Beekeeping Today Podcast

In this episode, Master Beekeeper, Katharina Davitt reveals the nutritional benefits honey bees derive from bananas. Yes, you read that correctly, bananas ! We all know that bananas are good for people. They are full of carbs, minerals, vitamins, are good for digestion and just taste good. But the one thing all beekeepers learn when they start out is that when bees are threatened, they release ala...

This autumn wildfires cut through large swaths of Oregon, destroying towns, homes and habitat. In this episode, Kirsten talks with Sharon Schmidt, founder of Cascade Girl Apiary, who lost her home and apiary in Phoenix, Oregon. Sharon was visiting a friend when the fires roared into her town. The police would not let her return to her property. She expected the fires to be brought under control, b...

Dave Doroghy works in the worlds of advertising and sports marketing and lives on a house boat on the Frasier River in southern British Columbia near Vancouver. His discovery of beekeeping wasn't the common story of being swept off his feet with this new found passion. No, his interest was primarily financial. Show me the Money was a part of his professional sports life, so 'show me the honey' bec...

In this episode, Kirsten sits down with Matthew Pettersson of Madhu Honey , who fell into beekeeping after a chance encounter with a giant jar of honey in a New York City apartment. Fascinated by honey bees and the golden honey they create, he ended up working for a commercial organic beekeeper in Germany, who runs four to six thousand colonies – much larger than one typically thinks about organic...

Marina Marchese is the President of the American Honey Tasting Society. She refined her learning and teaching skills in Italy and Raffaele Dall'Olio was one of her teachers. Today we discuss with them all of the aspects of honey tasting – the basics of how to taste a honey, using your tongue, your nose, your eyes. Learn the vocabulary to describe, and then to remember the flavors, the taste and ar...

In this week's episode, guest cohost, Kirsten Traynor, editor of 2 Million Blossoms , talks with Michael Smith, Ph. D. Michael grew up in Panama, then went to boarding school in Wales, where he chanced upon a beekeeper with honey in a hallway. Together the two ended up launching a bee club that just celebrated its 15 th anniversary. After being a gofer for a bee lab at a women's university, Smith...

In this episode, we invited Dr. Brittney Goodrich to discuss what her research has found in almond pollination contracts.  Brittney is a Cooperative Extension Specialist at the University of California, Davis. She is an Agricultural Economist and one of her favorite topics to research are the contracts between beekeepers and growers for pollination services. She is sitting in the middle of the big...

If you're interested in starting a honey festival in your city, you have to speak with Steve Rogenstein who founded the Ambeesadors . A former event manager, he fell in love with bees and has used his unique skills to organize honey festivals in both New York City and Barcelona.  Currently he lives in Berlin, Germany. Steve is also involved with the COLOSS Survivor Taskforce , coordinating the cit...

Dr. Dewey M. Caron's latest book, The Complete Bee Handbook is quite the book. Not a scientific text, not a how-to beekeeping book, but one that's meant for all those folks who think they might want to keep bees, but don't know what's involved. Plus it includes sections on honey recipes, making candles, mead and honey beer, gardening for all bees, bee biology in just the right amount. Beautiful ar...

The Bee Audacious conference brought together beekeeping luminaries like Mark Winston, Marla Spivak, Tom Seeley and many others. The event was created and organized by Bonnie Morse, who recently sat down to chat with guest host Kirsten Traynor. In today's episode they talk how Winston's editorial in Bee Culture   encouraged audacious thinking about bee health inspired the event. It was an unusual...

In today's episode we talk to Britteny Kyle, DVM, President of the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium (HBVC) and Alexzandra (Allie) Mosel, DVM, who is the President Elect. Both are beekeepers and small animal veterinarians interested in getting more vets trained and interested in bees and beekeeping. Recall that as of January 2017, if a beekeeper needs to administer antibiotics to their honey bees, t...

In today's episode we talk with Sarah Weiner, the Executive Director of the Good Food Awards Foundation and Mark Carlson, the Committee Co-Chair of the Honey Category. Sarah brings a global perspective to her position having worked with Slow Foods International in Italy and the US, produced the Organic Food Festival in the UK, and has co-founded seedling projects. In his spare time, Mark is a Cali...

In this episode, Kirsten Traynor meets up with Dr. Rachael Bonoan, a bee biologist and ecologist. Bees have some unusual and quirky behaviors. They discuss bumble bee high fives, why honey bees like stinky, dirty water, and how our pollinators may be seeking out unusual food sources to gain important minerals. Rachael tells us about doing science in Costa Rica, where she looked into the foraging h...

Strong Microbials got their start producing probiotics to improve the health of cattle, dairy cows, poultry and swine. Their products improved animal food digestion resulting in overall animal health. In 2012 they became interested in doing the same thing for honey bees. In this episode, we talk with Vera and Slava about their probiotic use to aid honey bee health and well-being. Multiple bacteria...

In this episode, Kirsten chats with commercial beekeeper Simeon Valkenburg, who runs a commercial operation with his brother in Australia. He talks about building up their commercial operation from scratch. They started with one hive and are now up to about 1,000 hives in south east Australia. The season kicks off with almond pollination. Yes, that's right—Australian almonds which bloom in August....

Dr. Jay Evans is the Research Leader at the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Beltsville Maryland. He and the resident scientists there are involved in many projects, including mite studies, nutrition supplements for bees, queen health and nutrition. Plus, even in middle of this pandemic, they have realized the need for continuing the AFB Diagnostic Center so beekeepers can handle this disease before...

This week, guest co-host Kirsten Traynor joins us with Madeleine Ostwald. Madeleine studies bees, having worked with both honey bees and carpenter bees. When days get hot, we seek out ways to cool off with water. Beekeepers (and sometimes their neighbors ) know that honey bees do the same.  As an undergraduate student in Tom Seeley's lab, Madeleine turned up the heat on a honey bee hive to find ou...

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 and the similarities of the Tropilaelaps to the Varroa mite. His work points out why this pest is so very difficult to con...

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 vets and family members are enrolled in this free program this year, making it one of the largest...

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 a Professor in Computer Science at ASU and founder and manager of HiveTracks...

As part of the pollinator week special, guest host Kirsten Traynor chats with Dr. Dave Goulson, an expert on pollinator health from the University of Sussex. Dave Goulson has been fascinated with insects since he was a boy and was able to turn this love of all things that fly, creep and crawl into a career. One of the bumble bees from his childhood became extinct in the 1980s, so he and his resear...

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, who practice reducing chemical use and use a whole row of holistic farming practices that impr...

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. He works equally with the farmers who grow the crops, spray the crops, and provide additional for...

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 they follow going from Canada to Mexico and back, when they start, when they arrive and how many weeks it t...

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