The U.S. Beekeeping Survey: Colony Losses, Varroa, and Better Data (403)

WEBVTT

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Hi, I'm Anne from Denver, Colorado, and thanks for listening to Beekeeping Today

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Podcast.

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Welcome to Beekeeping Today

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Podcast presented by Better

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Bee, your

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source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment.

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I'm Jeff Ott.

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I'm Becky Masterman.

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Thank you.

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And from Colorado for that great opening recorded at the North American Honey Bee Expo.

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We're gonna be just in time to start loading up on those openers again.

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That's right, that's right.

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Oh Becky, we've gotten through

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boy

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this the season went quick.

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We're sitting here in the

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sometime in September

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It's been a season.

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How

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how did yours

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end up?

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I'm

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I'm

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I'm still trying to figure it out

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Here.

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Well, I can't say anything yet because September is

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is the time when I find some queen problems usually.

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So

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So

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I I need a little bit of time to report back on that.

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But as far as honey production, it was pretty amazing.

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Strength of colonies, it was really amazing.

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I had some really nice bees.

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So

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even even through some of the the tough times, you know, pulling honey well, pulling honey is is pretty easy, I think, but

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populous colonies, honestly, I I'm

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pretty happy with the temperament of

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of

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the multiple kinds of bees

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that I have, of the multiple strains and lines.

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And and what do you

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when do you like to pull, honey?

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I start in June.

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Yeah, that's right.

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That's right.

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And I like to

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I like to be done by September.

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So I like to be done by the end of August.

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I don't I don't wanna have to pull anything in September.

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My colonies are full of honey though, so

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I I have some extra boxes on

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because

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they're I they're just they've gotta put it someplace.

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And so

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it's a good problem to have.

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I don't know that it was like this everywhere in Minnesota, but the Twin Cities it was a very strong

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strong nectar flow this year.

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So

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lucky us.

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This year's kinda interesting.

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One of the things I've been able to do

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is where

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the farm where I keep uh my yard, they

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this year they planted a large field of pumpkins and a large planting of

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uh

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sunflower seeds or sunflower.

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And I so I left some supers on

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the stronger colonies just to see what, if anything, I get.

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I don't expect much of anything.

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I know pumpkins really don't produce any

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any

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nectar, but it's

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good for the pollen.

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It'll be interesting.

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Yeah, I know sunflower honey, they sometimes warn against depending upon your kind of winter.

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But my guess is your winter's mild enough to not have to worry about

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Sunflower honey.

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The

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the darker honeys

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are sometimes more difficult for the bees to digest.

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And so as long as you have access to regular cleansing plates

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I think it's it's not as much of an issue, but in Minnesota, bees wintering on sunflower honey

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uh is worrisome to some beekeepers.

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Well that's good to know.

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And this is a very timely topic

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as we talk about

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No

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season preparing for s

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winter, which we all should be doing at this point.

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Which leads

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naturally

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to a question we did receive.

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Now this question

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Did come in in

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what

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August?

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Middle of August.

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So

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for our listeners, this is our weekly hive IQ

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hive tool

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So it's really nice little

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little gift.

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Thank you, Hive

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IQ.

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Yes.

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It's a great hive tour.

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This question comes from Mike Smith.

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Love the podcast, keep up the great work.

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Well, thank you, Mike.

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I really appreciate that.

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That's very nice, Mike.

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Yeah.

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That's a great way to ensure your question gets answer

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asked.

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Hint to the listeners, if you compliment us.

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All right, he goes on.

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He says, I have been busily pulling honey from my own yard and still have an out

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yard with fourteen colonies that need to be pulled.

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My schedule is busy with a full-time job and family obligations.

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My question is, once I pull supers of all of my colonies, how long can I leave them sit before spinning them out?

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No, that's a good

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timely question that many beekeepers face every fall.

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It is, and

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and the official answer is

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it depends.

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Right?

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No.

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But it depends on a

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a few different things.

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Wait, the the rule of thumb is

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if there are any high

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beetle

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small high beetles in your

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proximity

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is really just a few days

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and you want to space those supers so you want to make sure that they're not stacked evenly but you want to make sure there's all plenty of of dry air running through them

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because

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you can have your honey crop ruined by small high

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beetles

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very quickly

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and and it's such a

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such a disappointment.

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And you can space them by putting paint sticks in between the supers as you can.

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Oh, that's how you do it.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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I just

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we just offset them.

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when

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we have extra.

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But no that paint sticks is a good that's a good tip.

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And and having a dehumidifier.

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The other thing is that

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when you're extracting honey

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Warm

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honey is easier to extract than cold honey.

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So

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if you have the facilities to keep the honey at

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at a warmer temperature, a hot room, then you're gonna have an easier time spinning that honey.

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Also, I mean

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it gets kind of complicated

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because there are also some honeys

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that will will

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crystallize quickly and you don't want that to happen.

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And

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so

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so

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it really depends upon where you're at.

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Oh, I was gonna add while we're talking about pests is that you also have to

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consider

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wax moths

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too.

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They can ruin a honey super

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too

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before you get it extracted.

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I have

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in the

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way past

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when I

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you know had a a smaller number of supers, I was able to protect them for a little while until I had time

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and but I I don't have a huge high

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beetle threat.

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But boy, a quick turnaround is better.

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And and if you leave up on the bees, there's always that chance the bees are gonna go grab that honey and bring it back into their nest.

00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:05.860
So

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are you

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You

00:07:07.340 --> 00:07:08.220
you don't you

00:07:08.380 --> 00:07:09.260
you're faced with

00:07:09.420 --> 00:07:10.140
with choices.

00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:16.220
Mike, I I would say that uh the advice would be to extract it as soon as possible.

00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:20.400
And even if that means splitting up your extracting process just to get it out of

00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:24.480
out of the supers, there's different strategies to dealing with the wet supers.

00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:25.760
I like to put 'em back on the

00:07:26.139 --> 00:07:31.900
the colonies above a inner cover, let the bees pull back any of the wet supers.

00:07:31.900 --> 00:07:36.460
If you have a late fall, maybe even leave some supers on top just to maybe catch something.

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So

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Thank you, Mike, for that question.

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We hope

00:07:39.260 --> 00:07:40.060
you uh like

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the answer.

00:07:41.340 --> 00:07:44.620
Send me your mailing address and I'll get that tool right

00:07:44.780 --> 00:07:45.820
out to you.

00:07:45.820 --> 00:07:47.420
Coming up, we have

00:07:47.660 --> 00:07:48.460
Jeff Williams

00:07:48.780 --> 00:07:49.180
team.

00:07:49.180 --> 00:07:50.780
They're here to talk about

00:07:51.020 --> 00:07:53.020
all things honey bees of course, but also

00:07:53.260 --> 00:07:56.620
Jeff has been long involved in uh beekeeping surveys

00:07:56.780 --> 00:08:00.460
and we'll be talking about the preliminary results of the 2025

00:08:00.620 --> 00:08:03.100
-26 US beekeeping survey

00:08:03.080 --> 00:08:04.200
A honey bee colony

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loss and manage

00:08:05.400 --> 00:08:05.560
it

00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:08.600
report that came out earlier this year.

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It's always interesting discussion

00:08:10.760 --> 00:08:11.800
Looking forward to it.

00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:17.160
It's it's not the happiest of all conversations, but it sure is an important one.

00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:25.560
For more than forty five years, BetterBee has proudly supported beekeepers by offering high quality, innovative products,

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and your bees

00:08:52.440 --> 00:08:53.480
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00:08:53.480 --> 00:08:55.079
Visit betterbee.

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00:08:55.920 --> 00:08:56.160
Or

00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:56.959
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00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:58.160
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00:08:58.319 --> 00:09:02.000
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00:09:24.040 --> 00:09:24.199
Hey

00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:25.720
everybody, welcome back

00:09:25.959 --> 00:09:30.199
sitting around this great big virtual beekeeping today podcast table

00:09:30.360 --> 00:09:33.000
and I'll let them tell you where they're sitting

00:09:32.959 --> 00:09:36.959
But we have Doctor Jeff Williams, Doctor Natalie Steinhauer, and Agostina

00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:38.480
Giacabino.

00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:39.200
I think Doctor.

00:09:43.580 --> 00:09:43.660
Oh

00:09:44.060 --> 00:09:44.700
my gosh.

00:09:45.100 --> 00:09:45.180
No

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pressure there.

00:09:46.060 --> 00:09:46.620
No pressure.

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Yeah, I think I'll just shut up through the rest of this episode.

00:09:49.900 --> 00:09:50.460
Thank you

00:09:50.700 --> 00:09:51.260
all of you

00:09:51.420 --> 00:09:52.620
for joining us today.

00:09:52.620 --> 00:09:54.220
I really appreciate it.

00:09:53.959 --> 00:09:55.399
Thanks for having us.

00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:58.680
We invited you here today to talk about well the US

00:09:58.839 --> 00:10:00.279
Beekeeping Survey

00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:04.920
and anything else that you're working on that you'd like to share.

00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:13.220
But the Beekeeping Survey has gone through a lot of changes and and has seen a lot of change in data over the years, and I think that's something that's really interesting.

00:10:13.060 --> 00:10:14.660
and we should explore.

00:10:14.660 --> 00:10:21.060
But before we go down that road, let's introduce you to our listeners.

00:10:21.060 --> 00:10:21.220
So

00:10:21.380 --> 00:10:22.660
we'll start with you, Jeff.

00:10:22.820 --> 00:10:27.860
Just what's your background with bees, how'd you get started, and what you're doing today.

00:10:27.140 --> 00:10:27.540
Sure.

00:10:27.540 --> 00:10:28.820
Well thanks for having me.

00:10:28.820 --> 00:10:29.940
It's been a couple years.

00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:33.300
I I think it was me and Natalie and Selena

00:10:33.460 --> 00:10:34.180
possibly.

00:10:34.180 --> 00:10:34.420
Um

00:10:34.660 --> 00:10:36.820
and I was back in the the BIP days.

00:10:36.820 --> 00:10:40.100
We were probably advertising our our BIP survey

00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:42.080
And yeah, I'm I'm at Auburn.

00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:44.640
It's almost a decade later since they started.

00:10:44.640 --> 00:10:44.800
Uh

00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:45.200
time

00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:46.240
flies.

00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:48.400
Yeah, it's absolutely crazy.

00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:49.400
So I'm in Auburn

00:10:49.640 --> 00:10:50.120
right now

00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:51.240
from Canada

00:10:51.400 --> 00:10:52.120
originally.

00:10:52.280 --> 00:10:54.440
I didn't grow up in a beekeeping family.

00:10:54.440 --> 00:10:58.840
I really got into the bee research realm when I started graduate school.

00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:01.700
I got stun once and was hooked uh

00:11:01.940 --> 00:11:02.660
forever.

00:11:02.660 --> 00:11:05.540
And I may still have that stinger uh dug into me somewhere.

00:11:05.540 --> 00:11:06.180
I I need to

00:11:06.340 --> 00:11:07.460
need to check.

00:11:07.400 --> 00:11:12.520
So I did all my all my graduate education in Canada, Eastern Canada, at Acadia

00:11:12.680 --> 00:11:13.560
Dalhousie.

00:11:13.560 --> 00:11:16.040
Again, that that I'm aging myself because that must be ten

00:11:16.200 --> 00:11:17.960
twenty years ago now.

00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:21.680
I had the pleasure of jumping over the pond and living in Switzerland

00:11:21.839 --> 00:11:24.160
and eating a lot of honey, but also

00:11:24.319 --> 00:11:26.079
chocolate and cheese

00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:26.959
for

00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:29.960
almost six, seven years there at the

00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:31.880
University of Byrne in agroscope.

