Jan. 15, 2026
How Much Do You Really Know About Honey Bees & Beekeeping?
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Conversation with Dr. Jason Graham, Ph.D. Questions asked and answered.
In this episode, we kick off our coverage from the North American Honey Bee Expo with an in-depth and surprisingly entertaining conversation with entomologist and beekeeper Dr. Jason “Dr. J” Graham. Recorded live on the bustling expo floor, this episode blends science, storytelling, and practical beekeeping insight.
Dr. Graham shares his unconventional journey from high school dropout to PhD, and how a single beekeeping class sparked a lifelong passion for honey bees. From there, the discussion dives deep into the inner workings of the hive—exploring bee lifespans, age-based job roles, pheromone-driven decision-making, and why a colony functions more like a single “superorganism” than a collection of individuals.
We also explore fascinating topics like swarming as colony reproduction, how queens are “put on a diet” before a swarm, the misunderstood role of drones, and why bees are far more flexible and adaptive than we often give them credit for. The conversation wraps with a look at modern innovations in beekeeping, including insulated and thermodynamic hive designs, sensors, AI-driven hive monitoring, and how new technology may be helping us better mimic the bees’ natural tree-hollow homes.
Whether you’re a backyard beekeeper, a seasoned professional, or just bee-curious, this episode offers a fresh appreciation for the complexity, resilience, and mystery of honey bees.
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WEBVTT
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in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
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embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
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precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
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motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
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instinct each act in service to the whole and
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then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
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of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
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part poet, they move along their hives with the
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efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
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the bees' needs as best they can comprehend,
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and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
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Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
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like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
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journey. I recently attended the North American
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Honey Bee Expo and while there had the pleasure
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of conducting a few interviews for this podcast
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just a quick heads up these interviews were in
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a very busy noisy expo hall with thousands of
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people milling around so our audio and video
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quality may be a little bit below our regular
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standards but I think you'll find the content
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well worth it and we'll be back in the studio
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shortly and speaking of the expo Huge thank yous
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to all the listeners who came up and introduced
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themselves. It was really fun meeting so many
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of you. So over the next few weeks, we'll be
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hearing from beekeepers with various backgrounds
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and beekeeping experiences, discussing new products,
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new methodologies, and of course, some fun stories.
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I hope you'll enjoy as we kick off today's episode
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with someone who really knows his stuff and has
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the PhD to prove it, Dr. Jason Graham. All right,
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we're back here at the North American Honey Bee
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Expo. We've got Dr. Jason Graham with us today.
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Jason, how are you? I'm excellent, Eric. How
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are you? Fantastic. Great. I say, I say doctor.
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Is that medical? Is that PhD? What's it is? PhD.
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Yeah. And I go by Dr. J or, you know, I went,
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I went to get out of the Philadelphia area. So
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Dr. J was, you know, my, my I was a big fan of
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basketball and I thought if I ever become a doctor,
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that's what I'd tell the kids. You know, you
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call me Dr. J, so. Can you slam it like Dr. J?
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Yeah, I could try. I mean, he was such an early
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pioneer in that kind of in that kind of basketball.
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That was kind of fun. So some of these young
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people, if you don't know who Dr. J is, Julius
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Irving. Yeah, yeah. Look him up. OK, but we're
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here to talk about bees today, not NBA basketball.
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So what is your PhD in? It's in entomology and
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nematology. I earned the PhD at University of
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Florida. I got my master's there as well, but
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I went on for my PhD. And so I learned about
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all things insects and also nematodes, which
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are almost microscopic worms that live in the
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soil. And some are very beneficial and some are
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pests to our agriculture. So I kind of learned
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both realms there. but bees were my specialty.
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So when you're an entomologist you almost pick
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a specialty, a different insect or maybe a different
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aspect of entomology. Some are looking at pests
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and diseases, others are looking medical entomology.
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I really got excited about beneficial insects
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and of course bees I think are the most beneficial.
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So that's always my focus. So with you having
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a PhD, we're going to get into some really boring
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data today. I'll try. No, we're not. That never
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happens on this show. We try not. No, we want
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practical advice for beekeepers at all levels.
