In this episode, Jeff and Becky are joined by Peter Borst, author of The Golden Age of Beekeeping. Peter shares fascinating insights into the history of beekeeping, exploring how the industry evolved from a disorganized practice into a standardized and structured operation. He explains why the period from the 1860s to 1920 is often referred to as b…

This week we hear about Oregon's Farm to School program and how it helps make the connection between Oregon agriculture and pollinators in the classroom. We are joined by Rick Sherman (Farm to Child Nutrition Program Manager at the Oregon Department of Education) and Michelle Markesteyn (Farm to School Specialist at Oregon State University Extensio…

In this week's Podcast: Now that we’ve brought the colonies back from the clover fields to their overwintering apiaries, it’s given me a chance to carry out a few checks and I discovered one colony was suffering from a heavy deformed Wing virus infection, this usually means Varroa issues, and that leaves me with a dilemma! Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks an…

In this episode, Jeff and Becky sit down with Dr. Tracy Farone, a large animal veterinarian who has applied her expertise to honey bees. Tracy shares her journey from caring for cows and horses to becoming a go-to resource for honey bee health. She dives into the importance of viewing bees as livestock and how a veterinarian’s approach to animal ca…

In this week's Podcast: It’s been a good week, the nucs are growing very nicely and there are more drawn frames than foundation now, it’s looking really positive. Elsewhere, I’ve been preparing the honey room for the long awaited Summer honey extraction, and I thought you might like to hear about the equipment we have ready for this year’s task. Hi…

Fall prep list (120) How can it be September already?!? In this episode I go through my own fall prep list and considerations. WELCOME new patrons Sam, Phil, Taylor and Missy! Thank you so much for joining us and keeping this podcast free of advertising. Thank you so much for listening, sharing and leaving a good review if you are enjoying the epis…

This week we talk about the upcoming (Sept 21, 2024) Oregon Honey and Mead Festival with organizer Sharon Schmidt (Cascade Girl Organization) and Marla Bull Bear, one of the presenters who is the Director, Lakota Youth Development and Honey Lodge Program. Details on this year's festival can be found at: https://www.cascadegirl.org…

In this episode, Jeff and Becky welcome Cliff Struhl, CEO of BeeSmart Designs, for an engaging conversation about innovation in beekeeping equipment. Cliff shares his unique journey into beekeeping, which began with a simple favor for a friend and quickly evolved into a passion for creating smarter, more efficient beekeeping tools. Cliff discusses …

cornfield water, feeding calc, single brood chamber, bad wax, funky capped honey, VarroxSan, Local Hive ReportBy Kevin Inglin

In this week's Podcast: The bees finally made it to the heather moors, without a fuss or any drama, a nice feeling for a change! We now have most of the Summer honey safely back to the honey room and this year we have the added excitement of the square sections and frame upon frame of cut comb honey to process. Stay tuned to hear my thoughts on the…

In this episode, Jeff and Becky welcome Dara Scott, CEO and founder of HiveAlive, to discuss his journey in beekeeping and the innovative products his company offers. Dara shares how his fascination with beekeeping began over 25 years ago, inspired by his travels in New Zealand. His background in marine research at the prestigious Woods Hole Oceano…

In this week's Podcast: Our Coaching Plus Group meets once a month to chat and ask/answer questions about all things beekeeping. First however, I give my captive audience a run down of where we've been for the previous month. this time it's birage honey, section racks and heather moors. Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 314 of my podcas…

Bees are exposed to pesticide hazards in a variety of ways. Estimating how hazards to bees are changing over time, across an area as large as a state, is a daunting prospect. This week we hear about an attempt to estimate changes in hazards in a new paper by Dr. Emily Carlson, a recent PhD student from Oregon State University.…

In this episode, Jeff and Becky sit down with Etienne Tardiff, a beekeeper from the Yukon, who shares his unique approach to wintering bees in some of the coldest climates imaginable. Etienne, blending his engineering background with hands-on experience, discusses the importance of managing temperature and insulation within the hive during long, ha…

In this week's Podcast: A funny thing happened in the apiaries last week and it got me thinking about what might be going on. We were removing the Drone brood frame as a varroa control mechanism and some of the frames were simply filled with honey, while others were packed with brood, and lots of varroa. Somethings going on but what? Hi, I’m Stewar…

Beekeepers often have a sense of periods of intense nectar flows, but it is a lot more difficult to assess pollen flows. In this episode we talk with Priya Chakrabarti Basu from Mississippi State University who talks about a new initiative to provide beekeepers with a better sense of the pollen flows of their region.…

