AEEA and the Power of Extension Education (386)

AEEA and the Power of Extension Education (386)

Georgia Karris

Hi, I'm Georgia Karris. I'm at the Midwest Honey Bee Expo. I'm from Will County Beekeeping Association. And welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Jeff Ott

Welcome to Beekeeping Today podcast presented by Better Bee, your source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment. I'm Jeff Ott.

Becky Masterman

And I'm Becky Masterman.

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Jeff Ott

Quick shout out to BetterBee and all of our sponsors whose support allows us to bring you this podcast each week without resorting to a fee-based subscription. We don't want that and we know you don't either. Be sure to check out All of our content on the website. There you can read up on all of our guests, read our blog on the various aspects and observations about beekeeping, search for, download, and listen to over 300 past episodes, read episode transcripts, leave comments, Comments and feedback on each episode and check on podcast specials from our sponsors. You can find it all at www. beekeepingtoday. com. Thank you, Georgia, from the Will County Beekeepers Association. For that opening. I love our openings from listeners. That's a great way to learn about and hear from beekeepers all around the country. So thank you, Georgia.

Becky Masterman

I love that name, Georgia, and it's a great name for a beekeeper and thank you for that opener.

Jeff Ott

May it is swarming season or towards the end of swarming season for some folks, but other people are just right in the middle of it I know you do a lot of splits early in the season to try to avoid swarms, but once the swarm season gets going, every beekeeper has to deal with swarms. What do you do with swarms and how do you manage them

Becky Masterman

I do divide aggressively and so and then I'm really proactive with space, so but that doesn't mean that every once in a while I have a colony that thinks it's a good idea to swarm. And so if I do ever see swarm cells, there's only one thing that I do. I divide that colony. And then I I just let those those bees raise new queens. and I I have none of it. I just I I have no tolerance for swarming. So I I find the queen and and that is one divide. I move the queen some brood, some resources to a new location and I make sure that that colony has I leave some queen cells for the colony in place where I moved the queen from, and then if it was a huge colony, then I might make another two colonies from it. But I literally have no tolerance for it.

Jeff Ott

You take the swarm cells from that colony, you put them all together, and they're usually on a couple frames, right? You put them all in one box

Becky Masterman

Absolutely not. Nope. I move the queen over. So I I take the queen out. But then those swarm cells, those are the the cells for whatever however many divides I want. So one of the divides is going to be in the place of of where the original colony was. They'll get a frame with cells. And then if it's a big colony with lots of resources, 'cause sometimes I run three deeps Depending upon the size of the colony, I will start a couple of nucs or or do something, but the minute they cross that threshold and decide they want to swarm is the minute I divide them up. So and it happens maybe once a season. I mean it it doesn't happen, but I just I'm done with it. So because I do not want to have to look in and call queen cells Like that's just and and it's I never want to call it queens still. They're just so beautiful. And so I'm like, okay, you wanna raise queens? We're gonna raise some queens.

Jeff Ott

I like that because I I do not like the calling or the removal of the queen cells. I think that's a one a fruitless act and it's just hard to do anyways. And you never get them all. So they're gonna end up swarming anyways. in my experience. And it's a fruitless undertaking in an otherwise busy day. And it helps to keep the bees going and and like you said, if they're gonna swarm, give 'em purpose in the swarming then and you can create a nuke, create a second hive. give the colony away if you have to, if you don't have space for it. It's better than climbing a ladder and chasing swarms or across the field.

Becky Masterman

Across the field, yeah. Yeah. I mean I I love I also love collecting a swarm. I just don't want to collect my swarms. I want I just don't want my beast to swarm, so I I d I do what I can so that that if I'm collecting swarms, they're not mine

Jeff Ott

If you're lucky there are always someone else's swarms. I like avoiding swarms and like I've said before, the best swarms I've ever had went out of one hive and ride into some empty equipment. a couple rows down. They happened three times last year. So I set up like twenty empty colonies. I was gonna say that's just sitting there in the yard right now this this season one just waiting. Come on girls, it's waiting for ya Also for swarming season, a couple episodes ago we talked to Mateo and BeeSwarm. org, which is a great resource for beekeepers around the country who want to be on a swarm list. and be called so they can go and get that swarm out of a tree or off the fire hydrant or as our friend Darren Mays in New York who is in New York City police department beekeeper off the clock in Times Square. So it's swarming season is fun, regardless of my joking about it. Swarming season is fun. It's captivating. It's awe inspiring And it can be challenging, but I like your approach.