00:11:31.880 --> 00:11:36.360
So agroscope is essentially the equivalent of the USDA ARS, like the research

00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:40.100
branch of the the federal government through their Department of Ag

00:11:40.420 --> 00:11:40.820
and the

00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:41.060
other

00:11:41.380 --> 00:11:46.340
very historic group, many collaborators there, so it was really awesome atmosphere.

00:11:46.340 --> 00:11:46.980
We could

00:11:47.220 --> 00:11:47.380
work

00:11:47.540 --> 00:11:50.420
together with uh several scientists in the

00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:52.340
at the confederation.

00:11:52.340 --> 00:11:55.780
But of course there's an amazing network of colleagues around Europe.

00:11:55.780 --> 00:11:57.940
Beekeeping is so ingrained in society

00:11:58.100 --> 00:11:59.780
in many countries over there.

00:11:59.780 --> 00:12:00.100
So

00:12:00.280 --> 00:12:03.400
Everyone's grandma, grandfather, aunt or uncle, someone in the family

00:12:03.560 --> 00:12:05.240
has some bees somewhere.

00:12:05.240 --> 00:12:06.600
So that was really a

00:12:06.760 --> 00:12:08.280
a neat experience.

00:12:08.280 --> 00:12:08.840
So yeah, ten

00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:09.320
years

00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:10.120
ten years ago

00:12:10.280 --> 00:12:11.960
moved to Auburn.

00:12:12.100 --> 00:12:13.700
There really wasn't a B

00:12:14.020 --> 00:12:14.020
program

00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:15.780
here at Auburn.

00:12:15.780 --> 00:12:16.820
There was a B

00:12:16.980 --> 00:12:17.140
Lab

00:12:17.540 --> 00:12:19.060
actual building, cinder block

00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:19.380
building

00:12:19.540 --> 00:12:21.060
that we're in right now, and there was actually a B

00:12:21.300 --> 00:12:21.460
lab

00:12:21.780 --> 00:12:22.660
road.

00:12:22.779 --> 00:12:23.100
So

00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:24.140
this was

00:12:24.459 --> 00:12:25.980
many years ago.

00:12:25.980 --> 00:12:31.740
Jim Kane, who um used to work at the USDA ARS in Logan, so more of a native

00:12:31.899 --> 00:12:32.060
B

00:12:32.300 --> 00:12:33.580
person, he was at Auburn

00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:34.700
for a while.

00:12:34.640 --> 00:12:38.400
But the program kinda went defunct for for many, many years

00:12:38.560 --> 00:12:41.920
and I popped up to kind of revitalize that

00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:42.400
and

00:12:42.800 --> 00:12:43.440
and here

00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:44.240
we are.

00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:46.320
I'm really happy that we've got a B

00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:46.800
Center

00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:47.120
now.

00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:47.200
So

00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:48.720
we got acknowledged

00:12:48.820 --> 00:12:52.500
through the university, through our Alabama Extension service.

00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:55.860
So there's myself, there's Anthony Abadi, who's our Native

00:12:56.020 --> 00:12:59.380
Bee professor, and then we've got Selena, who I mentioned earlier.

00:12:59.380 --> 00:13:01.220
She's our extension professor.

00:13:01.220 --> 00:13:02.580
So we've got an awesome

00:13:02.839 --> 00:13:03.720
awesome group

00:13:03.880 --> 00:13:04.199
and

00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:06.360
and we've got people like Agostina

00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:08.680
with us and uh as a visiting scientist

00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:10.680
other postdocs and grad students

00:13:10.839 --> 00:13:11.639
so we're just

00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:12.959
Humming along, um

00:13:13.199 --> 00:13:18.880
trying to do the best we can for the community, but uh I think we're also having a a great time.

00:13:18.880 --> 00:13:19.199
So

00:13:19.540 --> 00:13:21.220
No complaints on my side.

00:13:21.700 --> 00:13:22.660
Thanks.

00:13:22.660 --> 00:13:23.779
Madeline.

00:13:23.860 --> 00:13:24.580
Hi, I've

00:13:24.740 --> 00:13:26.899
been also going down the the memory lane

00:13:27.060 --> 00:13:27.700
Jeff.

00:13:27.700 --> 00:13:30.980
I arrived in the United States in 2012.

00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:32.020
And I was a beekeeper

00:13:32.180 --> 00:13:36.180
before arriving to the United States and I knew I wanted to work in a honey bee lab.

00:13:36.180 --> 00:13:41.220
And at the time, Dennis van Engelsdorp has just moved from Pennsylvania, started his lab at

00:13:41.380 --> 00:13:45.460
University of Maryland, and I was his first PhD student.

00:13:44.980 --> 00:13:50.100
And I I stayed there during my all my PhD and directly got intertwined with a lot of the BIP

00:13:50.260 --> 00:13:50.500
being

00:13:50.660 --> 00:13:50.820
from

00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:52.020
partnership projects.

00:13:52.020 --> 00:13:52.900
So the the tech

00:13:53.060 --> 00:13:57.140
transfer team, the Sentinel, and of course the loss and management survey

00:13:56.959 --> 00:13:57.120
which

00:13:57.279 --> 00:13:59.839
has now become the US Beekeeping Survey.

00:13:59.839 --> 00:14:00.080
And

00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:02.399
so I went through the transition where BIP

00:14:02.560 --> 00:14:04.000
tried to become an

00:14:04.160 --> 00:14:04.959
independent

00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:05.680
organization

00:14:05.920 --> 00:14:07.040
and unfortunately

00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:08.320
failed

00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:11.680
Uh and then since then I've actually been uh picked up by Dr.

00:14:11.680 --> 00:14:12.320
Sajili

00:14:12.640 --> 00:14:14.800
and so I'm working now as a research associate uh

00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:15.840
for the honey bee Lab

00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.080
at Oregon State University.

00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:19.200
And I'm saying

00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.880
thankful to be able to still continue working in honey bee Health.

00:14:22.680 --> 00:14:24.440
Because that's where my heart is.

00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:30.360
And I guess my my specialty is really trying to figure out what's going on when the data is messy.

00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:34.440
So in in beekeeping, I definitely have my my job cut off for me.

00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:34.960
So yeah, mu

00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:42.400
much of my career has been centered on large monitoring programs such like in the disease surveys, field studies that are driven by

00:14:42.560 --> 00:14:42.960
hopefully

00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:44.480
beekeepers themselves

00:14:44.640 --> 00:14:45.520
and and really

00:14:45.760 --> 00:14:54.160
trying to make sense of information scattered throughout, you know, thousands of colonies, hundreds of operations, and trying to see pattern emerging on the large scale

00:14:53.900 --> 00:14:55.820
And I'm very thankful to still being able

00:14:55.980 --> 00:14:57.820
to be associated with the USB keeping

00:14:57.980 --> 00:14:59.740
survey to try to to dig at

00:14:59.900 --> 00:15:01.100
some of those patterns.

00:15:01.100 --> 00:15:04.780
And so you're right down the road in Salem or in Clovis?

00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:05.600
Actually

00:15:05.760 --> 00:15:10.880
no, because I'm still living in Maryland, so I am a remote employee of Oregon State University.

00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:11.920
Okay, good.

00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:12.160
I bet

00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.560
it's hard to take care of their bees, huh?

00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:16.819
I ended up move

00:15:16.980 --> 00:15:18.100
doing a lot more uh

00:15:18.259 --> 00:15:19.620
computer work than bee work

00:15:19.779 --> 00:15:22.980
these days, which I yeah, I'm a little sad about that, but

00:15:23.140 --> 00:15:24.820
It's it's very interesting work.

00:15:24.820 --> 00:15:27.700
I remember I met you when you were a PhD student

00:15:27.940 --> 00:15:28.260
then

00:15:28.500 --> 00:15:30.740
and I remember you and your data.

00:15:30.740 --> 00:15:33.940
You you love that data when we need people like you.

00:15:33.940 --> 00:15:34.180
So

00:15:34.340 --> 00:15:36.340
I'm glad you're still at it

00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:37.560
Agostina?

00:15:37.560 --> 00:15:38.120
Hi, um

00:15:38.280 --> 00:15:39.400
I am Agostina.

00:15:39.400 --> 00:15:40.760
I am from Argentina.

00:15:40.760 --> 00:15:44.040
I recently moved to the US back in 2024

00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:46.680
for a kind of uh experience

00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:48.040
I moved I told my husband

00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:51.319
can we go to the US for a few years so I can work with Dr.

00:15:51.319 --> 00:15:51.880
Jeffrey

00:15:52.040 --> 00:15:52.360
and I

00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:52.680
say

00:15:52.839 --> 00:15:53.399
yes.

00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:56.279
So we moved my boys and my husband

00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:59.440
to the US for a few years and it's been great since then.

00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:02.160
Actually I am having a hard time living.

00:16:02.160 --> 00:16:05.440
But back in my country before moving I was working

00:16:05.640 --> 00:16:07.640
particularly with Maroa mice

00:16:07.800 --> 00:16:09.480
management at the field level

00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:14.360
and how that could be connected to all the management that the beekeepers were doing

00:16:14.680 --> 00:16:15.000
So

00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:15.960
basically

00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:19.560
during my college I read all Natalie's papers and all the Deep

00:16:19.800 --> 00:16:20.680
papers.

00:16:20.680 --> 00:16:21.320
So for me

00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:21.560
now

00:16:21.800 --> 00:16:22.520
working in the US

00:16:22.680 --> 00:16:22.760
V

00:16:22.920 --> 00:16:23.240
Keeping

00:16:23.400 --> 00:16:23.880
Survey is

00:16:24.040 --> 00:16:24.840
a kind of privilege

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:26.840
because I have been reading those

00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:27.680
publication

00:16:27.839 --> 00:16:33.600
for several years and I fall in love with that kind of approach to the how complex is this problem.

00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:35.680
So yeah, that's uh for me

00:16:35.920 --> 00:16:37.920
was a nice surprise when Jeff told me

00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:39.680
would you like to help me

00:16:39.640 --> 00:16:44.520
coordinate the new version of the of the survey and I was happy to

00:16:44.760 --> 00:16:46.040
to jump in.

00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:49.480
And I will say just from the transition from BIP

00:16:49.839 --> 00:16:50.399
to now,

00:16:50.560 --> 00:16:51.680
that's kind of a

00:16:51.839 --> 00:16:52.079
dip

00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:53.839
I don't want to say difficult, but that was

00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:55.680
quite of a change, wasn't it?

00:16:55.680 --> 00:16:56.399
That was uh

00:16:56.560 --> 00:16:58.399
I don't want to say struggle either, but

00:16:58.560 --> 00:17:00.480
that was a challenge, I would think.

00:17:00.540 --> 00:17:01.500
When that happened.

00:17:01.740 --> 00:17:02.380
Yeah, I was

00:17:02.620 --> 00:17:04.380
well, I'll speak from my perspective, but

00:17:04.620 --> 00:17:07.579
of course Natalie, you know, was a staff member there and

00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:11.339
Yeah, it was very very difficult, hard decisions.

00:17:11.339 --> 00:17:13.020
You know, at at that point there were

00:17:13.260 --> 00:17:17.660
some things were taken out of our hands and we didn't really have much of an option for things.

00:17:17.660 --> 00:17:17.980
So

00:17:18.339 --> 00:17:19.299
It was difficult.

00:17:19.299 --> 00:17:20.980
We lost several programs

00:17:21.140 --> 00:17:22.339
and the people were

00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:23.780
all amazing

00:17:23.939 --> 00:17:25.299
who worked there.

00:17:25.299 --> 00:17:27.220
And many of them, I mean myself

00:17:27.380 --> 00:17:29.140
still in touch with a lot of them.

