magazine in new directions while maintaining much of what the magazine if known for: Common sense, practical information for all levels of beekeepers. You can reach him at [email protected] with questions or comments. And you can view past issues of the magazine at www.americanbeejournal.com. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: American Bee Journal: https://americanbeejournal.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. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow 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 guita

On today's episode, we welcome back friend of the podcast, James Wilkes, beekeeper, professor and Founder of HiveTracks. HiveTracks continues to evolve and grow from the 'simple' 2008 technology platform focused on recordkeeping for the beekeeper to an entire ecosystem of management decision making tools. In past episodes staring with Episode 007 we talked with James about the 'computerized hive' and then in Season 3, with James and Joseph Cazier, about the development of 'Bee-XML' as a means to standardize data recording and sharing within the industry. The HiveTracks team also continues to evolve and grow with James taking on the role of CTO allowing the new CEO to focus on the day-to-day running of the business, and James can put all his energies to the technology behind HiveTracks and providing strategic direction. HiveTracks is now about to roll out the next generation of the product under the name of "The Beekeeper's Companion". It's more than a recordkeeping app on your cellphone. It now incorporates a full featured, data driven decision making tool pulling in information from not only your bees, but from multiple data sources including weather, the local/regional beekeeper community, land use/area floral sources and blooming periods and a beekeeping calendar! All of this is to provide the beekeeper the best information for making health decisions for your bees, your colonies. Join us as we learn more about the future of data driven beekeeping using HiveTracks! If you like what you've listen to in this and any other episode, make sure to share this podcast with your beekeeping friends! Also, don't forget to subscribe and even leave a 5-star review!! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: HiveTracks - https://www.hivetracks.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 first with Molly Martin, the coordinator of Bee City USA, and Bee Campus USA, both supported by the Xerces Society. The Xerces Society is as Pro Pollinator as any group can get, there's no doubt about that. Of course, our honey bees are probably the best-known pollinators, but there are thousands more out there – other bees of course, but butterflies, birds, bats, beetles, and a host of other creatures. It all began some years ago when Phyllis Stiles developed a program that cities, and then campuses could adopt that would enhance the environment of that city or campus to the advantage of all the pollinators that lived within its borders. The city or campus would work to develop additional habitat, reduce habitat loss, add to or develop an IPM program to reduce pesticide use, ensure that new plantings would be local, native and beneficial to pollinators, and work to make residents more aware of, support and nurture the value and the benefits of working with pollinators instead of against them. Phyllis worked on growing this program, and after several years began working with the Xerces Society to help grow it even more. Today, there are 266 total associates in this program, in 44 states, and the growth has not slowed one bit. Bee Associates, cities or campuses, must from a committee that includes officials and volunteers to make certain the goals of this organization are carried out, new directions are followed and existing programs that do not enhance pollinators are removed or modified. Xerces provides ample educational web sites, webinars, videos, signage, and additional support to the community so that the efforts of the city or campus not only continues to grow, but also continues to improve. Then, Jeff makes an unplanned visit to talk with the City of Olympia's project leader for their recent Bee City Certification, Amy Stulls. Amy shares the City's inspiration, plan, program and future of their Bee City designation. Amy is definitely someone to listen to if you are planning a Bee City certification for your town. Listen in as Molly and then Amy share what you will need to do to become a Bee City USA, or Bee Campus USA and help grow an organization the supports honey bees and beekeeping certainly, and all pollinators. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee City USA / Bee Campus USA: https://beecityusa.org Xerces Society: https://www.xerces.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] 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

Max Cherney is Director of Operations at Nectar Technologies and Dr. Rae Olson is a postdoctoral researcher at Washington State University. Together they work with Precision Beekeeping in Quebec, Canada developing a data driven app for commercial beekeepers to use to seasonally track not only individual colonies but entire beeyards, with each colony having an individual identity within that beeyard. Using GPS technology to identify a location, a beeyard, or a colony, can be tracked for an entire season. This can tell a beekeeper location differences as far as a host of variables is concerned, plus a long list of the results of management differences. For instance, at the beginning of the season, colony and beeyard analyses can be made to determine the status of the yard and each hive. Then when some of the colonies, each with an QR ID code are moved, the early information in the cloud can tell what differences exist later in the season without having to take notes, enter them on a spreadsheet and hope you can remember what you did when and to which colony. Data can be collected automatically when a yard is treated for varroa, fed, requeened with new stock, or other management issues. All you need is a cell phone with the app and you are set to collect. If you don't have a cell signal, the data is automatically loaded right to the phone and automatically downloads when a signal is found. The data is stored and can be analyzed later, adding information collected earlier in the season. This can show the beekeeper the long-term impact of different treatments, feeding schedules, kinds of feed, queen suppliers, local forage, local weather and more. Still in the development stages, Nectar is working with commercial beekeepers in several locations and using different management schemes to determine what data beekeepers will want and need, then what data the analysis team will need to collect to analyze the data collected. Right now, Nectar is working with beekeepers on a dozen or so data points, but the researchers behind the scenes are pointing to over 70 different data points needed to better analyze what is going on. Data analysis is based on a three-prong approach – providing an easy-to-use dashboard for data entry by beekeepers, determining exactly what information beekeepers want and need, and working with researchers to get the most out of treatments and location data. The future of beekeeping is here. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Nectar Technologies - https://www.nectar.buzz 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 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