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Tell me about your beekeeping first. Sure. So
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I first got into beekeeping actually at University
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of Delaware. I was looking for an easy science
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class. So may sound strange now, I am a PhD,
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but at the time I had been a high school dropout.
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Took about 10 years off. I worked lots of different
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jobs. And I was a little intimidated to go back
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to school. And I was always looking for an easy
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science. I wasn't ready to dive into biochemistry
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or anything like that yet, but I saw a beekeeping
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class. And so I wanted to try it out and... I
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met Dewey Karen there. He's a pretty famous beekeeping
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teacher and researcher and educator and great
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guy. I'm learning from him and the first time
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I opened up the hive, I was hooked. I wanted
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to do beekeeping for life. I think that's a big
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part of it is taking the PhD, the heavy science
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and trying to share that with folks so it's not
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so intimidating and more interesting and relatable
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to them is a big part of what I try to do. What
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was it about him that made you fall in love immediately?
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We had a lab portion of the class and also a
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lecture portion. So in the lecture portion, we
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learned all the book stuff, you know, the biology
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of the bee. But he kept it very interesting.
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You know, he's shared the life of the bee, you
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know, even from a human perspective, what they
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were doing, you know, how they were changing
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careers throughout their their lifespan and different
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things like that. They were relatable to me.
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He one day dressed up as a bee and came in and.
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showed everyone he demonstrated the waggle dance
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as a professor in a classroom full of, you know,
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college students and a great professor is amazing.
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So I ended up his teacher assistant the following
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year. And I decided I was going to make my major.
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I was switched it from business, what I was thinking
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to entomology. And I thought I was only going
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to go for my bachelor's and ended up, you know,
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I was talking to him and I was like, you know,
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I'm going to get out and get a job. He said,
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why don't you stick in and go for your master's
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and PhD? And he kind of talked me into reaching
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out to Jamie Ellis at University of Florida.
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He was just getting his lab started up and was
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looking for new graduate students and right timing.
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I went down and visited with Jamie. He drove
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me around the campus. We had lunch and talked
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and he ended up bringing me on as a research
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assistant. That helped out with my school, you
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know, payments, tuition and whatnot. Yeah, I
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got some amazing experience working with him.
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We started the Master Beekeeping program there
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in Florida. We started Bee College, which is
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a really successful other conference that happens,
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you know, in spring now, summer and multiple
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times a year in Florida. So I got to work with...
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Beekeepers that had been keeping bees longer
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than I had but still being able to share new
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things with them and learn from them along the
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way So yeah, I feel really blessed to have kind
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of fell it into the path that I have I like it.
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You mentioned the lifespan of bees This is something
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we haven't talked a lot about on the show. Okay,
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let's so let's dig into that one Yeah, let's
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talk about first a little bit about what people
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call bee time or bee calendar or bee mass Okay,
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let's talk about And I don't want to get too
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scientific. But the life cycle. From the day
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an egg is laid, what happens and how long does
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it take? OK, so after the egg is laid, then you
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have about two, three days while that egg turns
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into a very young larva that they're fed both
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royal jelly and also pollen and nectar. And for
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that three days, that egg, if it's a female egg,
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so if it's been fertilized, then it's going to
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be a female. If it's unfertilized, it'll become
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a male on a drone bait. So the fertilized eggs,
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if it's a female larva, then it could potentially
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be a queen while it's still on royal jelly. When
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they turn it onto pollen and nectar after the
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third day, then it's going to end up being a
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worker and not a queen. It becomes a larva. It
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eats all of its royal jelly. Then it becomes
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the larva. It's fed the pollen and nectar mixture,
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gets older, goes into pupation. And when it emerges
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out as a adult bee for the first time, its first
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job is to go and clean its cell out. So it's
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that I do a lot of talks with elementary school
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students and families and things like that. And
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so I like to tell the kids, you know, their first
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job is to clean their room, probably like, you
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know, the kids first job. So they clean their
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room and then they clean their sister's rooms.