00:17:29.140 --> 00:17:29.380
Like

00:17:29.460 --> 00:17:32.100
My guess is Natalie's also in touch with them because I

00:17:32.340 --> 00:17:38.020
Dan Arell, our postdoc, used to work for BIP and he was up in the DC area and I know he went and hung out with Natalie.

00:17:38.020 --> 00:17:38.660
So I think you know

00:17:38.820 --> 00:17:40.020
those connections

00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:46.480
that were formed uh ten years ago, fifteen years ago, you know, they still exist because that's just the beauty of our

00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:50.320
of our kind of beekeeping and be research communities.

00:17:50.320 --> 00:17:52.320
I mean our bee research network is

00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:53.280
Amazing.

00:17:53.280 --> 00:17:57.600
And my wife's a a faculty member in in the kind of the geoscience realm.

00:17:57.600 --> 00:17:59.760
She she does dabble in our in our

00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:03.040
neck of the woods from time to time, making our maps and things.

00:18:03.040 --> 00:18:03.200
But

00:18:03.540 --> 00:18:07.220
I think she just doesn't understand like Jeff White, why do you want to go to the

00:18:07.380 --> 00:18:08.740
why are you going to all these meetings?

00:18:08.740 --> 00:18:10.420
Why are you going to this and that place?

00:18:10.420 --> 00:18:10.980
And like

00:18:11.260 --> 00:18:12.539
It's like it's fun.

00:18:12.539 --> 00:18:12.780
It's

00:18:12.940 --> 00:18:17.260
it's honestly fun, which is like the I mean, from my perspective, I got a dream job, you know.

00:18:17.260 --> 00:18:22.140
I'm hopefully trying my best to help the community, but also having a great time.

00:18:22.120 --> 00:18:24.440
But that so that the closure of BIP

00:18:24.600 --> 00:18:25.560
was very difficult.

00:18:25.560 --> 00:18:26.680
Some programs

00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:27.800
completely

00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:28.920
disappeared.

00:18:28.920 --> 00:18:34.280
Other programs actually got morphed and some took opportunities to kind of carry them on, like oh

00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:34.920
, should give

00:18:35.080 --> 00:18:35.240
it

00:18:35.260 --> 00:18:46.940
uh shout out to Ben Solomon doing his thing with the commercial beekeepers and monitoring and advising a lot of commercial beekeepers up in I guess that kind of like northern midwest part of the country.

00:18:46.760 --> 00:18:51.240
And another program that that we carried on was that survey.

00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:54.919
And the beekeeping community, like ABF, honey producers, they really

00:18:55.160 --> 00:18:55.560
rally

00:18:55.720 --> 00:18:56.440
behind us and a

00:18:56.600 --> 00:18:57.080
and Pam

00:18:57.320 --> 00:18:58.200
at the very beginning

00:18:58.360 --> 00:19:04.840
to to acknowledge the importance of that and and who was looking at those data and really allowed us to kind of carry on.

00:19:04.840 --> 00:19:05.080
So

00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:09.080
kind of at the beginning of the segment, Jeff, you mentioned like it's morphed over the years

00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:09.560
and

00:19:09.540 --> 00:19:10.500
the survey has and

00:19:10.660 --> 00:19:14.260
you know in some ways it has, but in other ways it's and I'm looking at Natalie, you know, th

00:19:14.420 --> 00:19:18.020
those same questions on loss calculations are existing now

00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:18.500
for

00:19:18.860 --> 00:19:19.659
I think Natalie

00:19:19.820 --> 00:19:23.179
we were reflecting on this like it's getting to nineteen years.

00:19:23.179 --> 00:19:23.980
So there's some

00:19:24.220 --> 00:19:26.299
some consistency there, which I think

00:19:26.539 --> 00:19:27.980
provides a lot of power

00:19:28.139 --> 00:19:31.580
as well as we we're you know, we're getting into that realm of I think

00:19:31.740 --> 00:19:32.620
looking at

00:19:32.940 --> 00:19:34.139
You know, these long term

00:19:34.380 --> 00:19:37.659
trends and that's that's pretty unique, I would say.

00:19:37.659 --> 00:19:38.700
From a BIP

00:19:38.860 --> 00:19:44.860
standpoint, I still have some of the the Sentinel tags that I used to have on the hives and

00:19:45.140 --> 00:19:50.660
And I don't know, I can't remember who sent me the email, but someone sent me the email after I sent in a sample, said

00:19:50.900 --> 00:19:53.700
you might want to check this particular colony out.

00:19:53.700 --> 00:19:55.540
It may be Queenless.

00:19:55.260 --> 00:19:55.419
And

00:19:55.580 --> 00:19:56.460
I tell you though, it

00:19:56.620 --> 00:19:57.820
it's a learning experience.

00:19:57.820 --> 00:19:59.500
You say, well, I don't want to do that again.

00:19:59.500 --> 00:19:59.980
But yeah,

00:20:00.140 --> 00:20:00.860
BIP was a

00:20:01.100 --> 00:20:01.740
a great program.

00:20:02.059 --> 00:20:02.380
But I'm

00:20:02.539 --> 00:20:05.980
so glad to hear the information didn't stop.

00:20:06.120 --> 00:20:08.200
others stepped in to pick it up and and

00:20:08.360 --> 00:20:09.240
like the survey

00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:10.600
is so important.

00:20:10.600 --> 00:20:12.200
I think I'm gonna interrupt because I

00:20:12.360 --> 00:20:15.320
now I feel like we've been mourning be informed partnership.

00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:18.320
But I want to make sure that all of our listeners are on the same page

00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:19.600
because we've got some newer

00:20:19.760 --> 00:20:21.440
beekeepers listening.

00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:22.000
And so

00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:25.040
maybe one of you could answer the question of

00:20:25.240 --> 00:20:28.040
Why are we monitoring colony losses

00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:32.680
and and what does that mean for beekeepers throughout the years

00:20:32.840 --> 00:20:33.559
Yeah, so

00:20:33.799 --> 00:20:39.240
mortality and loss rates, I usually like to come to compare it to like life expectancy for humans.

00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:39.799
So it's like

00:20:39.960 --> 00:20:41.640
it's a very important metric.

00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:45.000
It can be very revealing of some issues, but it's also not the

00:20:45.340 --> 00:20:46.940
full picture on its own.

00:20:46.940 --> 00:20:51.020
So it's it's important to uh to to to track and to measure

00:20:51.179 --> 00:20:56.700
because if we see big shifts in in in mortality rates it can be indicative of of bigger

00:20:56.919 --> 00:20:57.640
issues.

00:20:57.640 --> 00:21:00.039
But it's only the start of the story, right?

00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:00.280
So

00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:02.520
so we know that it's not the end all be

00:21:02.679 --> 00:21:04.840
all, but it's it's uh it's an indicator of

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:06.760
of the health of our Anibi

00:21:06.919 --> 00:21:07.880
population.

00:21:07.860 --> 00:21:12.419
The work that you do is is picked up by the media, I think, every year

00:21:12.659 --> 00:21:15.779
faithfully, and it's never good news, right?

00:21:15.779 --> 00:21:18.659
I mean, there are very few data points that are

00:21:18.940 --> 00:21:20.380
This is fantastic.

00:21:20.380 --> 00:21:22.539
We're moving forward.

00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:23.740
How do you

00:21:24.299 --> 00:21:25.260
keep going

00:21:25.820 --> 00:21:29.580
and and how do you find those bits of good news?

00:21:29.580 --> 00:21:31.260
It's a big job to have

00:21:31.540 --> 00:21:32.580
You're you're talking about this

00:21:32.820 --> 00:21:35.300
one of the saddest things that happens in our industry.

00:21:35.380 --> 00:21:36.660
That is a great question.

00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:39.700
And it's true that it's it's it's easy to to be very pessimistic

00:21:39.940 --> 00:21:42.980
when we spend our day calculating the number of these

00:21:43.360 --> 00:21:46.480
that the colonies that have died in a in a single year.

00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:47.200
And and as

00:21:47.360 --> 00:21:50.159
as Jeff was saying, this year was the nineteenth years

00:21:50.320 --> 00:21:51.200
we've been doing

00:21:51.360 --> 00:21:52.559
the survey.

00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:55.440
The importance of of repeating, you know

00:21:55.540 --> 00:22:01.060
standard methodologies and to being able to have this consistency is really what makes it possible for us to

00:22:01.220 --> 00:22:09.220
to see trends and to track basically compare apples to apples over time and and see if we actually pick up something different happening

00:22:09.140 --> 00:22:13.460
And what we have seen over all of those those lines is that there is no like

00:22:13.700 --> 00:22:14.420
steadily

00:22:14.740 --> 00:22:15.300
trend.

00:22:15.300 --> 00:22:18.900
It's not it's not steadily going better and it's not steadily getting worse either.

00:22:18.900 --> 00:22:21.540
We do have see a fluctuation between

00:22:21.620 --> 00:22:23.540
worse year and better years.

00:22:23.540 --> 00:22:29.060
And in particular the last two years, so 2024, 2025, were particularly bad.

00:22:29.060 --> 00:22:31.460
We had very high estimates of of colony

00:22:31.620 --> 00:22:34.580
loss and in particularly so for commercial beekeepers

00:22:34.860 --> 00:22:36.700
And in comparison to that, twenty

00:22:36.860 --> 00:22:38.700
twenty six is slightly better

00:22:38.860 --> 00:22:42.059
and so we want to see it as a good news, but the problem is

00:22:42.220 --> 00:22:44.779
even that when we have a national estimate of forty

00:22:44.940 --> 00:22:48.460
percent, that means that in the last calendar year

00:22:48.540 --> 00:22:49.420
Four out of ten

00:22:49.580 --> 00:22:52.940
colonies was lost during that time.

00:22:52.940 --> 00:22:53.180
So

00:22:53.340 --> 00:22:53.820
just uh

00:22:54.060 --> 00:22:55.420
a little bit of a sidetrack.

00:22:55.420 --> 00:22:57.820
We're not talking about a population drop

00:22:57.740 --> 00:23:00.540
We're not talking about a reduction in colony numbers in the colony

00:23:00.700 --> 00:23:01.660
in the country.

00:23:01.660 --> 00:23:03.580
Uh it is really a mortality rate.

00:23:03.580 --> 00:23:03.740
So

00:23:03.900 --> 00:23:03.980
w

00:23:04.140 --> 00:23:07.660
you can your listeners can envision it as a as a turnover rate.

00:23:07.660 --> 00:23:10.060
Those colonies are lost, then they're probably replaced.

00:23:10.060 --> 00:23:12.460
Beekeepers make splits to recover.

00:23:12.360 --> 00:23:14.840
the number of colonies, but four out of ten

00:23:15.159 --> 00:23:16.679
have been lost and therefore

00:23:16.840 --> 00:23:19.000
would have needed to be replaced.

00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:20.120
So that's a lot.

00:23:20.120 --> 00:23:24.360
And and there is kind of two things we have learned over the years.

00:23:24.140 --> 00:23:29.580
One of them is that it is absolutely higher than what beekeepers tell us is acceptable.

00:23:29.580 --> 00:23:35.660
So when we ask beekeepers what they would consider to be a normal turnover, they usually cite about 20%

00:23:35.980 --> 00:23:37.740
would be acceptable

00:23:37.660 --> 00:23:40.700
And so we are double that number in a good year.

00:23:40.700 --> 00:23:43.660
The second lesson is that when we say forty

00:23:43.820 --> 00:23:46.220
percent is our national estimate, that is

00:23:46.340 --> 00:23:50.660
or or better estimate at the number of colonies that were lost at the national level.

00:23:50.660 --> 00:23:54.340
But that kind of hides the variability operation to operation.

00:23:54.300 --> 00:23:54.540
So

00:23:54.700 --> 00:23:59.900
some operations are actually doing okay, some operations are doing extremely poorly.