Becky Masterman

I do divide aggressively, so I don't know. I I I'm probably losing out on some honey production. But at the same time, that's I have too many colonies. That's probably a good thing.

Jeff Ott

For today's question for the hive IQ tool, we are going to hold that question for our guest later on in this episode. We have Anna Heck and Robyn Underwood from the Apicultural Extension Educators of America to join us this afternoon to talk to us about AEEA and what extension professionals can do for us.

Becky Masterman

Excellent. I can't wait to talk to both of them.

Jeff Ott

And we'll hear from them right after these words from our sponsors.

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Jeff Ott

Hey everybody, welcome back, sitting around the great big virtual beekeeping today podcast table we are lucky to have with us. Two returning guests to the podcast, we have Robyn Underwood and Anna Heck. Welcome, ladies, to the Beekeeper Today podcast.

Becky Masterman

Hi guys. Thank you. I'm excited because they are both extension educators and I was one for like a brief second, but they like they like kicked me out because I wasn't organized enough. And so I know that Anna and Robyn are are not only amazing beekeepers, but they're also really good at sharing information. And they all I am sure you both have like a really organized computer with a bunch of file folders and all your references are in the right place and Okay, I know I've got Anna, right? But Robyn's saying no. That's that's impressive, Robyn.

Jeff Ott

Let's introduce you to the listeners. who may not know you from prior episodes. And I'm just going left to right, so that I apologize. No preferential questions here, but Robyn, introduce yourself, who you are, and your background with bees, and then just, you know, 10,000 foot level.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

Hi, I'm Robyn Underwood. I am the Extension Educator of Apiculture for Penn State Extension, so I cover Pennsylvania I first learned bees in the 1990s, so it's been quite a long time. I also act as a sideliner for research and honey production for Penn State. So I experience what the beekeepers experience and get to learn from my own mistakes.

Ana Heck

So I uh learned beekeeping when I lived in Central America. for a couple of years and then I returned home to Minnesota and was lucky enough to work with Becky. She was my boss from twenty fourteen through and early twenty nineteen and I learned a lot working with Becky and the University of Minnesota Bee Squad and keeping bees in Minnesota. And then in 2019 I moved to Michigan State. I'm now an apiculture extension educator, so I work with beekeepers around our state and other people who are positioned to support bee health and my husband and I also run our own beekeeping business.

Jeff Ott

I am glad that you are both educators because we have an ongoing promotion with Hive IQ. where we have asked listeners to send us questions each week and then we we s choose a question, we ask it on air and then send them a hive tool as part of the promotion Since you're educators and well knowledgeable about peace, we thought instead of Becky and I answering this question We thought we'd save the question for you two to answer. And because we're kind of different areas of the country, we might have different approaches to this question. And I think that's a good thing too So if you don't mind playing along, we'll do that. And then we'll come back and we'll talk about it.

Lee Mabey

This is Lee Madey. Having one of those uh magnetic hype tools sounds like that'd be a pretty cool option. I live in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where it's cold. And I've been keeping bees for about 12 years, have about 20 production colonies, along with usually about that same number of nucs. My question is, what's the best way to ensure survival of mated queens when you introduce them to a new colony? It seems to be an area I've struggled with. at various times and it's a costly mistake. So how can I be more effective at getting those introductions to take and uh have those queens survive? Thank you.

Becky Masterman

I'm kind of curious if you could answer your official Extension Educator answer and then share your official This is my beekeeping operation answer because I bet they're two different answers.