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They go around and start cleaning those. And
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then they're a cleaner bee for a few days. then
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they become a a nurse bee where they're feeding
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their sisters and their their glands develop
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differently so they have the glands where they're
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able to actually feed their sisters royal jelly
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the the young larva they can sense and smell
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when those larvae are hungry and go over and
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feed the hungry ones it's pretty amazing and
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then they get a little bit older and they start
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doing other tasks in the in the hive other you
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know chores jobs they move on to being wax maker
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bees honey store bees. So as the foragers come
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in, they take that nectar and take it up to the
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the nectary and they fan their wings and turn
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it into honey. They cap wax the, put the wax
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cappings on that to preserve it as honey. Some
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are processing the bee bread from pollen as a
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bee bread and most of the jobs kind of work from
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that center of the hive, the heart of the hive,
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the nursery out towards the entrance. So eventually
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they become guard bees and they're spending a
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lot more time out on the porch. and that's when
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they're about 18 days old. So the 18 year olds,
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the teenagers, they're getting new glands and
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they're actually able to defend the hive with
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alarm pheromone at that point. And they also
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are doing some orientation flights and when they
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become foragers, that's kind of the elder bees,
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the about 21 day olds, and they'll forage for
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the rest of their lives. So if you see a bee
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out on a flower, then it's one of the the oldest
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bees in the hive, the elders that are going and
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getting resources for the other bees. How about
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some of the other tasks like the what we call
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the morticians? Yeah. They're cleaning out the
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dead bees. Yeah, the undertakers. Do they all
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have a chance to do that at some point in their
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life or are there some just assigned to that?
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I think we're not 100 % sure. And there's some
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flexibility there. So we're talking about the
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undertaker bees. And so they're very important
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for helping to clean the hive and get rid of
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the you know, the dead decaying bees, some bees
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that may have, they're also kind of nurse, maybe
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not say nurse bees, but healthcare bees that
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are going around to check inside the cells for
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bees that have some type of a pathogen or illness.
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So they would take out those bees as well. And
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so this is helping to keep the hive healthy.
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And I'm not sure that all the bees do all of
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the tasks. The way that they can tell a lot of
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this information is they'll mark the bees with
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little stickers different color codes numbers
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letters and have them in observation hives where
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they're watching you know what's going on in
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the life of these bees and taking notes on okay
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we saw number 48a uh you know taking a dead bee
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out and things like that and so i'm not sure
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that someone's watched every you know bee in
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a hive for their entire lifespan to make sure
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that this happens regularly but there is a lot
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of flexibility so if at one point they need more
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foragers They could, you know, bring some of
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the guard bees faster. Or if, you know, they
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need more guards, some of the foragers may stay
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behind and guard. So much flexibility in the
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bee colony. Here's what I don't get and part
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of what really, really fascinates me. How do
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they make the decision on who's going to do what?
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Now, you would think that would be the queen's
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job. We know that's not realistic. Right. Is
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it just do they somehow instinctively know there's
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a need there, I'm gonna go do it. Or is there
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some boss in charge that's saying, you do that,
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you do that, you do that? Well, a lot of it is
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very pheromone controlled. They're getting a
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lot of their input through smells. So when nurse
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bees are looking for which bees to feed, they're
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smelling which bees are hungriest. When the guard
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bees are trying to see who they need to defend
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against, they're smelling for alarm pheromone.
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Queens... produce queen pheromone and this goes
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through the entire hive because bees pass nectar
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from each other and along with that they're also
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passing pheromones so if you have a very big
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hive that queen pheromone might not get around
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to all of the bees but it does a pretty good
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job because the way they pass the food along
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so I think pheromones is one of the key things.
00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:17.320
It could be instincts, but this is one of the
00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:19.000
great mysteries of life, you know, that we're
00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.519
all trying to learn. How do the bees know what
00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:24.539
they're doing and making decisions? And I think
00:13:24.539 --> 00:13:26.620
a lot of it is they're just walking around looking
00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:29.080
for what needs to be done or sensing what needs
00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:31.919
to be done and jumping in and doing it. It's
00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:34.399
one of the things I love about honey bees is
00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:38.509
we don't know at all. We just see them. make
00:13:38.509 --> 00:13:42.250
amazing decisions, work as this perfect community
00:13:42.250 --> 00:13:46.529
somehow. And we're like, as people, we haven't
00:13:46.529 --> 00:13:49.210
figured out how to do that yet. Not even close.