00:23:59.900 --> 00:24:05.740
And so when we look at that distribution, what we see, for example, if we look at commercial beekeepers

00:24:06.220 --> 00:24:09.820
One in three commercial beekeepers have reported this year

00:24:10.060 --> 00:24:12.860
annual loss over 50%.

00:24:12.860 --> 00:24:13.020
So

00:24:13.260 --> 00:24:17.900
one in three commercial beekeepers lost more than half of their colonies last year

00:24:17.760 --> 00:24:19.360
And that was a better year.

00:24:19.360 --> 00:24:24.080
And I and I remember, Natalie, we were on a call with some of the beekeeping leaders of the different groups

00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:24.559
and

00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:26.240
I mean, quite frankly, I was

00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:26.640
like

00:24:26.740 --> 00:24:27.060
I guess

00:24:27.460 --> 00:24:28.660
relief was the word

00:24:28.820 --> 00:24:35.940
when we saw that the losses were much lower than the sixty percent that we had, you know, the previous two years.

00:24:35.940 --> 00:24:39.299
And yeah, what does that say when like we're relieved to have 40%

00:24:39.460 --> 00:24:40.019
losses?

00:24:40.019 --> 00:24:43.380
And and even then some of the beekeepers were commenting on

00:24:43.660 --> 00:24:46.380
I mean this is where we need to take a little bit deeper dive.

00:24:46.380 --> 00:24:49.980
I'm sure we're doing a survey, but we need to get our hands in in those colonies.

00:24:49.980 --> 00:24:51.020
That's why like the BIP tech

00:24:51.260 --> 00:24:53.020
team was so important.

00:24:52.900 --> 00:24:58.420
The APHIS disease surveys are so important because the the inspectors are getting in and seeing those hives.

00:24:58.420 --> 00:25:00.340
But even though we had fewer losses, there

00:25:00.760 --> 00:25:03.880
That doesn't necessarily mean that those remaining colonies were

00:25:04.120 --> 00:25:06.840
are particularly healthy or strong either.

00:25:06.840 --> 00:25:07.880
Maybe the beekeepers

00:25:08.039 --> 00:25:12.120
some beekeepers made a choice of not culling like they would previous years.

00:25:12.120 --> 00:25:12.440
So

00:25:12.760 --> 00:25:16.360
It's quite complicated and no doubt like a lot of beekeepers are

00:25:16.520 --> 00:25:16.760
are

00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:17.960
facing some

00:25:18.280 --> 00:25:19.640
daunting tasks.

00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:20.440
More inputs.

00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:23.559
Maybe we're not having like colony population decreases, but

00:25:23.760 --> 00:25:28.320
Beekeepers are spending a lot of money, a lot of time to to keep colonies alive.

00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:32.960
For years we were showing backyard beekeepers and sideliners using those graphs

00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:35.919
that their losses were higher because we were

00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:40.800
doing our darndest to get to get people on board with Farroa management.

00:25:40.800 --> 00:25:41.120
And

00:25:41.760 --> 00:25:43.040
I think that when

00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:43.440
the

00:25:43.600 --> 00:25:44.640
the numbers

00:25:44.760 --> 00:25:47.320
kind of flip and you have higher commercial losses

00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:52.360
and from professionals who are usually better at preventing higher losses.

00:25:52.360 --> 00:25:53.799
I think that's that's you know, you you

00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:56.360
start hearing some alarm bells with with that.

00:25:56.360 --> 00:25:56.520
So

00:25:57.140 --> 00:25:58.980
It's nice to have eyes on the data.

00:25:58.980 --> 00:26:00.020
I'm just stating that.

00:26:00.020 --> 00:26:03.220
I'm not asking a question everybody.

00:26:03.220 --> 00:26:05.860
But you are asking about what keeps up optimistic.

00:26:05.940 --> 00:26:06.740
Yeah, I didn't know

00:26:06.980 --> 00:26:08.580
we haven't gotten there yet, have we?

00:26:10.140 --> 00:26:10.860
I would say

00:26:11.020 --> 00:26:13.340
for me, one thing that gives me optimism

00:26:13.500 --> 00:26:14.060
is that

00:26:14.300 --> 00:26:18.300
what we we actually s can see in the data that beekeepers today

00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:18.679
know

00:26:18.840 --> 00:26:23.000
a lot more uh about managing Varwa, for example, than they did twenty years ago.

00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.159
Like we can actually see in the data

00:26:25.399 --> 00:26:27.639
adoption curves of people that are

00:26:27.740 --> 00:26:30.300
monitoring more over the years, doing m more best

00:26:30.460 --> 00:26:33.820
management practices as, you know, as identified by experts.

00:26:33.820 --> 00:26:34.220
But like

00:26:34.540 --> 00:26:37.340
beekeepers are following and adopting and recommend

00:26:37.500 --> 00:26:40.700
uh recommendations and we can see all of those management

00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:42.380
waves shift.

00:26:42.300 --> 00:26:46.780
I do think that we still have mash major challenges, but I also think that

00:26:47.020 --> 00:26:52.220
no, not just the survey, but the work that every researcher has done in the last 20 years, we are

00:26:53.180 --> 00:26:55.340
asking better questions as well.

00:26:56.040 --> 00:27:00.120
Have our expectations of what constitute acceptable colony

00:27:00.280 --> 00:27:02.840
loss changed in the last nineteen, twenty

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:03.560
years

00:27:03.740 --> 00:27:06.460
It's gone from, you know, acceptables.

00:27:06.620 --> 00:27:08.060
I think Jeff, you said at the beginning

00:27:08.620 --> 00:27:08.700
was

00:27:08.940 --> 00:27:09.740
experiencing twenty

00:27:09.900 --> 00:27:10.460
percent.

00:27:10.460 --> 00:27:12.220
Yeah, I think Natalie's mentioned twenty.

00:27:12.220 --> 00:27:13.420
Maybe Augustina, if you

00:27:13.580 --> 00:27:14.220
can recall, uh

00:27:14.380 --> 00:27:17.500
recall like the last couple of years about what what were the beekeepers

00:27:17.660 --> 00:27:17.980
Agustina

00:27:18.140 --> 00:27:18.380
reported?

00:27:20.820 --> 00:27:23.380
For the last three years they have been reporting between nineteen

00:27:23.540 --> 00:27:23.940
and twenty

00:27:24.100 --> 00:27:24.660
percent of

00:27:24.900 --> 00:27:26.740
that would be acceptable.

00:27:26.540 --> 00:27:28.300
But that's from the USB keeping service

00:27:28.460 --> 00:27:28.540
that

00:27:28.860 --> 00:27:29.660
I don't know if people

00:27:29.900 --> 00:27:30.540
have uh

00:27:30.940 --> 00:27:31.020
from

00:27:31.180 --> 00:27:34.060
the top of my head and I would have to check the data.

00:27:34.060 --> 00:27:37.740
I'm putting a caveat there, but I think I remember the earlier

00:27:38.140 --> 00:27:39.100
years of the survey were

00:27:39.260 --> 00:27:40.700
closer to 15%.

00:27:40.700 --> 00:27:48.380
So it has edged up a little bit, but not dramatically, definitely not to catch up to the level of loss we're experiencing.

00:27:48.340 --> 00:27:50.660
And it's kind of plateaued as I think I r

00:27:50.820 --> 00:27:51.539
also recall like

00:27:51.700 --> 00:27:52.179
Augustina

00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:57.059
confirming, like it I do recall it lower, but it's kind of hovering around that twenty

00:27:57.220 --> 00:27:57.860
percent.

00:27:57.860 --> 00:27:58.179
Um

00:27:58.200 --> 00:27:58.519
Which of

00:27:58.679 --> 00:28:01.000
I mean begs the question that some people

00:28:01.159 --> 00:28:01.480
ask

00:28:01.639 --> 00:28:03.720
is like, is that at all realistic?

00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:06.440
Is that a goal we can get back to?

00:28:06.820 --> 00:28:07.220
Is that

00:28:07.460 --> 00:28:08.340
acceptable level?

00:28:08.340 --> 00:28:11.860
Is that from a management perspective or a financial perspective?

00:28:12.260 --> 00:28:14.100
And it it does seem, and uh

00:28:14.260 --> 00:28:18.740
happy if Augustina and I Natalie kind of confirm, but it does seem like there's been

00:28:19.300 --> 00:28:21.380
A bit of a more rapid shift.

00:28:21.380 --> 00:28:22.340
There was probably a shi

00:28:22.660 --> 00:28:22.740
and

00:28:23.060 --> 00:28:25.380
I'm thinking about resistance now, like amateur

00:28:25.700 --> 00:28:26.180
resistance.

00:28:26.180 --> 00:28:28.980
I feel like that this probably happened with like fou valvanate

00:28:29.140 --> 00:28:30.500
many years ago.

00:28:30.620 --> 00:28:31.340
But from what

00:28:31.580 --> 00:28:40.620
from what I can recollect now, like it does seem like over the last couple of years in terms of management, the beekeepers have had to do another major shift in an attempt to kind of keep up.

00:28:40.620 --> 00:28:42.140
Like um, for example

00:28:42.620 --> 00:28:44.860
oxalic acid with commercial beekeepers.

00:28:44.860 --> 00:28:45.180
I mean the

00:28:45.340 --> 00:28:50.060
the oxalic acid use is skyrocketed from the commercial beekeepers

00:28:50.220 --> 00:28:50.460
because

00:28:51.100 --> 00:28:53.580
They're I I think out of necessity

00:28:54.059 --> 00:28:54.380
also

00:28:54.940 --> 00:28:55.899
reading uh

00:28:56.059 --> 00:28:59.980
classic IPM strategies is like multiple different types of

00:29:00.139 --> 00:29:02.460
of treatments against a particular pest

00:29:02.620 --> 00:29:03.340
is important.

00:29:03.340 --> 00:29:03.659
So

00:29:03.840 --> 00:29:06.799
I I think right now there does seem to be like a pretty

00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:11.440
pretty big shift in some of the management actions, at least when it comes to Varroa, um

00:29:11.600 --> 00:29:13.360
looking, you know, thinking about the

00:29:13.840 --> 00:29:15.200
the data over the years.

00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:17.360
But uh I don't know, Natalie, what do you think over

00:29:17.600 --> 00:29:17.919
over

00:29:18.080 --> 00:29:19.120
over time?

00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:22.480
I mean, I think that you're getting to a a an interesting

00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:32.320
Finding that I think for me was a surprise from the survey and one thing that kind of like stood out for me is how persistent some of the problems are.

00:29:31.980 --> 00:29:32.380
Right, like

00:29:32.540 --> 00:29:33.580
so beekeepers are are

00:29:33.740 --> 00:29:37.020
siding cause of loss, so it's a self-diagnosed question

00:29:37.180 --> 00:29:41.980
where we ask beekeepers, what do you think has caused colony loss in your operation?

00:29:41.840 --> 00:29:42.480
And and

00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:44.640
year after year we continue to see like

00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:45.280
varwa

00:29:45.520 --> 00:29:47.280
remains the dominant challenge.

00:29:47.280 --> 00:29:49.919
And so in a way I was just talking about the fact that we

00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:52.960
see that treatment and management continue to evolve and yet

00:29:53.120 --> 00:29:53.840
Faroa

00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.680
still remains this this dominant challenge for most beekeepers.

00:29:57.680 --> 00:29:58.000
So

00:29:58.480 --> 00:29:59.120
I think

00:30:00.280 --> 00:30:03.880
That's like one of the strengths of the survey is realism, right?

00:30:03.880 --> 00:30:07.000
We see what happens in actual beekeeping operation.

00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:10.360
We we see what beekeepers uh report using.

