Beekeeping Today Podcast

Dr. Jay Evans is the Research Leader at the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Beltsville Maryland. He and the resident scientists there are involved in many projects, including mite studies, nutrition supplements for bees, queen health and nutrition. There's more to Jay than his regular research. He has been writing a column for our sponsor Bee Culture magazine for several years and has gathered together a books-worth of these that he has called Bee Optimism, published by IBRA.

This week, guest co-host Kirsten Traynor joins us with Madeleine Ostwald. Madeleine studies bees, having worked with both honey bees and carpenter bees. When days get hot, we seek out ways to cool off with water. Beekeepers (and sometimes their neighbors) know that honey bees do the same.  As an undergraduate student in Tom Seeley’s lab, Madelaine observed some bees adapt to heat stress by acting like water storage containers, always ready to chill things down when days get hot.

Dr. Sam Ramsey joins us again to share what he has found from his most recent work on Tropilaelaps mites in Thailand. He has been looking at the history of this mite’s movement around the world, the biology and its life cycle.  His work points out why this pest is so very difficult to control with chemicals, why it is so genetically diverse, what helps it adapt quickly to new control tactics and why populations build so fast in the colonies it infests.

This week, guest co-host Kirsten Traynor chats with Adam Ingrao, Ph.D, founder of Heroes to Hive.  H2H is a veterans training program he started 5 years ago. It trains veterans, especially those suffering from PTSD, how to manage honey bee hives and get started in beekeeping. Over 500 vets and family members are enrolled in this free program this year, making it one of the largest vet training programs in the US. He then describes how he got the program off the ground, goals and the success the program.

In this episode, we talk with James Wilkes and Joseph Cazier from Appalachian State University, who spearheaded the World Bee Count program just completed this spring. Bee Count is an annual event that aims to identify pollinators around the world and also measure pollinator health, dispersion and biodiversity. As part of the ground work, the team is working on a standardization for all data collection programs. Learn more by listening today!

As part of the pollinator week special, guest host Kirsten Traynor chats with Dr. Dave Goulson, an expert on pollinator health from the University of Sussex. Dave Goulson has been fascinated with insects since he was a boy and was able to turn this love of all things that fly, creep and crawl into a career. We also chat about his efforts to restore the farmland around his summer home in France to a wildflower rich meadow and the insect diversity that has returned to this nectar rich habitat.

Bee Friendly Farming has a good friend in Ron Bitner, Co-Chair of this P2 program. Ron runs Bitner Winery near Boise Idaho in Treasure Valley and for 40 years involved in non-apis bee management for pollination. Bee Friendly Farming has between 800 – 900 Bee Friendly Farmers, who practice reducing chemical use and use a whole row of holistic farming practices that improves the health of their soil and provides forage for bees.

Pollinator Week Series: The PolliNation Nation & More with Dr. Andony Melathopoulos (S3, E3)

Dr. Orley, “Chip” Taylor started Monarch Watch about 30 years ago. So far, he and his group have managed to tag over two million monarchs in their research. His studies have uncovered many secrets of the monarch. Chip talks about how habitat loss and climate change is a double whammy these butterflies face, and may not be able to overcome. Improving life for the monarch will improve life for all pollinators. This is a fascinating discussion for this Pollinator Week! Listen today!

Welcome to the first of our Pollinator Week Special Episodes. Each day this week we’ll release new interviews with teams and individuals who are all working to protect, provide and propagate pollinators all over the globe! Pollinator Week was started by Pollinator Partnership and we kick-off the week with P2’s President Laurie Adams and Program Director Kelly Rourke. Listen now!

This week, we talk with Dr. Jamie Ellis, from the University of Florida about The BEEMD website, the UoF Bee Lab, Coloss and his extension work! All his work is centered on honey bees, is beekeeper driven and embraces collaboration. Dr. Ellis has a brand-new bee lab with over 50 grad, undergrad and volunteer students conducting research. Get set to sit on the edge of you chair for some of the most exciting information on honey bees you’ve heard in a long time – well, at least since our last podcast!

In this episode, guest co-host and 2 Million Blossoms editor Kirsten Traynor joins Jeff and Kim with her Dr. Meghan Milbrath interview. Meghan's applies her epidemiology background in her work with honey bee diseases at Michigan State University. Megan started keeping bees over 20 years ago with her father and continues today at The Sand Hill Apiary near Munith, MI. Kirsten and Meghan talk about her history keeping bees, queens, diseases – including EFB, and even hygiene in the bee yard!

Ask beekeepers and you will hear many different opinions on Russian Honey Bees. Mostly, they either love them, hate them or know nothing about them.  In this episode, we go directly to the US source of these bees with Dr. Tom Rinderer and Steve Coy. Tom was instrumental in the early days of the research resulting in the introduction of this line of honey bee to the US by visiting Russia to find these varroa resistant bees.

Guest co-host and 3 Million Blossoms Editor, Kirsten Traynor and Tucka Saville chat this week, talking about treatment free beekeeping, having bees in Florida and Upstate New York, raising queens with Michael Palmer in Vermont, and working with Sam Comfort in Florida. They discuss raising queens, swarms, making simple, simple hive, being online and the whole community of beekeepers. Tucka is a commercial beekeeper and queen producer mostly in FL with over 300 colonies. Listen today!

On this day as the world is celebrating honey bees and all that they do, Dewey Caron, Kim Flottum and Kathy Summers share stories and memories of Ann Harman, who passed on May 1. Ann was an exceptional beekeeper, active in honey shows around the world and held key positions in the Eastern Apicultural Society. Ann will be missed by beekeepers around the world. We know that wherever she is now, it will be better with her being there. Thanks Ann. Thanks to Bee Culture for their support of this Podcast.