00:13:49.350 --> 00:13:51.750
Our government's all screwed up. Our elections
00:13:51.750 --> 00:13:55.950
are messed up and stuff. And they somehow figured
00:13:55.950 --> 00:13:59.299
out, although... It's really good, but it's not
00:13:59.299 --> 00:14:02.240
perfect. Let's talk about swarming for a second.
00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:05.320
I've read a bunch of Tom Seeley stuff, including
00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:07.500
Honey Bee Democracy. I've had him on the show.
00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:10.960
We've got a couple episodes with him. He's fantastic
00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:15.940
and just the nicest gentleman. I really like
00:14:15.940 --> 00:14:18.580
him a lot. But there still are a few missing
00:14:18.580 --> 00:14:21.700
pieces. That's one of the exciting things for
00:14:21.700 --> 00:14:25.039
me too is constantly learning whether it's techniques
00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:27.659
in beekeeping or our new equipment coming out
00:14:27.659 --> 00:14:30.740
that we're learning how to use or Older equipment
00:14:30.740 --> 00:14:33.679
we're finding out about you know that that is
00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:36.779
coming out again Nectar sources for bees because
00:14:36.779 --> 00:14:38.639
you when you get into beekeeping you start to
00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:40.879
become a miner in botany because you're learning
00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:44.720
What flowers are nearby when the blooms are but
00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:46.259
yeah, there's there's so much to learn. It's
00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:50.039
amazing swarming. It's a is really interesting
00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:54.100
was the bee's natural instinct as a colony. So
00:14:54.100 --> 00:14:56.679
one of the things Jamie was teaching us, you
00:14:56.679 --> 00:14:58.440
know, when I was a graduate student was you can
00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:01.940
also think of the honeybee colony on the individual
00:15:01.940 --> 00:15:03.860
level, each worker, you know, going and doing
00:15:03.860 --> 00:15:05.960
its individual thing. But if you look at the
00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:09.220
hive itself, you can think of it as a super organism.
00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:12.250
This hive is... has its own circulatory system,
00:15:12.470 --> 00:15:16.049
its own nervous system and its own immune system.
00:15:16.110 --> 00:15:18.789
It's defending against pathogens coming in almost
00:15:18.789 --> 00:15:21.970
on an individual level, individual organism level.
00:15:22.289 --> 00:15:24.950
Also has its reproductive system and swarming
00:15:24.950 --> 00:15:27.809
is kind of the reproductive system of the hive.
00:15:27.970 --> 00:15:30.450
They want to get their goal is to get as big
00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:33.769
as they can and then reproduce. So they send
00:15:33.769 --> 00:15:36.070
half their colony out somewhere else. And somehow
00:15:36.070 --> 00:15:39.220
they know when it's time to do that. They know
00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:42.080
how to get the queen prepared. Yes. Will you
00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:44.740
tell us some of the things, some of what they
00:15:44.740 --> 00:15:47.440
do to get the queen prepared? They of course
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.820
have to start making the next queen, the next
00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:51.600
generation. So they pick out the worker that
00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:53.740
this, you know, the egg that they're going to
00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:56.039
turn into queen. They make some queen cells in
00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:58.320
preparation for the swarm. And then they'll chase
00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:01.360
the queen around and stop feeding her as much.
00:16:01.500 --> 00:16:04.279
The queen doesn't really feed. From the the honey
00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:07.340
or pollen, I guess on her own She actually needs
00:16:07.340 --> 00:16:10.279
the attendant bees to follow her around and feed
00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:12.919
her and groom her and so they kind of put her
00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:15.620
on a diet stop feeding her so much and keep her
00:16:15.620 --> 00:16:18.320
moving so that she loses some weight and is ready
00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.460
to fly and Yeah, it kind of stops that egg production
00:16:21.460 --> 00:16:24.080
for a little while, but it is fascinating. Yeah,
00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.500
it's hilarious Okay, let's talk about drones
00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:30.759
for a second And I just read something and and
00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:34.340
we may talk about it earlier about how drones
00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:38.460
can't feed themselves. Tell me how that works.