00:30:10.260 --> 00:30:19.140
The cost of it is that it's messy, so it's it's hard for us to to use it to to draw a real conclusion about actual associations that are causation

00:30:19.380 --> 00:30:20.660
because the this data can

00:30:20.900 --> 00:30:21.539
do that

00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:23.320
One of the lessons I would say

00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:23.960
is that

00:30:24.280 --> 00:30:25.320
throughout the data we're

00:30:25.560 --> 00:30:30.200
not seeing any single management practices that can guarantee success.

00:30:30.120 --> 00:30:32.760
And it's more about the most successful operation

00:30:32.920 --> 00:30:33.400
kinda

00:30:33.720 --> 00:30:34.200
stack

00:30:34.360 --> 00:30:37.320
together a lot of good practices.

00:30:37.320 --> 00:30:43.160
They're they're basically doing everything they can to give their bees better odds and it's not one single

00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:44.520
management practices

00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:46.200
or one single product.

00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:47.800
And so in in terms of management

00:30:48.360 --> 00:30:53.320
of Varroa, I think, you know, increasingly we're talking about seeing Varro

00:30:53.480 --> 00:30:54.520
management as a

00:30:54.760 --> 00:30:56.600
as a management system, right?

00:30:56.600 --> 00:30:56.840
You

00:30:57.240 --> 00:30:57.320
m

00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:04.280
prevention is important, monitoring is important, timing, resistance, all of those aspects are important.

00:31:04.280 --> 00:31:04.919
And so

00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:05.800
if

00:31:05.960 --> 00:31:07.400
for example for your listeners

00:31:07.560 --> 00:31:11.560
they shouldn't use the the data to try to find oh what is the treatment that works best

00:31:11.720 --> 00:31:12.680
but more about

00:31:12.920 --> 00:31:16.600
how should I build a plan for the whole season that I try to ask

00:31:16.760 --> 00:31:16.840
con

00:31:17.080 --> 00:31:17.240
you know

00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:17.480
was

00:31:17.720 --> 00:31:17.800
was

00:31:17.960 --> 00:31:20.360
Jeff was saying about the IPM approach.

00:31:20.440 --> 00:31:20.600
is

00:31:20.760 --> 00:31:21.080
uh

00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:24.039
the goal is trying to build a management system

00:31:24.679 --> 00:31:29.720
that will keep my population below damaging levels throughout the whole season.

00:31:29.540 --> 00:31:31.620
rather than asking which product

00:31:32.020 --> 00:31:32.900
on its own

00:31:33.140 --> 00:31:33.540
in the in

00:31:33.700 --> 00:31:33.940
you know

00:31:34.100 --> 00:31:35.460
is gonna have the most

00:31:35.620 --> 00:31:37.380
the best association with loss

00:31:38.179 --> 00:31:38.500
looking

00:31:38.740 --> 00:31:42.820
for the appropriate strategy and plan as opposed to looking for a

00:31:43.059 --> 00:31:45.139
magic bullet for your Varo

00:31:45.299 --> 00:31:45.620
problem.

00:31:45.620 --> 00:31:50.899
Hey, 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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com

00:33:23.660 --> 00:33:25.419
Welcome back everybody.

00:33:25.419 --> 00:33:27.260
Natalie, that was a great, great question.

00:33:27.260 --> 00:33:34.460
Even though you're not going to give our beekeepers one answer, you're you're teaching them, you're teaching them how to fish or teaching them how to beekeep, I guess.

00:33:34.460 --> 00:33:34.780
But

00:33:34.860 --> 00:33:39.419
That I guess, you know, you've you were nodding your head and and smiling when when Natalie was talking.

00:33:39.419 --> 00:33:41.980
So can you share your thoughts on

00:33:42.299 --> 00:33:44.940
the information that Natalie was talking about?

00:33:44.779 --> 00:33:45.820
Yeah, so the USB

00:33:45.980 --> 00:33:46.220
keeper

00:33:46.380 --> 00:33:51.179
service has a a lot of questions that are connected to how the beekeepers are managing Barroa

00:33:51.340 --> 00:33:53.179
and we are not asking only about the

00:33:53.540 --> 00:33:56.180
products they are using, we are asking about non

00:33:56.340 --> 00:33:57.220
chemical practice

00:33:57.380 --> 00:33:58.500
here, they are incrementing

00:33:58.660 --> 00:34:01.220
if they are feeding, if they are monitoring

00:34:01.240 --> 00:34:07.240
Because the whole idea is to have a picture of what are all the practices that the beekeepers are implementing.

00:34:07.240 --> 00:34:08.280
And as Nathalie

00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:11.480
said, we are thinking of a program, how we manage men

00:34:12.040 --> 00:34:12.520
mites

00:34:12.740 --> 00:34:12.820
from

00:34:12.980 --> 00:34:13.540
a program

00:34:13.700 --> 00:34:14.500
or a system

00:34:14.659 --> 00:34:15.300
perspective

00:34:15.460 --> 00:34:15.780
and that

00:34:16.020 --> 00:34:16.179
has

00:34:16.340 --> 00:34:17.940
a lot of pieces.

00:34:17.940 --> 00:34:19.700
And then we see changes like

00:34:19.860 --> 00:34:22.740
we are seeing an increase in inoxalic acid use

00:34:22.859 --> 00:34:26.780
Where it could be in response to the amitrust resistant uh issues that be

00:34:26.940 --> 00:34:31.740
keepers are experiencing, but also because we have more tools available in that portion.

00:34:31.620 --> 00:34:36.740
we have more options how to implement the oxalic acid in our colonies that it will be more

00:34:36.900 --> 00:34:38.660
suitable for commercials

00:34:38.900 --> 00:34:40.420
that have a lot of colonies.

00:34:40.420 --> 00:34:42.260
So basically all that kind of

00:34:42.620 --> 00:34:43.580
technology or

00:34:43.740 --> 00:34:45.900
different tools that we have in our

00:34:46.460 --> 00:34:46.940
integrated

00:34:47.100 --> 00:34:48.460
press management toolkit

00:34:48.620 --> 00:34:49.020
help the

00:34:49.179 --> 00:34:51.020
beekeepers to rely on different strat

00:34:51.260 --> 00:34:51.420
uh

00:34:51.580 --> 00:34:53.260
methods within the strategy

00:34:53.420 --> 00:34:57.020
and not only using one chemical all the time.

00:34:56.659 --> 00:34:57.940
So basically the USB

00:34:58.100 --> 00:34:58.740
Keep and Service

00:34:58.900 --> 00:35:01.780
just wanted to collect that information and have it out there

00:35:01.940 --> 00:35:03.700
so people can see what are all the

00:35:04.020 --> 00:35:07.300
what are all the options that are available there.

00:35:07.140 --> 00:35:08.819
Especially especially for Barua

00:35:08.980 --> 00:35:09.539
management, but

00:35:09.700 --> 00:35:11.220
not only from the chemical control

00:35:11.539 --> 00:35:12.260
perspective

00:35:12.500 --> 00:35:14.819
because it's kind of more complex than that

00:35:14.940 --> 00:35:18.940
And we've actually been, you know, talking about some of the things the survey's been looking at

00:35:19.099 --> 00:35:21.099
besides the losses.

00:35:21.099 --> 00:35:23.180
We try our best to publicize the

00:35:23.339 --> 00:35:28.060
the loss results like through press releases and websites that hopefully um

00:35:28.460 --> 00:35:29.180
you know, many of

00:35:29.340 --> 00:35:29.580
of

00:35:29.740 --> 00:35:31.580
of the listeners are familiar with

00:35:31.740 --> 00:35:31.900
and

00:35:32.140 --> 00:35:34.060
I guess we'll share some links.

00:35:34.060 --> 00:35:38.380
But we've dived you know, we're we've always dived into the management portion and always

00:35:38.740 --> 00:35:38.980
kinda

00:35:39.140 --> 00:35:41.140
struggled communicating that back out.

00:35:41.140 --> 00:35:43.940
I know Natalie, especially with the BIP days and Dennis

00:35:44.180 --> 00:35:44.660
did so

00:35:44.820 --> 00:35:45.460
did some

00:35:45.700 --> 00:35:48.260
investigations and published some papers.

00:35:48.359 --> 00:35:49.720
You know, one big surprise I think

00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:52.040
Natalie was okay, if you use a Varroa

00:35:52.200 --> 00:35:54.920
control, you're probably gonna have lower losses.

00:35:54.920 --> 00:35:59.000
But what we're what we're also doing new with the USB keeping survey

00:35:59.240 --> 00:35:59.880
is the

00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:01.240
dashboard.

00:36:01.240 --> 00:36:01.480
So

00:36:01.820 --> 00:36:02.060
It's

00:36:02.220 --> 00:36:09.100
it's trying to give back to the beekeepers, but we've also been connecting with extension specialists throughout the country to to figure out

00:36:09.260 --> 00:36:09.580
like

00:36:09.720 --> 00:36:11.720
What kind of metrics is in

00:36:11.880 --> 00:36:11.960
are

00:36:12.119 --> 00:36:13.000
interesting to them?

00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:16.760
Because every year, especially the extension systems, they have to report back

00:36:17.160 --> 00:36:17.800
I guess like

00:36:18.040 --> 00:36:19.640
progress, for example, like

00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:25.560
how many beekeepers have they brainwashed this year, for example, or how many different, you know, how many more

00:36:25.880 --> 00:36:28.440
monitoring their colonies and things like that?

00:36:28.440 --> 00:36:28.680
So

00:36:28.940 --> 00:36:33.820
I I suppose we'll also put a link for that to the dashboard that will allow people to visualize

00:36:34.140 --> 00:36:38.060
some aspects of the management that we're talking about here.

00:36:38.060 --> 00:36:38.380
So

00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:43.080
Things like what's the percentage of beekeepers doing alcohol washes?

00:36:43.080 --> 00:36:43.960
Or what are the

00:36:44.120 --> 00:36:49.400
what are the most common chemical treatments used for Varroa as an example?

00:36:49.400 --> 00:36:49.640
Or

00:36:50.020 --> 00:36:53.220
what are the what's the summary or the trends in terms of like

00:36:53.460 --> 00:36:57.140
factors that beekeepers think are responsible for their losses.

00:36:57.140 --> 00:36:57.700
So we're really

00:36:57.859 --> 00:36:59.780
really happy by that and we're really trying to

00:37:00.160 --> 00:37:00.560
to again

00:37:00.720 --> 00:37:01.040
partner

00:37:01.200 --> 00:37:02.800
with as many groups as possible

00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:04.960
to give some information

00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:05.920
back.

00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:06.240
So

00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:06.480
uh

00:37:06.640 --> 00:37:10.720
extension folks have a have a relatively new group that we've been working with.

00:37:10.640 --> 00:37:17.359
Another group we've been very close with over the years is AIA, so they've been helping to distribute the survey.

00:37:17.359 --> 00:37:18.240
The Apiary

00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:19.279
Inspectors of America.

00:37:19.520 --> 00:37:21.520
API Inspectors of America.

00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:25.680
Almost every state probably should have a member that's connected to that organization, like uh

00:37:25.839 --> 00:37:25.920
there

00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:28.480
bee inspection service, State Department of Ag

00:37:28.880 --> 00:37:29.520
probably.

00:37:29.520 --> 00:37:30.240
So they've been

00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:33.839
also a really, really great group of individuals to

00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:34.640
to work

00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:36.160
with.

00:37:35.620 --> 00:37:36.660
It seems like

00:37:36.900 --> 00:37:39.460
for a lot of the extension professionals at universities

00:37:39.620 --> 00:37:46.420
that one of the things, one of the talks they give to beekeeping associations, or at least a few of the slides, would be

00:37:46.820 --> 00:37:48.660
lost data.

00:37:48.660 --> 00:37:51.540
But it sounds like you're trying to

00:37:51.780 --> 00:37:57.940
also maybe increase beekeeper participation in those data and make it more accessible to them.