In this episode, Jeff and Becky are joined by Kamon Reynolds, the beekeeper behind the North American Honey Bee Expo. Kamon shares his journey from a young beekeeper to managing a full-time business and organizing a major beekeeping conference. Listeners will learn about Kamon’s strategies for managing queen issues, including the importance of havi…

In this week's Podcast: I recently visited the site I intend to use for our heather honey adventure. It’s pretty bleak high up on the moors and first thing in the morning with the mists rolling through you would wonder how the bees are ever going to get out of the hive! Things changed quite dramatically, as I’ll explain. Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and …

Butterfly bush is a hardy shrub that pollinators love. But under certain situations it can become invasive, which has led to laws to limit the sale to sterile varieties and interspecific hybrids. But there is a question of whether the hybrids are really sterile and whether sterility impacts the benefits to bees. We get answers to these questions th…

In this episode, Jeff and Becky are joined by Dr. Jeff Pettis and Carlos Perea to discuss some groundbreaking developments in the fight against varroa mites. Dr. Pettis, a renowned research scientist with over 20 years of experience at the USDA and current president of Apimondia, brings his extensive knowledge of honey bee health and the challenges…

In the second part of the interview, Troy talks about his late summer/fall management strategy as well as how he manages to overwinter nucs (a core part of his operation as it is to mine) in New Hampshire winters. He also gives me some great tips on how to make winter feeding of those nucs easier in my apiary. Troy also talks about the benefits of …

In this week's Podcast: Summer has finally arrived, if only for a few days and it all feels a little too late for any kind of honey crop bragging rights, it’s been disappointing. That said, we’re doing very nicely with our cut comb, and even the section rack looks like it may produce a few saleable squares of honey. Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welco…

In this episode, Jeff and Becky welcome Dr. Jay Evans from the USDA-ARS Beltsville Bee Lab. Jay shares his vast experience and insights into honey bee research, focusing on the critical issues affecting beekeepers today. From his beginnings studying ants to his current role in bee research, Jay offers a fascinating perspective on the complexities o…

In this week's Podcast: Another week and more rain! I did however, manage to dodge the showers, and checked out swarm colony that we have been coaxing out of a super and into a brood box, and there’s some good news! Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 310 of my podcast, Beekeeping Short and Sweet. For all your beekeeping supplies visit Mo…

Shop Towels, Watermelon Pollination, Figs and Wasps, Olympic Honey, Phnylalanine, NASA forage map, Larva Transfer, Vino Bee BarnBy Kevin Inglin

In this episode, Jeff and Becky are joined by Dr. Jim Tew to discuss the little nagging issues every beekeeper face, humorously termed "bee peeves." Jim, a seasoned beekeeper and co-host of the Honey Bee Obscura podcast, brings his extensive experience and wit to the conversation, making this episode both enlightening and entertaining. Jim shares h…

Insulating the Top of the Hive, Overloading Extractors, Euro Hive Honey Yields, Progressing Plastic Foundation, Local Hive ReportBy Kevin Inglin

In this week's Podcast: The plans for the week changed considerably because of the rubbish weather, it’s been cold and wet and yet we found ourselves picking up a swarm from a stack of supers. A swarm in July as the saying goes, yet I often find it’s well worth some effort, listen in to hear why. Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 309 of…

In this engaging episode, Jeff and Becky welcome Frank Linton, a seasoned beekeeper and author with a deep passion for observation hives. Frank shares his unique journey into beekeeping, sparked by his grandfather's influence and reignited years later with his first observation hive. Listeners will be captivated by Frank's enthusiasm and extensive …

In this week's Podcast: We’ve had a mini heatwave, timed to perfection on the day we planned to move our bees to the borage, so we delayed, as we always have our bees welfare upper most in our minds. We did eventually get them shifted and it appears it was perfectly timed. Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 308 of my podcast, Beekeeping …

Today's episode is part one of a rambling bee chat I had with full-time beekeeper Troy Hall of New Hampshire back in the Spring. At Hall Apiaries he produces honey, queens and nucs in a creative, stationary operation of 700ish hives primarily managed without treatments. What a delightful and inspiring person and beekeeper! Hope you enjoy it. Show N…

In this episode, Jeff and Becky are joined by Andy Pedley, a retired Environmental Health Officer and experienced beekeeper from the UK. Andy shares his extensive knowledge on food safety in the context of honey production, an often overlooked but critical aspect of beekeeping. With over 30 years of beekeeping experience, Andy provides invaluable i…