00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:43.399
Who feeds them, why, when? Right, so the worker
00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:47.200
bees will feed the drones and the drones are
00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:49.679
voracious eaters. They're constantly hungry too,
00:16:49.799 --> 00:16:52.460
but they're not really contributing much to the
00:16:52.460 --> 00:16:55.259
food stores. They're not foraging at all. Zero?
00:16:55.500 --> 00:16:59.419
Zero. Okay, not much, it's zero. Zero, it's actually
00:16:59.419 --> 00:17:01.500
probably negative because of how much they eat
00:17:01.500 --> 00:17:05.039
too. It may seem early, but right now is a great
00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:08.799
time to order your live bees for 2026 because
00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:12.059
they do sell out and because Man Lake is offering
00:17:12.059 --> 00:17:16.000
a discount for B -Luv podcast listeners. Wait,
00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:18.880
what? I know you're saying live bees, they never
00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:22.519
go on sale. Well, they are now. Click on over
00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:26.250
to Man Lake, order your bees any variety. nukes
00:17:26.250 --> 00:17:29.630
or packages, and anything in the beginner essentials
00:17:29.630 --> 00:17:32.910
category. And when you check out, use the code
00:17:32.910 --> 00:17:35.789
GETSTARTEDINBEEZ, it's down in the show notes
00:17:35.789 --> 00:17:38.230
so you don't have to remember, for a discount
00:17:38.230 --> 00:17:41.930
on everything. So get your orders in early and
00:17:41.930 --> 00:17:45.970
save. But the drones aren't very important because
00:17:45.970 --> 00:17:49.829
if the colony dies, if we lose the queen, what
00:17:49.829 --> 00:17:53.470
happens is the workers are now able to lay eggs.
00:17:53.950 --> 00:17:57.059
But they're laying unfertilized eggs because
00:17:57.059 --> 00:17:59.440
they never mated. So those unfertilized eggs
00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:02.420
will become drones. Those drones will end up
00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:04.880
flying out. And even if that hive crashes and
00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:06.640
totally dies, they were not able to make a new
00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:09.480
queen. The genetics from that hive are carried
00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:11.839
on by those drones to other hives in the county.
00:18:12.619 --> 00:18:15.099
So yeah, it is still the survival of the fittest
00:18:15.099 --> 00:18:17.140
and the mating really carries on those genes.
00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:20.000
I call drones the teenage boys living in the
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:22.240
basement. Yeah, it is. It is very similar. Yep.
00:18:22.420 --> 00:18:25.819
They don't produce anything. Right. All they
00:18:25.819 --> 00:18:29.359
want to do is go out and mate. And when they
00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:32.779
do, they just die. And if they don't mate, they
00:18:32.779 --> 00:18:36.059
also die. Right. So they either go out with a
00:18:36.059 --> 00:18:41.440
bag or not so much, fizzle out. That is a crazy
00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.359
thing. You mentioned new equipment a minute ago.
00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:46.779
Tell me, I don't know how much you've walked
00:18:46.779 --> 00:18:49.220
around this expo yet, but what are some of the
00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:51.599
new things that you've seen over the last even
00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:54.240
a couple of years? to get you excited. Sure.
00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:57.740
So actually, I was working, teaching folks in
00:18:57.740 --> 00:19:01.079
the Bay Area. I'm in Silicon Valley in California.
00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:04.200
And so I was just working with a nonprofit. We
00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:07.539
had sponsors like Google and Genentech. And so
00:19:07.539 --> 00:19:09.579
some of these high tech companies would have
00:19:09.579 --> 00:19:12.240
us come in and they would have their own hives
00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.960
on campus. And so the employees wanted to learn
00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:17.400
more and more about beekeeping. and one of them
00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:20.440
had asked if we could do a presentation on innovations
00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:23.380
in beekeeping. Some of the new innovations that
00:19:23.380 --> 00:19:26.759
I came across while doing research on this was
00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:28.740
Primal Bee, which is the company that I'm now
00:19:28.740 --> 00:19:30.400
with, and I could talk a little bit about that.