Ana Heck

So There's a lot of ways to introduce mated queens into colonies. One way that we've found more success if you're struggling is to use push-in cages and so that's where it's a bigger cage you put the queen underneath it and it allows the bees to have some time to get used to the queen scent and then you also put that push in cage where there's some emerging brood so some of the bees emerge and then they are attending to the queen and passing her scent around as well. So that's where we've found some good success One tip that probably seems obvious is just to make sure that if you're introducing a mated queen that the colony is actually queenless, there are a lot of beekeepers who will find a colony without any brood in it and they'll assume the colony's queenless and try to introduce a mated queen, but if there's a new queen who just hasn't started laying yet, they Colony is likely to reject that queen that you are introducing. A tip I learned when I worked at the University of Minnesota is that sometimes feeding syrup when you introduce a new queen may help. There's some flexibility in terms of timing. Sometimes I'll do a split in the yard and I'll introduce a mated queen after into the split that is queenless. And then sometimes I've done it where I leave the colony queenless for twelve or twenty-four hours and then introduce a mated queen.

Jeff Ott

why one way and why the other is just a a feeling of that day and or is there a is there a purpose?

Ana Heck

We've tried it different ways just to see what gets better acceptance and I can't tell you off the top of my head what seems to make the difference other than we do seem to have better luck or a higher rate of queen acceptance with the push-in cages.

Jeff Ott

Very interesting. Robyn.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

I have a bunch of yards that are not close by So I usually just need to get stuff done that day. So I will take out an old queen and put in a new queen before I close up the hive. I don't usually wait. I think my extension answer would be wait a day or something like that, but it's just sometimes unrealistic. I also don't want to play around with pushing cages. I want to use that queen cage that was sent to me with that candy. I've often wondered why we have to go ahead and like poke a nail into the candy to get it started, but I do think that it helps a lot. So I recommend doing that. Also for me when it's really, really important for research that I make sure that it's successful I'll actually not allow them access to the candy for two days and then I'll allow them access to the candy because sometimes the candy's too soft and they'll get her out too fast. So that could be what this listener is having trouble with The other thing is they give advice about the candy being up or the candy being down. And I put it sideways, like I'm ever using there, up or down. So my page is always horizontal. So that's one of the things that I do.

Jeff Ott

Screen up or screen down?

Dr. Robyn Underwood

I would pick down. Just because it's at the top of a frame so then the bees can go from below. And also if the candy does drip, it should go out. through the cage. So yeah, the thing that I do that's uh unusual is put putting the queen in right away. People say that that doesn't work, but I've had perfectly fine success that way.

Becky Masterman

Either of you recommend uh removing the attendance from the the cage if the queen 's not in there alone?

Dr. Robyn Underwood

I tend to f not have attendance from whoever I'm buying them from. The attendants are on the outside for sure. Yeah. But that seems like danger zone for getting your queen to fly away.

Jeff Ott

When you remove the attendance.

Becky Masterman

Yeah.

Jeff Ott

You risk losing the queen at the same time.

Becky Masterman

I got a piece of advice from Mark Sunberg, who's president of the Minnesota Beekeepers Association, and and you do it inside near a window and then if if anybody gets out of the cage they fly to the window and if it's a queen you can grab her and and put her back. And that worked out actually pretty well when I tried to do it. And then I have a bunch of bees in my shed, but there's usually something they can feed on and It works out okay.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

I've heard of people doing that in their truck and then the queen flies out and like goes down into the dashboard.

Jeff Ott

Yeah, I've heard that too.

Becky Masterman

I did it in my truck the other day, but I did it in another B vale. So you get

Dr. Robyn Underwood

one of those muffs. Those are great. You like put your hands in a cage basically and do your thing

Becky Masterman

I think that there is not going to be any problem the next time Lee tries to put a queen introduce a queen to a colony

Jeff Ott

I will say I have a good friend. No, I'll admit it was it was me. And when I first moved to the Washington State area, I uh wasn't aware of the dearth. period and I said, Oh my gosh, I got a a hive that went queenless in in July, end of July. So I ran out and got queen. And of course, you know, th they just shut down. There was just she the existing queen Stop laying eggs and that was an expensive learning of something I knew, but didn't think about it during the time of the event. I was in panic mode and not uh thinking mode.

