Beekeeping Today Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Season One Wrap-Up: A Look Back at What Was and Forward to What Will Bee! - (032) Jun 28, 2019

Show notes

In this Season One wrap-up, Jeff and Kim talk about how the show got started, talk about some of the guests on the show. Kim also interviews Jeff during the show. Who is Jeff and why is HE on the podcast? They also discuss some of the history behind some of the podcasts including the sale of the A.I. Root beekeeping equipment business.

This is a casual review of the year and a look forward to some of the guests lined up for the coming year.

Links and websites mentioned in the show:

Jeff's Cleveland Clinic Cancer Research Foundation Fundraiser Page (VeloSano): https://give.ccf.org/fundraiser/1819787
Dr. Tom Seeley's co-authored paper on 'Varroa Mite Bombs' in Plos|One: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218392

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your suggestions, questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Pollinator Week: Adam Allington - The Business of Bees - (031) Jun 21, 2019

Show notes

Adam Allington is the producer and host of the Bloomberg Environment podcast, The Business of Bees. Adam joins Jeff and Kim on this final podcast of the 2019 Pollinator Week series.

Business of Bees is a six-part podcast series that introduces the listener to the business though in voices of those in the industry, including several you've heard here (John Miller, BTP #002 and Dr. Samuel Ramsey, BTP #015).

Adam's series is a easy to listen to, high quality podcast that represents the pros and cons to the business, including how honey bees helps to pollinate the nation's crops. The series also touches on the debate of honey bees vs. native pollinators.

The Business of Bees is available wherever you listen to or download your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts.

Websites and links mention in the podcast:

Bloomberg Business of Bees: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-16/the-big-business-of-bees

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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 show with Adam!

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Pollinator Week: Gene Brandi - California Pollinator - (030) Jun 20, 2019

Show notes

Gene Brandi is a West Coast beekeeper, based out of Los Banos, California. Gene is is a great spokesman for the beekeeping industry having spent over 40 years in the business. Gene is Past President of American Beekeeping Federation, has served as the Chair of The National Honey Board, Chair of the Almond Board of California, and served in committees of both organizations... along with other responsibilities including serving on the Project Apis m Board and Carl Hayden Bee Research Center's Industry Liaison Committee.

He is a busy man and we were fortunate to catch him on a busy day while he had a spare moment. On the episode, Gene talks with Jeff and Kim about the pollination business from the perspective of a longtime beekeeper in the California Central Valley. Almonds are a part of his business, but so are many of the other crops grown there throughout the year. He doesn't travel out of State with his bees but he is often on the move with them from one crop to another throughout the growing season.

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Pollinator Week: Dr. Jennifer Tsuruda, Honey Bee Pollination - (029) Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Jennifer Tsuruda is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she focuses her time on honey bee health, pollination and as the State's Extension Service apiculturist. Prior to her current position, she was the apiculturist for Clemson University. Her research includes honey bee foraging behavior, behavioral resistance to mites, genomic imprinting and pesticide exposure.

Jennifer joins Jeff & Kim in today's Pollinator Week episode to discuss the work she is doing at her new role at the University of Tennessee, pollination gardens, honey bee photography and pollination in general.

Websites and links mention in the podcast include:

University of Tennessee Entomology Homepage: https://epp.tennessee.edu
Tennessee Beekeepers Association: http://www.tnbeekeepers.org
Pollination Partnership: (see episodes #1 and #27): https://www.pollinator.org
Xerces Society: (see episode #2): https://xerces.org
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: https://www.wildflower.org
Tennessee State Apiarist: https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/businesses/bees/state-apiarist.html
University of Tennessee Bee Lab: https://ag.tennessee.edu/EPP/Pages/Bees%20and%20Beekeeping/home.aspx

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Pollinator Week: Davey Hackenberg - Commercial Beekeeper - (028) Jun 18, 2019

Show notes

Davey Hackenberg is a second-generation of beekeeper following in the steps of his father, Dave Hackenberg, in the honey and pollination business. Davey lives in Lewisberg, PA where he and his family run Hackenberg Honey, home of Buffy Bee Honey!

In this candid interview, Davey talks openly about the year-round challenges he and other pollinators face as they travel the country taking their bees to crops and orchards. If you want to become a pollinator or dream about walking away from your office job to become a full-time beekeeper, you just might want to listen to this Beekeeping Today Podcast to hear the good and the bad, the past and a glimpse of the future the commercial beekeeper. Keeping your business 'sideline' may be your best bet!

Davey is also featured in Peter Nelson's The Pollinators movie. Jeff & Kim talk with Peter in Beekeeping Today Podcast (#022).

Websites mentioned in the podcast:

Hackenberg Apiaries: https://hackenbergapiaries.us
Pollinator Week: https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Pollinator Week: Pollinator Partnership - Kelly Rourke & Vicki Wojcik - (027) Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

Pollinator Partnership is the organization responsible for bringing us Pollinator Week, so it is only fitting "P2" leads off our special week of podcasts!

In 2007, Congress unanimously declared a week of June as National Pollinator Week. Pollinator Week has now grown into a international celebration of the invaluable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles.

In this 2019 Pollinator Week kickoff podcast, we've invited Kelly and Vicki on the show to discuss four of their 30+ programs to pollinators and pollinator habitats, including:

Pollinator Week
Mite-athon
NAPPC Honey Bee Health Grants
Bee Friendly Farming

Kelly is the Director of Programs and Operations and responsible forPollinator Week, North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), and P2 grants and scholarships. Kelly received her Masters of Science in Environmental Management form the University of San Francisco.