00:37:57.760 --> 00:37:58.400
Mm-hmm.

00:37:58.400 --> 00:37:59.520
The behind the scenes

00:37:59.680 --> 00:38:02.400
l uh most of the extension system folks

00:38:02.560 --> 00:38:05.280
are gonna be following something called the USDA logic model

00:38:05.520 --> 00:38:06.560
where essentially

00:38:06.920 --> 00:38:08.040
they're measuring

00:38:08.200 --> 00:38:11.880
they're trying to measure the impact of everyone's work

00:38:12.040 --> 00:38:13.000
including theirs.

00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:14.680
So it kind of starts with like

00:38:15.120 --> 00:38:21.680
knowledge gain, you know, how many beekeepers in the audience now just learned about an alcohol wash because they're beginner beekeepers?

00:38:21.680 --> 00:38:24.960
And then the next step is a behavioral change.

00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:25.360
Okay.

00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:25.680
So

00:38:25.859 --> 00:38:28.339
Someone learned about the importance of alcohol wash.

00:38:28.339 --> 00:38:28.579
Now

00:38:28.740 --> 00:38:32.420
how many of those people are actually going to implement that?

00:38:32.420 --> 00:38:33.619
And then the final

00:38:34.240 --> 00:38:35.440
stage, the outcome

00:38:35.600 --> 00:38:36.160
impact.

00:38:36.160 --> 00:38:38.240
And this is what we're all like running after

00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:40.400
is that kind of condition change.

00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:40.720
So

00:38:40.880 --> 00:38:42.560
okay, they learned about alcohol wash

00:38:42.720 --> 00:38:43.520
as an example.

00:38:43.520 --> 00:38:46.000
They're now implementing alcohol wash.

00:38:46.200 --> 00:38:46.680
Hopefully

00:38:46.840 --> 00:38:53.000
as a result they're they're reacting other ways like treatments or cultural practices, maybe uh

00:38:53.160 --> 00:38:55.800
getting resistant stock of bees.

00:38:55.500 --> 00:39:02.300
and they're getting like lower mic counts throughout the year and ultimately the you know the the holy grail is lower losses.

00:39:02.300 --> 00:39:05.420
And that's where it gets a little bit it's a bit of a conundrum.

00:39:05.420 --> 00:39:10.460
You know, we've we've been working our tails off, researchers, extension people.

00:39:09.859 --> 00:39:11.780
beekeepers to limit losses

00:39:11.940 --> 00:39:16.180
and we're still like seeing those steady losses in fact, you know, the last couple of years higher.

00:39:16.180 --> 00:39:16.900
But who knows?

00:39:16.900 --> 00:39:17.380
Maybe if we

00:39:17.619 --> 00:39:18.180
if we

00:39:18.359 --> 00:39:20.440
If we did nothing, the losses would have been triple

00:39:20.599 --> 00:39:21.240
those numbers.

00:39:21.240 --> 00:39:26.520
I mean, so it's a bit tricky when it comes to that final piece, that condition change, but we're that's what we're working for.

00:39:26.520 --> 00:39:30.599
We're working towards the knowledge gains, the behavior changes.

00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:32.319
and those condition changes.

00:39:32.319 --> 00:39:36.720
And that's where we've connected with extension like Selena at Auburn, Garrett, Slater

00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:37.440
over in Texas

00:39:37.599 --> 00:39:37.920
AM

00:39:38.160 --> 00:39:40.480
to try to come up with some questions.

00:39:40.640 --> 00:39:43.520
that we can give back to them that they can then use

00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:49.680
for, of course, their reporting to whatever states and federal levels, but more importantly, they can kind of tweak

00:39:50.240 --> 00:39:50.400
their

00:39:50.560 --> 00:39:54.800
own programming because they want to be as effective as possible.

00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:58.960
The last I saw is that the information was a preliminary survey results.

00:39:58.960 --> 00:39:59.040
Is

00:39:59.200 --> 00:40:01.680
the permanent or has the final results for twenty

00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:02.080
twenty

00:40:02.240 --> 00:40:04.960
five, twenty six come out yet?

00:40:04.080 --> 00:40:04.400
I'm I

00:40:04.560 --> 00:40:09.920
I guess Dina's probably looking at me because our final version is always a submitted manuscript and

00:40:10.080 --> 00:40:10.960
unfortunately

00:40:11.120 --> 00:40:14.720
I end up being a little bit of a bottleneck for manuscripts.

00:40:15.960 --> 00:40:18.280
Selena should rule be kicking my rear end uh

00:40:18.440 --> 00:40:19.560
even more than she already

00:40:19.720 --> 00:40:20.040
is.

00:40:20.040 --> 00:40:20.280
So

00:40:20.440 --> 00:40:22.920
I mean I think we can all trust those those data.

00:40:22.920 --> 00:40:23.640
I think like

00:40:23.740 --> 00:40:24.140
you know,

00:40:24.380 --> 00:40:25.020
historically

00:40:25.180 --> 00:40:26.380
the the numbers that uh

00:40:26.620 --> 00:40:30.780
end up in these scientific publications are very, very similar to

00:40:31.260 --> 00:40:34.300
to those press releases and the websites that we see.

00:40:34.300 --> 00:40:36.380
I think we just give us a little bit more

00:40:36.920 --> 00:40:39.320
breathing room by making that statement.

00:40:39.320 --> 00:40:42.280
So I I don't think anything major would change.

00:40:42.280 --> 00:40:42.600
And I'm

00:40:42.760 --> 00:40:47.960
I'm again I'm staring at the the data wranglers, Augustine and Natalie, to confirm what I've just said.

00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:51.280
No, that's like that's why we work so hard to have that preliminary

00:40:51.680 --> 00:40:55.440
preliminary data out really fast because we know everybody wants to know

00:40:55.840 --> 00:40:56.720
those numbers

00:40:56.960 --> 00:41:01.520
so that if they have to wait to the publication process it would take longer and that would be really out

00:41:01.680 --> 00:41:02.240
of date

00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:03.360
information.

00:41:03.360 --> 00:41:04.800
So we now take a

00:41:05.040 --> 00:41:05.280
like

00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:06.240
before

00:41:06.260 --> 00:41:07.940
We take a two-step approach.

00:41:07.940 --> 00:41:08.660
First we have

00:41:08.900 --> 00:41:10.900
as soon as the survey is over, we

00:41:11.140 --> 00:41:11.700
Natalie

00:41:11.860 --> 00:41:12.260
not we

00:41:12.420 --> 00:41:16.340
Natalie works really hard in having those numbers calculated.

00:41:16.240 --> 00:41:18.000
with me sending her thousand

00:41:18.240 --> 00:41:19.760
of emails at any

00:41:19.920 --> 00:41:23.520
time of the week and then we work on that first and then

00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:26.400
once that it's out and everybody has access to that

00:41:26.560 --> 00:41:28.400
first numbers that are pretty important

00:41:28.859 --> 00:41:32.380
we work on the publication like following a more slow process.

00:41:32.380 --> 00:41:36.460
I would love it if if somebody would step through the timeline of the survey

00:41:36.619 --> 00:41:38.940
beginning, survey close, and then

00:41:39.160 --> 00:41:48.120
I know a lot of listeners are participants in the survey, but also the fact that those data are then shared as quickly as you can get them out there.

00:41:48.140 --> 00:41:49.020
Like every year

00:41:49.260 --> 00:41:50.299
we try to follow

00:41:50.539 --> 00:41:51.980
because VEEP has this

00:41:52.220 --> 00:41:53.660
big tradition already.

00:41:53.660 --> 00:41:55.020
A lot of beekeepers ca

00:41:55.180 --> 00:41:56.299
could relate to that.

00:41:56.299 --> 00:41:58.859
We try to keep the same timelines and also because

00:41:59.099 --> 00:41:59.500
it makes

00:41:59.740 --> 00:42:02.859
from a beekeeping season perspective.

00:42:02.059 --> 00:42:04.140
The survey is always open from the first

00:42:04.380 --> 00:42:07.099
of April to the last day of April.

00:42:07.099 --> 00:42:07.420
Sometimes

00:42:07.579 --> 00:42:09.579
we extend a few more days to give some

00:42:09.740 --> 00:42:12.619
beekeepers the time during a weekend to fill those

00:42:12.820 --> 00:42:13.220
numbers

00:42:13.380 --> 00:42:13.620
out

00:42:13.780 --> 00:42:15.380
and after we finished

00:42:15.540 --> 00:42:16.660
we tried to have a

00:42:16.820 --> 00:42:18.580
during the May month

00:42:18.740 --> 00:42:20.740
we work really hard in having all those

00:42:21.140 --> 00:42:21.460
Like

00:42:21.700 --> 00:42:27.619
just to give you an idea, we have to clean a lot of data out of there first before any calculations.

00:42:27.619 --> 00:42:29.140
So we clean data, we

00:42:29.380 --> 00:42:30.260
Natalie again

00:42:30.420 --> 00:42:32.339
calculate those numbers.

00:42:32.040 --> 00:42:34.120
And then there's a lot of people involved.

00:42:34.120 --> 00:42:40.040
As Jeff mentioned, we are producing also maps that are like showing the variation in the losses

00:42:40.200 --> 00:42:41.640
across states.

00:42:41.340 --> 00:42:41.580
So

00:42:41.740 --> 00:42:43.660
that's we are sending data sets

00:42:43.900 --> 00:42:44.620
to Dr.

00:42:44.620 --> 00:42:45.500
Stephanie Roger

00:42:45.660 --> 00:42:46.460
that she also works in

00:42:46.620 --> 00:42:47.420
Auburn.

00:42:47.420 --> 00:42:51.980
She's producing those maps at the same time we are like producing the other figures.

00:42:51.840 --> 00:42:57.280
And the last week is basically a lot of people sending a lot of emails to have all the resources

00:42:57.440 --> 00:42:58.400
that we need

00:42:58.640 --> 00:43:01.360
so we can go again and use the AIA like

00:43:01.520 --> 00:43:03.520
appear inspectors.

00:43:02.960 --> 00:43:03.120
of

00:43:03.280 --> 00:43:06.480
America website to post all those there.

00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:10.800
Like we are producing tables that people also can download if they wanna see more

00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:12.080
accurate numbers

00:43:12.240 --> 00:43:15.200
or they wanna see their state numbers.

00:43:14.760 --> 00:43:21.080
So basically between April and June, this is a kind of our timeline for working hard on

00:43:21.400 --> 00:43:21.640
on

00:43:21.960 --> 00:43:24.440
having those results out.

00:43:24.160 --> 00:43:27.520
And then the part that Augustina has not said is all the months ahead

00:43:27.680 --> 00:43:34.960
before the survey, which like we usually start preparing the survey as soon as like the next survey as soon as the the survey is closed, right?

00:43:34.960 --> 00:43:36.720
We're already starting to think about

00:43:36.960 --> 00:43:38.240
the the next

00:43:38.320 --> 00:43:39.040
iteration

00:43:39.200 --> 00:43:46.960
and I'm I'm gonna let Jeff talk about about how the survey has sometimes evolved to to answer specific needs in a minute, but I just wanted to say like I go

00:43:47.160 --> 00:43:47.400
Christina

00:43:47.560 --> 00:43:51.720
is doing so much work ahead of the survey, making sure that all of the questions

00:43:51.880 --> 00:43:53.800
display correctly on the website

00:43:53.960 --> 00:43:54.760
with all of the

00:43:55.040 --> 00:43:59.360
the conditions behind each of the the the sub questions of the survey.