Becky Masterman

Yeah, if if that's Lee's problem, then you can always put in a frame of eggs and young larvae and see if they decide to raise a new queen. Make sure they're queenless before you try to give them a queen.

Jeff Ott

Well thank you, Lee, for that question. You have An expert panel here. Thank you, everybody, and Lee. Watch for that hive IQ Beekeeping Today Hive tool. Well, we are here to talk about the Apicultural Extension Educators of America. What is A E E A?

Ana Heck

We are a group of Apiculture Extension Educators and others who hold similar professional roles. We uh started because a lot of us connect at conferences and beekeeper meetings and we really appreciated getting to talk with each other, bounce ideas around, hear about programs that other educators are doing, and share resources and collaborate together. So we uh Robyn and I applied for a grant from One Hive Foundation to formalize our group and we meet monthly We talk about programs growing on across the country and then our grant is supporting some travel for professional development and for us to replicate programs in new areas and to expand the website.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

Anna and I together sort of started this group by simply inviting people to come to some Zoom meetings. We had we call it AEEA Happy Hour. and it's, you know, a s set date each month and we just get on with no real agenda usually, casual talk between, you know, people dealing with the same things. And we easily fill the hour every single time, even if we have no idea what we're gonna be talking about that day, because there's always issues happening in the industry, new products, asking if anyone has tried it. I have a fact sheet, I really need some photos, like anything, and we're beautifully working together in harmony and Trying to work smarter, not harder, right? Like if Anna's giving a great program that my beekeepers are asking for, I'll send them to Anna's program rather than me creating a new program. And part of what Anam was saying about the grant is that we also want to replicate each other's programs. So if someone's doing something really great, I'd really love to go see it for myself. learn how to do it and then I can come back and do it. And again, it's like I don't have to create something, but I can recreate something that someone else is doing really well. So that's kind of how we've been working collaboratively to like extend each of our programs across, you know, the country.

Jeff Ott

You mentioned your monthly meetings, you come up without an agenda and you start talking and there's common problems across the country or those who attend. What are some of the questions that come up frequently are the biggest time hogs, as we used to say, in in what you're experiencing.

Ana Heck

In terms of conversations we have, I think Some of it's just sharing what's going on and that's really helpful, like Robyn said, for us to know what's go what programs are going on in other parts of the country and to get ideas about those. I think we also have some more internal kind of facing conversations about how we respond to beekeepers in a way that matches the amount of time that we have, right? So beekeepers have a lot of Good questions. There's kind of an infinite amount of education and programming that I think all of us want to do. So we have some conversations about where and how people are prioritizing. Sometimes it's helpful to understand what's going on at other universities in terms of new policies and and what might be coming down the pipeline for each of us. So It's normally not a lot about the actual like most fun parts of beekeeping, but it can it can be really helpful, I think, for us in our professional roles. I made it sound not very fun, uh, but we we have a really fun time at these

Becky Masterman

at these talks. I think Anna everybody wants to join the happy hour you guys have, so it sounds fun. How many are there of you approximately? I I know your map looks pretty well filled out.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

The list of participants has 47 people that get invited. But how many usually come? Ten, ten, twelve at a time?

Ana Heck

It's specific to apiculture extension educators, professors or researchers who hold an extension. role as part of their position. So so there's, you know, researchers who might be doing teaching or research but also do some extension work. They're part of our group. There's some other extension educators who focus on a different area like maybe ag economics but are also doing some beekeeping education as part of their role. So they're in our group and then we also include some people who are in a professional or regulatory role that overlaps with extension, like APR inspectors, a lot of them are doing some on-the-ground education that's similar.