In this week's Podcast: I’ve been speaking to a number of other beekeepers over the last couple of weeks, and all agree it’s been one of the most difficult starts to a beekeeping season in many years. Some beekeepers are still feeding their bees as we pass the Summer Solstice. For me, I’ve just started to take off the Spring honey crop, what honey …

While roughly 70% of bee species are ground nesting, we know very little about the nesting biology of anything more than a handful of species. In this episode we hear from Dr. Jordan Kueneman and his project GNBees to generate more data from the public. Dr. Jordan Kueneman is a research scientist and director of Project GNBee, a community science p…

Tips for keeping bees cool, Solstice Queens, Split Comparisons & Patron bonus bookmark (117) Part 1: Ways to cool off hives, benefits of post-solstice queens . Part 2: continues for patrons with bonus content on comparing the Runaway and the Cut-Down/Reverse Doolittle splits, more about post-solstice queens, detailed show notes with links to some h…

In this episode, hosts Jeff and Becky chat with Brooke Decker and Natasha Garcia-Anderson from the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA). Brooke and Natasha share their extensive knowledge and experiences as regulatory officials dedicated to supporting beekeepers and maintaining bee health across North America. Brooke, the Pollinator Health Specialist…

Honey Bears, Wearing Gloves, Listener Mail, Manual Uncapper Device, Glace’ Process, Wax Moth Deterrent, Local Hive Report, Closing CommentsBy Kevin Inglin

In this week's Podcast: It still doesn’t feel like we’ve really got started with our beekeeping season yet in the next couple of weeks Borage will start flowering and the Summer nectar flow will be in full flow. Time for more preparations and I also turn my attention towards Cut Comb Honey production. Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 3…

In this episode, hosts Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman sit down with John Hill, the innovative force behind HillCo Bees, a quickly emerging player in the beekeeping equipment industry. John shares his inspiring journey from a young enthusiast to a successful entrepreneur, offering listeners a unique insight into the rapid growth and development of his…

In this week's Podcast: Introducing new queens into queenless colonies can sometimes be a tricky job especially for the inexperienced beekeeper. We’ve tried several different methods and now focus on making colonies hopelessly queenless before releasing the new queen, listen in to hear more of this almost foolproof method! Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks an…

In this insightful episode of the Beekeeping Today Podcast, hosts Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman welcome Master Beekeeper David Burns. David, a well-known figure in the beekeeping community, shares his extensive knowledge and experiences, offering invaluable advice for beekeepers of all levels. From his early, adventurous beginnings to becoming an EA…

Part one of a series of reflections for working in the apiary and setting up for queen rearingBy Kevin Inglin

Part two of a series of reflections for working in the apiary and setting up for queen rearingBy Kevin Inglin

In this week's Podcast: I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, it’s raining again. The bees don’t like it, I certainly don’t like it and I’m desperate to settle in to a regular inspection routine. We’re splitting colonies in preparation for new queen introductions and thinking about the Summer nectar flow that’s heading our way. Hi, I’m Stewa…

During this seventh year anniversary week of the podcast, we bring you this special memorial episode honoring our former co-host, colleague, and dear friend, Kim Flottum, who passed away in December 10, 2023. This episode is dedicated to celebrating Kim’s remarkable life and his immense contributions to the beekeeping community. Join hosts Jeff Ott…

Welcome to a special episode of the Beekeeping Today Podcast, presented by Betterbee. As we kick off our seventh year and celebrate the first day of Pollinator Week, we are thrilled to bring you a conversation filled with insights and stories that highlight the importance of pollinators in our ecosystems. In this episode, Jeff and Becky delve into …

Interview with Monica Schmitt and Tristan Bannon at the Ribbon Cutting event for the Mission Beelieve Therapeutic Bee House.By Kevin Inglin

In this week's Podcast: It’s raining again, the Spring crop is ready for the taking and I’m turning my attention to preparing colonies for splitting in readiness for the Summer borage trip. Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 303 of my podcast, Beekeeping Short and Sweet. For all your beekeeping supplies visit Modern Beekeeping www.modern…

(281) Join us in this episode as we delve into the sophisticated world of beekeeping record management, focusing on the innovative platform, HiveTracks! Explore the capabilities of HiveTracks—a mobile app and cloud-based system designed to streamline beekeeping management. Our dialogue with James Wilkes and Max Rünzel, the visionaries behind HiveTr…

In this week's Podcast: At this time of the year there's just no let up. It's a huge growth period for our colonies, we're still trying to calm the urge for colonies to swarm and I've been carrying out more shook swarms to remove old, dirty combs and with luck any hidden varroa population. Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 302 of my pod…