00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:04.960
So it's it's a very impressive work ahead of the survey as well in preparation to make sure that

00:44:04.859 --> 00:44:08.540
you know the the experience for the beekeepers of taking the survey online

00:44:08.780 --> 00:44:10.140
is hopefully you know

00:44:10.380 --> 00:44:10.700
as

00:44:11.260 --> 00:44:14.380
as positive as possible with as little bug as possible

00:44:14.619 --> 00:44:15.339
and that's that's all

00:44:15.500 --> 00:44:16.380
Augustina

00:44:16.200 --> 00:44:22.040
Yeah, and we're s we're still, you know, we're trying to keep it consistent so that we can compare year to year, but we're also all

00:44:22.200 --> 00:44:22.280
s

00:44:22.440 --> 00:44:23.960
really trying to work hard to

00:44:24.440 --> 00:44:25.160
to streamline

00:44:25.320 --> 00:44:27.640
questions, reduce questions when when

00:44:27.800 --> 00:44:28.599
not necessary.

00:44:28.599 --> 00:44:29.880
Like we know it takes time.

00:44:29.880 --> 00:44:31.560
We appreciate everyone's response.

00:44:31.560 --> 00:44:32.520
Of course we hope that

00:44:33.040 --> 00:44:34.720
that the nation as a whole

00:44:34.880 --> 00:44:39.440
benefits from every one of those two thousand beekeepers spending maybe twenty

00:44:39.600 --> 00:44:43.360
minutes or maybe thirty-five minutes, depending on their notes for the year, uh

00:44:43.520 --> 00:44:44.240
doing that.

00:44:44.240 --> 00:44:46.640
So yeah, that's that's I guess one thing

00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:50.160
record keeping probably helps do that survey uh easier.

00:44:50.160 --> 00:44:52.559
So uh and of course that's just good practice.

00:44:52.559 --> 00:44:52.720
So

00:44:52.880 --> 00:44:58.559
we try to provide a preview uh ahead of time so that people could prepare if they if they want.

00:44:58.559 --> 00:45:00.160
And also during that kind of build

00:45:00.319 --> 00:45:00.559
up

00:45:00.840 --> 00:45:04.840
Speaking of like Augustina preparing the survey, we're also connecting with colleagues.

00:45:04.840 --> 00:45:07.480
Like for example, right now, we we do have a bit of a row

00:45:07.720 --> 00:45:11.320
heavy focus in the management, but that's because we've connected with

00:45:11.580 --> 00:45:13.260
uh USDA SCRI

00:45:13.420 --> 00:45:16.780
project that's been running for a couple years um that we're a part of.

00:45:16.780 --> 00:45:18.540
It's led by Reed Johnson at O

00:45:18.700 --> 00:45:20.940
at the Ohio State University.

00:45:20.940 --> 00:45:23.420
So we're we're gleaning some information

00:45:23.660 --> 00:45:26.460
from beekeepers to contribute to that.

00:45:26.140 --> 00:45:26.539
project

00:45:26.700 --> 00:45:28.940
again we've connected with the extension specialist

00:45:29.099 --> 00:45:33.579
to try to give back data to them so that they can help with their assessments, program

00:45:33.819 --> 00:45:34.059
needs

00:45:34.220 --> 00:45:35.900
and adjustments, refinements

00:45:36.160 --> 00:45:39.760
We've talked with other groups at USDA, for example, like ELAP

00:45:39.920 --> 00:45:42.720
and trying to see if we can better highlight

00:45:42.880 --> 00:45:48.240
the costs of replacing colonies, you know, how much colonies cost, those aspects.

00:45:48.240 --> 00:45:48.800
So we're we

00:45:49.040 --> 00:45:49.200
are

00:45:49.420 --> 00:45:52.140
trying to expand further into like

00:45:52.300 --> 00:45:52.540
really

00:45:52.700 --> 00:45:54.780
as many useful needs as

00:45:54.940 --> 00:45:55.260
as

00:45:55.420 --> 00:45:55.660
as

00:45:55.900 --> 00:45:56.540
possible

00:45:57.140 --> 00:46:00.420
And every year we're always very nervous about the participants.

00:46:00.420 --> 00:46:02.980
We're always trying to come up with some new marketing gimmick.

00:46:02.980 --> 00:46:04.980
And that's my plug, Augustina, to

00:46:05.220 --> 00:46:07.460
to something we need to do here.

00:46:07.340 --> 00:46:07.500
So

00:46:07.660 --> 00:46:08.780
the last two years

00:46:08.940 --> 00:46:12.460
we gave a little incentive that Jeff or someone else from the

00:46:12.700 --> 00:46:12.940
B

00:46:13.100 --> 00:46:13.980
Center at Auburn

00:46:14.300 --> 00:46:20.220
will come visit one of the state meetings on the House on our uh on our own dime.

00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:20.480
if

00:46:20.800 --> 00:46:24.800
the state beats their number by the previous year by twenty percent.

00:46:24.800 --> 00:46:24.960
So

00:46:25.200 --> 00:46:27.600
actually need to reach out, get back to Iowa, because

00:46:27.760 --> 00:46:28.000
Iowa

00:46:28.160 --> 00:46:31.280
was one of those states that qualified last year and they were drawn.

00:46:31.280 --> 00:46:34.160
And Augustina this morning sent me the list of

00:46:34.420 --> 00:46:34.980
states

00:46:35.220 --> 00:46:35.860
that reach

00:46:36.020 --> 00:46:37.700
that criteria this year.

00:46:37.700 --> 00:46:38.020
So

00:46:38.180 --> 00:46:39.380
we've got twenty-one

00:46:39.540 --> 00:46:40.980
states on that list.

00:46:40.980 --> 00:46:41.700
Wow.

00:46:41.700 --> 00:46:42.340
Wait.

00:46:42.340 --> 00:46:42.980
You're going over

00:46:43.220 --> 00:46:44.260
to all those states?

00:46:44.260 --> 00:46:45.300
No, no, here.

00:46:45.300 --> 00:46:45.860
This is where I'm going

00:46:46.100 --> 00:46:46.180
to

00:46:47.540 --> 00:46:49.060
turning over the power.

00:46:49.059 --> 00:46:50.260
To Becky and Jeff.

00:46:50.260 --> 00:46:51.539
I've got 21

00:46:51.779 --> 00:46:52.180
states

00:46:52.420 --> 00:46:52.900
here.

00:46:52.900 --> 00:46:53.059
So

00:46:53.220 --> 00:46:55.299
we thank all of those 21

00:46:55.539 --> 00:46:57.779
for beating their goal.

00:46:57.720 --> 00:47:02.599
You know, some of them had to hit triple numbers, triple digits because of previous years.

00:47:02.599 --> 00:47:05.240
Others, you know, we were lucky to get double double digits.

00:47:05.240 --> 00:47:08.279
But, you know, we really want to pick up the participation.

00:47:08.340 --> 00:47:14.340
as a country as a whole, of course some states do um participate more than others and we target those states.

00:47:14.340 --> 00:47:14.500
But

00:47:14.660 --> 00:47:20.100
yeah, really awesome that you know almost half the states in the in the country beat their goal.

00:47:20.220 --> 00:47:20.539
So

00:47:20.779 --> 00:47:21.099
who

00:47:21.260 --> 00:47:22.460
Becky, Jeff, who

00:47:22.619 --> 00:47:24.779
who wants the the chance to

00:47:25.020 --> 00:47:26.619
choose a number between one

00:47:26.779 --> 00:47:27.420
and twenty-one

00:47:27.660 --> 00:47:27.980
and who

00:47:28.140 --> 00:47:29.339
whatever number that is

00:47:29.500 --> 00:47:31.500
is where one of us are going.

00:47:31.440 --> 00:47:35.599
Of course I've got my my high hopes you're gonna you're gonna choose a couple of those uh

00:47:35.760 --> 00:47:36.480
states because

00:47:36.880 --> 00:47:38.480
Okay, which number is Hawaii?

00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:38.720
I'm not

00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:39.119
yeah

00:47:39.280 --> 00:47:40.240
exactly.

00:47:42.440 --> 00:47:42.680
So

00:47:42.839 --> 00:47:44.680
all right, Jeff, Becky, what do you think?

00:47:44.680 --> 00:47:44.839
Uh

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:45.079
one

00:47:45.320 --> 00:47:47.720
to twenty one, you can choose

00:47:48.119 --> 00:47:49.560
Before you choose, I have to ask.

00:47:49.560 --> 00:47:51.640
You have randomized the news, right?

00:47:51.640 --> 00:47:52.520
It's not alphabetic.

00:47:52.839 --> 00:47:53.320
Okay.

00:47:53.320 --> 00:47:54.200
It is random.

00:47:54.920 --> 00:47:55.640
It is random.

00:47:55.640 --> 00:47:56.920
I love I love that that that's

00:47:57.520 --> 00:47:58.079
Natalie.

00:47:58.400 --> 00:47:58.880
All right.

00:47:58.880 --> 00:47:59.040
Focus

00:47:59.200 --> 00:47:59.280
on the thing.

00:47:59.440 --> 00:47:59.920
There you go.

00:47:59.920 --> 00:48:01.920
Becky, Jeff, who's who's choosing it?

00:48:08.079 --> 00:48:09.359
So I'm just going to give you the

00:48:09.620 --> 00:48:10.580
All right, so this will be a

00:48:10.980 --> 00:48:11.780
pick a good number.

00:48:11.780 --> 00:48:13.380
Just a typical Saturday for me.

00:48:13.380 --> 00:48:13.620
Um

00:48:13.860 --> 00:48:17.860
I'll ask Frisco, and Frisco's favorite number is four.

00:48:17.860 --> 00:48:18.820
Okay.

00:48:18.859 --> 00:48:19.180
Four

00:48:19.339 --> 00:48:20.700
is Florida.

00:48:20.700 --> 00:48:21.579
Whoa.

00:48:21.579 --> 00:48:22.220
Wow.

00:48:22.220 --> 00:48:22.460
That's a

00:48:22.619 --> 00:48:23.660
that's a short trip then for

00:48:23.980 --> 00:48:25.020
Yeah that's a pretty quick trip.

00:48:25.020 --> 00:48:27.500
Geez, I was hoping for something a bit more exotic than that.

00:48:29.260 --> 00:48:29.660
No no no

00:48:29.820 --> 00:48:30.220
no no.

00:48:30.220 --> 00:48:30.460
We gotta

00:48:31.099 --> 00:48:31.820
go Florida.

00:48:31.820 --> 00:48:32.619
Florida's it.

00:48:32.619 --> 00:48:32.940
So

00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:34.320
Congrats, Florida.

00:48:34.320 --> 00:48:36.960
Yeah, they hit 74 participants.

00:48:36.960 --> 00:48:41.440
So we're really trying to get like, you know, as many states as possible into these triple digits.

00:48:41.440 --> 00:48:42.160
You know, we know there's

00:48:42.320 --> 00:48:44.080
there's thousands of beekeepers, so

00:48:44.240 --> 00:48:44.560
it's

00:48:44.720 --> 00:48:46.240
we're always trying to

00:48:46.359 --> 00:48:49.800
you know, reach beekeepers and convince them that it is worthwhile.

00:48:49.880 --> 00:48:50.040
We

00:48:50.280 --> 00:48:50.599
of course

00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:52.359
we need to do better, but we hope that

00:48:52.520 --> 00:48:53.640
that even this podcast

00:48:54.040 --> 00:48:57.240
gives a little glimpse into some of the benefits of that survey.

00:48:57.059 --> 00:49:02.900
Just to put that in perspective, I want to say like we had last year over 2,300 respondents

00:49:03.059 --> 00:49:06.180
and and we know that our respondent poll is a

00:49:06.440 --> 00:49:10.040
a represented mix of of small scale and large scale beekeeper

00:49:10.280 --> 00:49:13.160
like the like the US population of beekeepers is, right?

