In this episode, guest co-host and 2 Million Blossoms editor Kirsten Traynor joins Jeff and Kim with her Dr. Meghan Milbrath interview. Meghan applies her epidemiology background in her work with honey bee diseases as an academic specialist at Michigan State University. Megan started keeping bees over 20 years ago…
Protecting pollinators and improving the habitat for honey bees often entails planting nectar and pollen rich plants. In this episode, Kirsten talks with Calvin Ernst, founder of Ernst Seeds, who has been deeply involved with growing native plants for over 50 years. Learn how providing seeds for erosion control to…
Ask beekeepers and you will hear many different opinions on Russian Honey Bees. Mostly, they either love them, hate them or know nothing about them. In this episode, we go directly to the US source of these bees with Dr. Tom Rinderer and Steve Coy. Tom was instrumental in the…
Dr. Jeff Pettis left the USDA some time ago to pursue other avenues of research. His current work is studying issues with queens, primarily longevity, affect of pesticides, virus interactions, shipping problems and more. Relatedly, he is working with drones, which of course play a big role in how queens…
On this day as the world is celebrating honey bees and all that they do, Dewey Caron, Kim Flottum and Kathy Summers share stories and memories of Ann Harman, a world bee celebrity who passed on May 1. Ann was an exceptional beekeeper, active in honey shows around the world,…
Dr. Sam Ramsey joins us again to share what he has found from his most recent work on Tropilaelaps mites in Thailand. He has been looking at the history of this mite’s movement around the world, the biology and its life cycle. Just as important he is exploring the differences…
Andony Melathopoulos is the Pollinator Health Extension Specialist for Oregon State University. He’s not just about honey bees, but every pollinator out there. But honey bees are a big part of what he does because of the multitude of crops grown in Oregon that need ‘mostly’ honey bees for pollination.…
Dr. Orley, “Chip” Taylor started Monarch Watch about 30 years ago. So far, he and his group have managed to tag over two million monarchs so they can study the migration habits of this beautiful butterfly. His research has also determined where monarchs spend their time all year, the flyways…
In this episode, we talk with James Wilkes and Joseph Cazier from Appalachian State University, who spearheaded the World Bee Count program just completed this spring. Bee Count is an annual event that aims to identify pollinators around the world and also measure pollinator health, dispersion and biodiversity. James is…
This week, we talk with Dr. Jamie Ellis, from the University of Florida about The BEEMD website, the UoF Bee Lab, Coloss, research, teaching and his extension work! All his work is centered on honey bees, is beekeeper driven and embraces collaboration. Dr. Ellis has a brand-new bee lab with…
Welcome to the first of our Pollinator Week Special Episodes. Each day this week we’ll release new interviews with teams and individuals who are all working to protect, provide and propagate pollinators all over the globe! Pollinator Week was started by Pollinator Partnership and we kick-off the week with P2’s…
Guest co-host and 2 Million Blossoms Editor, Kirsten Traynor and Tucka Saville chat this week, talking about treatment free beekeeping, having bees in Florida and Upstate New York, raising queens with Michael Palmer in Vermont, and working with Sam Comfort in Florida. They discuss raising queens, swarms, making simple, simple…
Fifty years ago today, at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, there was a celebration of the very first Earth Day, sponsored by then Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, who had organized the event as a teach-in on campuses across the country. It was scheduled for the weekend between spring break…
Bee Friendly Farming has a good friend in Ron Bitner, Co-Chair of this Pollinator Partnership program. Ron runs Bitner Winery near Boise Idaho in Treasure Valley and for 40 some years was involved in non-apis bee management for pollination. Bee Friendly Farming has between 800 – 900 Bee Friendly Farmers,…
This week, guest co-host Kirsten Traynor chats with Adam Ingrao, Ph.D, founder of Heroes to Hive. Heroes To Hives is a veterans training program he started five years ago. They train veterans, especially those suffering from PTSD, how to manage honey bee hives and get started in beekeeping. Over 500…
We’ve all seen the bottles of Sioux Honey in the grocery store. Ever wonder how the Sioux Honey cooperative works? Could you join? Would you want to? In this episode, we meet Matt Beekman, a 4000-colony co-op member in California who recently joined Sioux and shares information on this 100-year-old…
Welcome to our four-part series on getting started in this fascinating and educational backyard pastime, sideline job, or full time career. All are possible with honey bees. Listen in as Kim Flottum, author and retired Editor of Bee Culture magazine, Dr. James Tew, author, Bee Culture magazine contributor and retired…
The world’s largest hornet, The Asian Giant Hornet was discovered in the State of Washington in the fall of 2019. Also known as the Japanese Hornet, the Yak-Killer Hornet or the Giant Sparrow Bee, this ground nesting giant is as big as your thumb, and just loves eating honey bees.…
Welcome to our four part series on getting started in this fascinating and educational backyard pastime, sideline job, or full time career. All are possible with honey bees. Listen in as Kim Flottum, author and retired Editor of Bee Culture magazine, Dr. James Tew, author, Bee Culture magazine contributor and…
As part of the pollinator week special, guest host Kirsten Traynor chats with Dr. Dave Goulson, an expert on pollinator health from the University of Sussex. Dave Goulson has been fascinated with insects since he was a boy and was able to turn this love of all things that fly,…
This week we meet with Kelly Kulhanek, a BIP Sentinel Apiary Scientist. Since gearing up in 2015, this program monitors colonies in 30 states with over 100 beekeepers. Once enrolled, you’ll take samples from your hives and have them tested for varroa, nosema and anything else the BIP people find…
Sit back and listen while Jeff and Kim talk with Kim Eierman, founder of EcoBeneficial, and the author of The Pollinator Victory Garden, How To Win The War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening. If you’ve been thinking of starting some plantings for pollinators in your backyard, you couldn’t find…
We recently talked with the good folks at ApisProtect, a technology company located in Cork, Ireland and Salinas, CA. Dr. Fiona Edwards Murphy and Dr. Whelan Padraig are the engineers and beekeepers whose ideas and hard work have made this possible. At a high level, ApisProtect technology collects hive data…
Welcome to our four part series on getting started in this fascinating and educational backyard pastime, sideline job, or full time career, sponsored by BetterBee! All are possible with honey bees. Listen in as Kim Flottum, author and retired Editor of Bee Culture magazine, Dr. James Tew, author, Bee Culture…