Vicki is the Research Director for P2 Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy & Management where her graduate studies focused on understanding how native bees use gardens and habitats in cities. As Director she oversees P2 Canada's research programs, keeping on top of new and emerging pollinator issues and managing a program set that includes pollinator habitat conservation and landscape management assessments; understanding and enhancing agroecosystems; landuse and pesticide policy review; support for threatened and critical species; and ecosystem service assessments.

Websites mention in the podcast include:

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk/Dr. David Firth: Bee Health Guru & UoM Master Beekeeper Program - (026) May 07, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk and Dr. David Firth from the Univerisity of Montana are working together on a new application for beekeepers called Bee Health Guru. The application uses artificial intelligence (AI) to listen to the sound and based upon complex algorithms and learned history, can provide a diagnosis of the colony's health. Simply amazing.

Jerry and David join Jeff & Kim on this episode to talk about the history of the technology and the ongoing research of the technology under-pinnings of the cell phone app.

At the beginning of the podcast, you can hear Jeff listening to a audio clip of a 2-deep colony of bees at rest. Then suddenly, no... instantly, their tone changes. Could you tell what happened? The audio file was provided by Dr. Bromenshenk. In the recording, a colony of honey bees 'at rest' are given one (1) drop of toluene. The communication through the hive was instantaneous. Bees communicate more than we knew and the Bee Health Guru app hopes to help us translate just what they're saying!

Links and websites mention in the episode:

Bee Health Guru: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beehealthguru/bee-health-guru-a-smartphone-app-for-beekeepers
University of Montana Master Beekeeper Program: https://www.umt.edu/sell/programs/bee/

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Geoff Williams/Selina Bruckner: Bee Informed Partnership Annual Colony Loss Survey - (025) Apr 26, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Geoff Williams is an assistant professor at Auburn University. He is in charge of the Bee Lab and is on the Board of the Bee Informed Partnership. Selina Bruckner is a PhD student in entomology at Auburn and working on the Annual Colony Loss and Management Survey.

The Bee Informed Partnership Colony Loss and National Management Survey is now in its 13th year and BIP is able to use the wealth of data to start to understand how management practices are impacting colony mortality across the country.

It doesn't matter how many hives you have: Whether you are a backyard beekeeper, a sideliner or a commercial beekeeper - your information can be helpful to everyone. The survey closes on April 30th, so please use the link below to take the survey online. Your personal identifying information is kept confidential, so you respond in confidence.

Selina provide this poem during the podcast and has permitted us to post it here! You can

download a copy by clicking on the link at the top of this page.

Links and websites mention in the episode:

The Survey can be filled out here: https://26.selectsurvey.net/beeinformed/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=LMS2019#
A preview of the Survey can be found here: https://beeinformed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/PREVIEW_2018-2019-Loss-and-Management-Survey-paper.pdf
And results from previous years can be found here: https://bip2.beeinformed.org/loss-map/

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Meredith May: The Honey Bus - (024) Apr 25, 2019

Show notes

Meredith May is a beekeeper, journalist and author who grew up in the Big Sur area, along the central California coast. Her mother withdrew from Meredith's and her brother's lives following the breakup of her marriage.

The Honey Bus is Meredith's memoir of growing up in her grandparent's home and helping her grandpa with the beekeeping chores. He helped her find structure, rhythm and stability during a place and time when home life with her mother was anything but, by showing how the bees make order out of chaos.

Grandpa was a plumber and sideline beekeeper, who kept his years for years around the Central California community. His honey house was in fact, an old Army bus he stripped down and converted to hold his honey extraction and bottling operation.

This is a heartwarming story of perseverance, love and honey bees that has a message for everyone - beekeepers and everyone else.

Join Jeff & Kim and they talk with Meredith about her book, her grandpa and her bees today.

Links and websites mention in the episode:

The Honey Bus website: http://thehoneybus.com

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

Jonathan Lundgren: Regenerative Agriculture and Honey Bee Health - (023) Mar 27, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Jonathan Lundgren is a former USDA-ARS soil scientist, having received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004. Today he is Director of ECDYSIS Foundation and CEO of Blue Dasher Farm. He has also recently contributed to Bee Culture magazine!

ECDYSIS Foundation is focused on researching and finding new ways (sometimes finding new, 'old' ways) for producers to grow food, conserve biodiversity and environmental health through independent and unbiased scientific support. Jon and his team are reimagining agriculture practices using ecological principals with independent, farmer-driven research.

Blue Dasher Farm was established to demonstrate the feasibility of regenerative agriculture and to show case its many benefits for farmers, the community and scientists. Jon has stated, that for us to solve the bee problem, we have to heal the soil. Listen to the podcast and you will state the same!

In this episode, Jeff and Kim talk with Jon about his work, the importance of the soil and how the solution to the problems we are facing with honey bees is literally, under our feet! He talks about how the neglect of the soils, the tilling and the tons of the chemicals applied has stripped the soil of its self-healing and cleansing abilities.

This is an interesting discussion and one you will want to listen to!

Websites and links mentioned in this podcast include:

EDYSIS Foundation - https://www.ecdysis.bio
Blue Dasher Farm - https://www.bluedasher.farm
Jon's Bee Culture Article, November 2018, "Confessions of a Corn Entomologist" - https://www.beeculture.com/confessions-of-a-corn-entomologist/
Jon's Bee Culture Article, January, 2018, "Dicamba and Bees" - https://www.beeculture.com/dicamba-and-bees/

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This episode is brought to you by A.H. Meyer & Sons. A.H. Meyer & Sons are a 4th generation family owned business serving beekeepers through their wax rendering and service, rent honey-packing, and manufactured pallet clips. Visit them today at https://www.meyerhoneyfarms.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this show with Dr. Jonathan Lundgren!

Thank you, A.H. Meyer & Sons for your support of the Beekeeping Today Podcast!

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

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"

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