00:49:13.160 --> 00:49:13.240
So

00:49:13.400 --> 00:49:13.560
we

00:49:13.720 --> 00:49:19.400
for example in our respondents, like five percent of the respondents, the commercial beekeepers

00:49:23.740 --> 00:49:30.860
So we know that it's a it's a good representation of what we know of the the US population of beekeepers, but more

00:49:31.020 --> 00:49:31.660
is better.

00:49:31.660 --> 00:49:32.700
Right now we are about

00:49:33.020 --> 00:49:33.340
that

00:49:33.799 --> 00:49:33.960
Ten

00:49:34.119 --> 00:49:41.240
to thirteen percent of the total number of colonies in the country that have been represented in the survey, but that's from the

00:49:41.460 --> 00:49:43.700
the NAS honey bee producing colonies, right?

00:49:43.700 --> 00:49:44.180
So we we

00:49:44.340 --> 00:49:50.420
as as Jeff said, like at the national level we're pretty confident we have a good representation, but we really want

00:49:50.540 --> 00:49:51.340
every state to

00:49:51.500 --> 00:49:56.460
to get to the triple digit so that we can have state reports that we're also very confident about.

00:49:56.540 --> 00:49:57.660
Uh a while back you s

00:49:57.900 --> 00:50:00.140
you added summer losses to

00:50:00.300 --> 00:50:01.820
the data, correct?

00:50:01.820 --> 00:50:02.140
So

00:50:02.440 --> 00:50:02.680
So

00:50:02.839 --> 00:50:04.760
we're in the fall right now, but for

00:50:05.079 --> 00:50:08.520
beekeepers can really start preparing to report in April

00:50:08.680 --> 00:50:10.119
if they maybe jot

00:50:10.359 --> 00:50:14.359
down a little bit of what happened in their apiary and then maybe when they get to that first

00:50:14.540 --> 00:50:15.420
few questions they

00:50:15.580 --> 00:50:16.860
they'll feel more prepared.

00:50:16.860 --> 00:50:19.740
And and can you tell us why you added summer losses?

00:50:19.740 --> 00:50:20.780
Yeah, for sure.

00:50:20.780 --> 00:50:22.060
So uh I'm pretty yeah,

00:50:22.220 --> 00:50:23.020
pretty proud of that.

00:50:23.020 --> 00:50:24.060
That was the the first

00:50:24.220 --> 00:50:29.020
paper I published was uh when we added summer losses uh during my PhD years.

00:50:29.020 --> 00:50:30.619
And and that was because we we

00:50:30.779 --> 00:50:37.099
all the surveys were really just so focused on winter loss because that's the time that we are expecting to lose colonies

00:50:37.020 --> 00:50:43.180
And then we realized that we had data on the rest of the year because the way that we the survey had been organized

00:50:43.420 --> 00:50:45.339
since the beginning is to ask

00:50:45.440 --> 00:50:47.599
What is the number of colonies you have on

00:50:48.079 --> 00:50:51.359
April 1st, October 1st, and then April 1st again?

00:50:51.359 --> 00:50:51.520
So

00:50:51.680 --> 00:50:57.280
we divide the year into those two artificial summer versus winter seasons.

00:50:57.220 --> 00:51:01.299
We have we have changed some of that to accommodate for split season.

00:51:01.299 --> 00:51:06.180
The people who take the survey will will see those accommodations, but that's the general gist of it.

00:51:06.180 --> 00:51:08.900
It's April, October, October, April.

00:51:08.740 --> 00:51:15.700
And and so we we had those data and we n we never really focused on it until we we just, you know, added it as comparison

00:51:15.860 --> 00:51:16.740
and realized

00:51:17.040 --> 00:51:20.560
those levels were absolutely not as small as we were expecting.

00:51:20.560 --> 00:51:21.440
They were not

00:51:21.600 --> 00:51:22.800
inconsequential.

00:51:22.800 --> 00:51:24.960
That's when we started to to realize that

00:51:25.120 --> 00:51:27.840
though we are expecting losses in the winter

00:51:27.940 --> 00:51:28.260
actually

00:51:28.420 --> 00:51:32.820
seeing loss rates when we don't expect this is a signal that we need to track as well.

00:51:32.820 --> 00:51:35.460
And I think Collas has started to to do that as well.

00:51:35.460 --> 00:51:36.260
Yeah, well that's a gl

00:51:36.420 --> 00:51:37.140
that's a global

00:51:37.540 --> 00:51:38.020
Global

00:51:38.180 --> 00:51:39.060
association.

00:51:44.660 --> 00:51:45.300
We are

00:51:45.240 --> 00:51:45.320
uh

00:51:45.640 --> 00:51:50.680
running surveys too and we have a lot of countries and we don't have a real winter in all countries.

00:51:50.680 --> 00:51:54.520
But we know that the losses might not be the same during the year.

00:51:54.520 --> 00:51:58.040
So even if you think about dry and wet season or different

00:51:58.059 --> 00:51:59.020
accommodations

00:51:59.180 --> 00:52:01.099
ideally to understand where

00:52:01.420 --> 00:52:04.460
and when the losses like when the losses are happening

00:52:04.619 --> 00:52:06.619
that's also pretty informative.

00:52:06.619 --> 00:52:08.299
So it's good to have at least two

00:52:08.539 --> 00:52:10.380
moments in the year that we can take a look

00:52:10.539 --> 00:52:12.700
what is going on.

00:52:11.840 --> 00:52:14.960
Well this has definitely been a fascinating and important

00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:16.640
discussion about the US

00:52:16.800 --> 00:52:19.680
Beekeeping Survey, the statistics behind it

00:52:19.840 --> 00:52:21.040
and the the work

00:52:21.360 --> 00:52:22.560
of the team that

00:52:23.020 --> 00:52:24.780
prepares us every year for the last

00:52:24.940 --> 00:52:25.260
wow

00:52:25.420 --> 00:52:25.820
nineteen

00:52:25.980 --> 00:52:26.700
years.

00:52:26.700 --> 00:52:27.020
So

00:52:27.260 --> 00:52:30.220
thank you for joining us this afternoon to

00:52:30.619 --> 00:52:32.940
bring us to our listeners' attention.

00:52:33.140 --> 00:52:34.579
Thanks for having us.

00:52:34.900 --> 00:52:36.420
We hope you come back

00:52:36.660 --> 00:52:38.819
sooner than how many years was it?

00:52:39.539 --> 00:52:40.740
Yeah, it was a few.

00:52:41.059 --> 00:52:43.380
We should be talking about this every year, so

00:52:43.619 --> 00:52:46.579
so it would be great to have you back to talk about it.

00:52:46.579 --> 00:52:47.059
We're ready

00:52:47.220 --> 00:52:47.859
whenever.

00:52:48.779 --> 00:52:50.940
Thank you.

00:52:50.940 --> 00:52:52.940
Not to go negative, but

00:52:53.260 --> 00:52:53.420
Oh

00:52:54.700 --> 00:52:56.059
Why do I always go negative?

00:52:56.140 --> 00:52:57.020
Just go ahead and go there.

00:52:58.160 --> 00:52:58.480
No, th

00:52:58.640 --> 00:53:00.160
actually we'll spin it positive.

00:53:00.160 --> 00:53:00.880
But when I l

00:53:01.040 --> 00:53:01.440
learned

00:53:01.600 --> 00:53:02.720
or when we heard

00:53:02.960 --> 00:53:04.160
nationally that the BI

00:53:04.400 --> 00:53:04.640
um B

00:53:04.800 --> 00:53:06.560
Informed Partnership was going away

00:53:07.040 --> 00:53:11.200
That was really depressing, but I'm really, really happy in the years since

00:53:11.360 --> 00:53:14.480
and especially talking with Jeff and Natalie and Agustina

00:53:14.640 --> 00:53:15.280
now.

00:53:15.140 --> 00:53:15.220
The

00:53:15.380 --> 00:53:15.700
see that

00:53:15.940 --> 00:53:17.700
the important components of the Be

00:53:17.859 --> 00:53:21.059
Informed Partnership are continuing and that's really

00:53:21.220 --> 00:53:22.579
great news.

00:53:22.579 --> 00:53:22.819
It

00:53:23.080 --> 00:53:27.800
It's not like our industry has oodles of cash around to support organizations.

00:53:27.800 --> 00:53:28.120
And Be

00:53:28.280 --> 00:53:29.640
Informed Partnership

00:53:29.960 --> 00:53:32.680
was a grant funded operation.

00:53:32.820 --> 00:53:36.980
that had a certain number of years until they had to become an income

00:53:37.140 --> 00:53:40.340
supported operation, which was really hard to do

00:53:40.580 --> 00:53:40.900
because

00:53:41.140 --> 00:53:44.180
if you're going to support beekeepers, you've got to

00:53:44.420 --> 00:53:44.900
travel

00:53:45.140 --> 00:53:48.340
and there are expenses to to pay the

00:53:48.500 --> 00:53:51.540
the people who are are going out and the technicians

00:53:51.780 --> 00:53:52.100
and

00:53:52.620 --> 00:53:52.700
It

00:53:52.940 --> 00:53:54.300
it's just a big operation.

00:53:54.300 --> 00:53:54.460
So

00:53:54.700 --> 00:53:55.180
so it is

00:53:55.340 --> 00:53:55.660
it is

00:53:55.820 --> 00:54:00.940
it was sad to see it go for sure, but so helpful that some of the key components

00:54:01.040 --> 00:54:01.600
You're right, are

00:54:01.760 --> 00:54:01.840
are

00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:02.640
living on

00:54:02.880 --> 00:54:03.200
because

00:54:03.360 --> 00:54:04.560
the Beinforms

00:54:04.720 --> 00:54:09.280
partnership stepped up, it was such a critical operation.

00:54:09.240 --> 00:54:09.400
when

00:54:09.560 --> 00:54:11.160
our losses were so great.

00:54:11.160 --> 00:54:11.480
And unf

00:54:11.720 --> 00:54:14.280
unfortunately our losses are still great.

00:54:14.280 --> 00:54:15.480
But I will say that I

00:54:15.640 --> 00:54:16.280
I think

00:54:16.680 --> 00:54:19.000
The beekeepers have learned so much over the years

00:54:19.160 --> 00:54:20.440
and beekeepers are

00:54:20.600 --> 00:54:24.360
are really sophisticated when it comes to taking care of these animals.

00:54:24.360 --> 00:54:26.680
It's just that we're we've got a lot of challenges

00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:28.120
that we're still fighting.

00:54:28.120 --> 00:54:31.560
I'm glad we have a great team like Jeff and Natalie and Agostina.

00:54:31.840 --> 00:54:32.880
Working for us.

00:54:32.880 --> 00:54:33.040
It

00:54:33.280 --> 00:54:35.280
definitely makes a difference.

00:54:35.280 --> 00:54:36.080
So everybody

00:54:36.240 --> 00:54:38.160
plan to do those surveys.

00:54:38.160 --> 00:54:42.080
And that about wraps it up for this episode of Beekeeping Today.

00:54:42.080 --> 00:54:46.480
Before we go, be sure to follow us and leave us a five-star rating on Apple Podcast.

00:54:46.840 --> 00:54:47.240
podcast

00:54:47.400 --> 00:54:49.720
or wherever you stream the show.

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Even better, write a quick review to help other beekeepers discover what you enjoy.

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You can get there directly from our website by clicking on the reviews tab

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on the top of any page.

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We want to thank

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Thank Better

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Be

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our presenting sponsor for their ongoing support of the podcast.

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We also appreciate our longtime sponsors, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and Northern V

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Books

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for their support in bringing you each week's episode.

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And most importantly,

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Thank you for listening and spending time with us.

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If you have any questions or feedback, just head over to our website and drop us a note.

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We'd love to hear from you.

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Thanks again, everybody.

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Setting

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annuals.