Jeff Ott

One of the areas that might benefit from some of the extension work and understanding are the veterinarians because they're becoming more and more involved in treatment of honey bees. Have you had any veterinarians join your your discussion groups?

Ana Heck

I think we're intentionally keeping the group members pretty specific to align with our role just because there's so many people enthusiastic about bees that we're not trying to do like a thousand person group meeting or webinar. But I will say that at least here in Michigan State, we do work really closely with some veterinarians who are doing education with beekeepers on honey bee health and honey bee medicine and providing great support. We've had a couple of grants. Dr. Megan Milbrath at Michigan State has led and also she does a rotation of veterinary students. And so we have really work to train veterinarians and then also to support them so that they can better work with beekeepers.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

And that's actually Part of the programming that we'd like to repeat, right? So I actually just got a relationship with the veterinary school and I'm gonna be going there next week to do a full day of lab exercises about bees um for those veterinary students. So if that turns into something more, I'm gonna definitely go to Anna and Megan and be like, help, what, you know What resources do you have that are appropriate? Because that's a totally different audience that we're teaching. So that's just one example of programming.

Becky Masterman

After we wrap this up, I'm going to go meet with veterinarians at the University of Minnesota APRE under Katie Lee's program to support them. I think we need to take a step back though, because I mentioned I I talked about extension educators as very organized people who know a lot about bees, but Can you explain for the audience what exactly the mission of an extension educator in apiculture is? Because it's it's kind of unique, I think.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

What I love about being an extension educator is that I get to focus really on honey bees and beekeepers. So I say that my my goal is to make beekeepers better beekeepers. And it is in whatever format they are asking for. It could be I run workshops for people to come to We give lots of webinars where we give informational presentations. We write articles and fact sheets so that they have like written documents to read. and we sh we're just really sharing information. So to me, Four Penn State, when they talk about the extension, you can literally think of of it as an extension of the university. So research is happening. um scientists are doing great things and then as an extension educator we're bringing that to the beekeepers who need that information to say improve their practices. keep their bees safe, give them proper nutrition, whatever, based on that research. And we kind of translate it to beekeeper useful products, right? Like pro and by product I mean webinar or like educational material of some kind

Ana Heck

I would also say extension looks really different in different states. So there's some states that have more of a field agent kind of model where they have more generalists but uh who focus on a specific part of the state. In Michigan and I think in Pennsylvania we have more of a topic area focus for our educators and specialists. The university staff or faculty may have an extension appointment. They may not. There's some apiculture researchers in the US who do really good research and who do some outreach to beekeepers but aren't being paid from extension. A lot of the differences in extension work can depend on not only the educator or specialist who's doing the work and how they like to work, but also on our funding. Sometimes we have grants or certain funding sources that direct how we or what kind of work we do. And there's not an apiculture extension educator in every state and territory and I think that's really too bad. I think that some in some states Beekeepers have come together and lobbied their state for extension staff or resources. And I think that's really valuable to beekeepers in those states.

Jeff Ott

Let's take this opportunity to take a quick break and we'll be right back after these words from our sponsors.

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Becky Masterman

Welcome back everybody. Anna, you said that so well about not having an extension educator in every state, but it is a really good thing for beekeepers to have an extension educator. And and and some have lobbied and It's a position that can be created. In fact, Minnesota, that that position that Katie Lee has was created in twenty seventeen. The position that you have, Anna, was created 2020. So it's it's something that that can happen and it's so so very valuable. Uh one of the things that you mentioned was the website and one of the features of that website is that map. where even if you don't have an extension educator in your state, you can go ahead and you can click on a neighboring state and probably get some support that might be regional, but it won't be specific to your state. But that map, when I saw that, I was like, oh, all of those beekeepers, if you can't click on your state you need to get together and you need to get yourself a an extension educator for the state because that it would help your network so much and then it would help those individual beekeepers in the state.

Jeff Ott

Yeah, look at that map. There's some states that are

Becky Masterman

It's like a region.