00:19:30.660 --> 00:19:33.460
BeeWise is another I've worked with them, and
00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:36.799
so I'll kind of scale into each of them a little
00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:39.680
bit more in detail, but there's a lot of new
00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:41.859
sensors that are going into hives, like Broodminder,
00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:45.380
which is looking at... the temperature and humidity
00:19:45.380 --> 00:19:47.500
inside of hives, the number of bees coming in
00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:49.819
and out. We're just learning so much with the
00:19:49.819 --> 00:19:53.559
internet of things. The BeeWise is a large box
00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:56.480
that has multiple hives inside of it that uses
00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:59.920
AI and robotics to lift frames up, take pictures
00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:01.839
of what's going on inside the hive, identify
00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:04.299
the queen, look for pathogens, and that's a pretty
00:20:04.299 --> 00:20:06.759
exciting, interesting thing. I've had them on
00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:09.480
the show, by the way. So if somebody wants to
00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:12.099
hear a whole episode with them, we'll try to
00:20:12.099 --> 00:20:14.819
remember to stick it in the show notes. So you
00:20:14.819 --> 00:20:17.160
can go back a little ways and see it was fascinating.
00:20:17.220 --> 00:20:19.259
I've met the founder going into those hives and
00:20:19.259 --> 00:20:20.819
check them out. And they're amazing. Did some
00:20:20.819 --> 00:20:23.079
work with them. I'm working with Primal B right
00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:25.839
now, and that's a thermodynamic hive. I'm looking
00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.380
at the insulation and the brood space. It has
00:20:29.380 --> 00:20:31.900
a triple deep frame in the bottom. So we're getting
00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:34.519
really large populations. And I think it's an
00:20:34.519 --> 00:20:37.170
incredible innovation. You've also had Primal
00:20:37.170 --> 00:20:40.049
B on the show. We've had Alex on the show all
00:20:40.049 --> 00:20:43.750
the way from Italy. He was awesome and so fun
00:20:43.750 --> 00:20:47.529
and actually one of our largest audiences. People
00:20:47.529 --> 00:20:51.329
loved Alex. Alex is great and the whole team
00:20:51.329 --> 00:20:53.490
is really great with Primal B. They're coming
00:20:53.490 --> 00:20:56.089
out with some amazing things and folks should
00:20:56.089 --> 00:20:57.869
definitely check that out. And I'm trying one
00:20:57.869 --> 00:21:01.549
of those hives myself right now. I think it's
00:21:01.549 --> 00:21:04.069
fascinating. I can't wait to see how the bees
00:21:04.069 --> 00:21:08.789
over winter and over summer. Yeah. Because a
00:21:08.789 --> 00:21:11.549
lot of insulation has got to make it easier on
00:21:11.549 --> 00:21:14.950
the bees also when it's hot. They're not expending
00:21:14.950 --> 00:21:18.170
as much energy trying to cool everything. Yeah.
00:21:18.289 --> 00:21:20.430
Yeah. I'm in California, so it's pretty mild
00:21:20.430 --> 00:21:21.990
there. We don't have to worry about snow where
00:21:21.990 --> 00:21:25.710
I'm at. We might get frost or freeze. But I do
00:21:25.710 --> 00:21:27.670
have a primal beehive right outside my kitchen
00:21:27.670 --> 00:21:31.089
and I have a Langstroth wooden hive right next
00:21:31.089 --> 00:21:32.970
to it and I keep an eye on both of them. I also
00:21:32.970 --> 00:21:36.150
have a tap bar hive and a few other styles. But
00:21:36.150 --> 00:21:38.470
my primal beehive I noticed in the heat wave
00:21:38.470 --> 00:21:43.460
when we had 104, 105 degree. days for a week
00:21:43.460 --> 00:21:46.720
or two at a time, my Langstroth, wooden hive
00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:49.579
out front, would all the bees we had outside
00:21:49.579 --> 00:21:52.559
try to ventilate and keep it cool and bearding
00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:55.039
up on the outside of the hive. Whereas the primal
00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:57.940
bee hive, it was still active, but they weren't
00:21:57.940 --> 00:21:59.859
hanging out on the front of the hive. They were
00:21:59.859 --> 00:22:02.720
comfortable inside. They got out earlier in the
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:04.720
morning. They came back later at night because
00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:06.700
they didn't have to worry about keeping a lot
00:22:06.700 --> 00:22:09.880
of bees in or out in order to keep the hive.