Jeff Ott

Yeah, there's some states that are big B states that don't have extension specialists, and that's amazing to me. Is it all political or is it financial? All the above

Becky Masterman

I would honestly say I don't know the answer. I don't know that anybody does and you can comment on it, but it literally might be that the beekeepers didn't know they could ask for one or they could lobby for one or they could help fundraise for one. And so so it might just be that kind of a an opening. They didn't know that they were missing or what they were missing.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

I'm just glad Pennsylvania has won.

Ana Heck

It's such a fun job. It is a fun job. And some of the states that we have on the map, they might have an a faculty member who does apiculture extension, but that would just be a percentage of their time. They might also have teaching or research responsibilities. So it really varies.

Becky Masterman

It's a nice line of defense for beekeepers in a state. The APR inspectors are of course very important, but it's also such a close connection to the university. and such a a close connection to research and being able to translate research. So APR inspectors are are they're there to I don't wanna speak for them, but to you know, a lot of protections are are part of of their job. But the translation of of recent research it is so critical to beekeeping today. It's it's something that really, you know, when thresholds are lowered for Varroa control, it's it's nice if there's a network where that information can be shared right away. Do either of you send out newsletters as part of your programs?

Ana Heck

Miss U Extension has email news digest, so Beekeepers can s or anyone can sign up for digest. There's a lot of different topics, but we have a beekeepers and pollinators news digest that goes out once or twice a month. Our communicators send out all of our upcoming events and then recent news articles or web resources that are relevant to beekeepers and people who want to learn about pollinators.

Becky Masterman

Robyn, if you have new programming, how do you show that?

Dr. Robyn Underwood

So we have a whole, you know, marketing team that markets individual events. So if you've ever registered for anything with Penn State Extension Especially if it was beekeeping related, you're probably gonna get invited to the next thing as well. And then from there, I share it out, you know, on social media and through, you know, through this network of people who share it with their beekeepers. I also in Pennsylvania have a beekeeping club presidents group. So I send it to them and I ask them to share it out with their members. But yeah, it's on an individual basis. So if something's happening, you'll get emails, but if there's no new programs coming up, then then you won't hear

Jeff Ott

So if someone was sitting there and wanted to they're looking at their state and they're saying, Hey, we don't have an extension educator in our state, or at least named in our state, who do they need to contact in their state to follow up on this?

Dr. Robyn Underwood

I would imagine every state has a state beekeepers association.

Jeff Ott

Yeah, just about.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

They would probably the be the biggest advocates. They would have to be the organizers to go to politicians to ask for money at the state level. Yeah.

Jeff Ott

Or maybe they have an extension specialist, but they're just not part of AEEA.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

If anybody knows of any that aren't on our list, let us know. We'll add them.

Jeff Ott

I mean I'm not calling that Ohio, but being a native Ohio and and the number of beekeepers in Ohio I am surprised and Dr. Jim too, now he used to be the extension specialist for Ohio State out of Worcester. I'm not sure what happened there, but I'm surprised Ohio's not indicated on your map. So that's like, come on, Ohio, gee whiz.

Becky Masterman

I like how you started. I'm not calling out Ohio, but

Jeff Ott

then I sat there and just yeah. I can do that because I'm from Ohio. That's all right.

Becky Masterman

You can totally do that. That's fine. That's fine. We love Ohio. I know that I was I think one of the most excited people to hear that you were all coming together to share this this information and to collaborate and communicate and kind of enhance all of your programming. Are you getting a good reception? I know I I saw that you were at the North American Honey Bee Expo. Are people saying I didn't know about you or I didn't know what an extension educator was? Is it getting you some recognition? That's my question.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

I think it is actually, and if you you probably didn't follow this, but the map in January at the expo had less on it than the map now, right? So people like it was kind of like the launch of the organization. And that was the first time we had any type of website. For two years before that we were just kind of very just meeting Now we have this grant money that Anna mentioned from One Hive Foundation. And so we're gonna expand that website. It's not just gonna be a map anymore. We're gonna have hire a web designer and have direct links to some of our you know educational products and and things like that by topic and maybe by region so that we can be a hub so beekeepers can find all the best really good information in one place and then it will go to like maybe you only want to learn about Michigan or whatever. So then you can go to the map and go to it'll take you to their extension page. But if you want to really learn about Varroa in the mid-Atlantic, you could click on those states and see what they're saying about Varroa specifically in that region. So that's our goal, hopefully by the next expo There will be a lot more on the website by January.

Jeff Ott

That's our goal. What is the website?

Dr. Robyn Underwood

It is bepheneducated. org.

Jeff Ott

And that's B-E-E.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

B E E, yes.

Becky Masterman

Do you have any kind of formal organization? Is there a president of this group, or is this all whoever has time? They contribute.

Ana Heck

Pretty flexible. Robyn and I have been coordinating it, so we are the ones who schedule the meetings and Send out calendar invitations, manage the email list and do the one hive grant. Uh and then we have other people who kind of step in. Normally Katie Lee give takes her meeting notes

Becky Masterman

when she's available to attend. That's the other part is that it's not like all of you didn't have an overly scheduled professional life already. So this is this is a labor of love because although it might help you in the end it still is one more thing on your list of things to do, right?

Dr. Robyn Underwood

It is, but I think the reason that we're having success is 'cause we're we're really not asking people to do something or create something new just for us. Like we're gonna not gonna have AEEA publications, right? We're gonna share out the publications that we're already making through our extension, right? So that that's a totally different ask. Like, please email me some links to your materials is a lot different than create some materials. So it's again, I'm just gonna repeat, like it's like work smarter, not harder, is I think why people don't mind coming to a happy hour to chat because they're not gonna be like, oh you have that idea, now you're in charge and you're gonna do the thing. It's not it's not

Becky Masterman

like that. I could see though somebody who's doing some kind of a research and they have an outreach part of their grant and looking to be educated. org saying, Whoa, this is a really powerful group because they have connections to beekeepers in all of these states. I mean I could see that it could escalate in the future where where you might help streamline other people's outreach. And then that's extra work, isn't it? I guess we'll see. That would be maybe a good thing.

Jeff Ott

Well, very good. Is there anything about the Apicultural's Extension Educators of America that we haven't touched on that you'd like to let our listeners know about?

Dr. Robyn Underwood

Mainly I just hope people know about extension, tell other people about extension, and use it as a a source of trusted scientific information.

Jeff Ott

That's very valuable information that you are providing and beekeepers should know it and trust it and use it. It's a great resource and I'm glad that you two have come together and with other people you're working with to make this available. Thank you.

Becky Masterman

You're welcome. Thank you. Yeah, lots of bee brain power behind all of this information. So thank you very much for doing this

Ana Heck

Yeah, it's a great group. I don't know how many other people get to work in industries where everyone That they work with is a pretty cool person and has a lot of passions.

Dr. Robyn Underwood

We're all one big colony. Oh boy. Somebody had to say it, Robyn.

Jeff Ott

I think a state extension program is a super value. Valuable resource every beekeeper should take advantage of and learn more about in their state.

Becky Masterman

I agree. I think that that it's also a way for beekeepers to get more support. if they don't have that position. I just I can't think of one Apiculture Extension educator who hasn't been extremely productive and effective and so supportive of of beekeepers. So it's really a priceless position. So it's nice of them to share with with us.

Jeff Ott

And that about wraps it up for this episode of Beekeeping Today. Before we go, be sure to follow us and leave us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. or wherever you stream the show. Even Better, write a quick review to help other beekeepers discover what you enjoy. You can get there directly from our website by clicking on the reviews tab on the top of any page. We want to thank Better B, our presenting sponsor, for their ongoing support of the podcast. We also appreciate our longtime sponsors, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and Northern Feed Books for their support in bringing you each week's episode. And most importantly, thank you for the next one. for listening and spending time with us. If you have any questions or feedback, just head over to our website and drop us a note. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks again, everybody