00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:12.460
at a comfortable temperature inside for the brood.
00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:15.660
Tell me about thermodynamics. And one of the
00:22:15.660 --> 00:22:18.700
big questions that I have, because I get differing
00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:21.079
opinions all the time. Welcome to beekeeping.
00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:24.960
Right. For example, in winter, do I need to get
00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:30.279
my hive as closed up as possible and have an
00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:32.799
entrance reducer where they can only get in something
00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:37.400
this big so that it's really warm, but also realizing
00:22:38.169 --> 00:22:40.269
What's going to happen? Moisture is going to
00:22:40.269 --> 00:22:43.269
build up inside. And so I worry about that. Right.
00:22:43.349 --> 00:22:45.569
Sure. And then there's other people that tell
00:22:45.569 --> 00:22:48.529
me, no, air circulation is really important.
00:22:48.829 --> 00:22:51.730
You can get too much moisture. Sure. Tell me
00:22:51.730 --> 00:22:54.650
what the heck you know about this. OK. So I'm
00:22:54.650 --> 00:22:56.589
also I don't have all the answers, but I'm still
00:22:56.589 --> 00:22:58.509
learning along the way what I've learned so far
00:22:58.509 --> 00:23:02.029
that that makes a lot of sense to me. The condensation.
00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:05.200
will run down the sides of the walls a lot of
00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:07.599
times. These actually need a lot of water also
00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:10.240
during the wintertime, right? And it may be less
00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:12.279
accessible to them because they're not leaving
00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:14.519
the hive to go look for water if it's too cold
00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:17.019
outside. So they'll actually go to the side walls
00:23:17.019 --> 00:23:19.279
and pull some of that moisture off of the side
00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:21.940
walls. So it is important to have some condensation
00:23:21.940 --> 00:23:24.500
inside the hive so that your bees can stay hydrated.
00:23:24.759 --> 00:23:27.549
There's also On the primal beehive there's a
00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:29.750
screen bottom board and there's a head space
00:23:29.750 --> 00:23:31.950
of about four inches or so between the bottom
00:23:31.950 --> 00:23:34.930
board and the bottom of the first frame and this
00:23:34.930 --> 00:23:36.970
air and the way that the shape of the inside
00:23:36.970 --> 00:23:39.470
of the hive is is designed really for the you
00:23:39.470 --> 00:23:42.089
know keep the perfect humidity perfect temperature
00:23:42.089 --> 00:23:44.750
in there for the brood so the queen has a great
00:23:44.750 --> 00:23:47.349
nursery and you know the incubation is perfect
00:23:47.349 --> 00:23:50.490
for the bees. You could also wrap a hive with
00:23:50.490 --> 00:23:52.869
insulation but it's going to be very difficult
00:23:52.869 --> 00:23:56.390
to get the same level of thermal efficiency with
00:23:56.390 --> 00:23:58.309
a jacket around the hive and different things
00:23:58.309 --> 00:24:00.490
like that. The material that we're working with
00:24:00.490 --> 00:24:04.769
is EPS and it's at 80 % density and very strong
00:24:04.769 --> 00:24:07.470
and it's made specifically for this purpose for
00:24:07.470 --> 00:24:10.660
insulation. I'm just of the attitude of let's
00:24:10.660 --> 00:24:13.599
look at bees where they came from. When they
00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:15.700
live in the wild, and I'm talking honey bees
00:24:15.700 --> 00:24:18.000
still, not native bees, because some of them
00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:20.420
nest in the ground and things like that. But
00:24:20.420 --> 00:24:23.539
your honey bees, they seek out hollow trees.
00:24:23.859 --> 00:24:25.980
This isn't just a Winnie the Pooh thing. Right.
00:24:26.339 --> 00:24:29.059
They seek out hollow trees. In fact, Dr. Tom
00:24:29.059 --> 00:24:31.539
Seeley was telling me about when he was doing
00:24:31.539 --> 00:24:34.839
some of his study, he actually cut down trees.
00:24:35.099 --> 00:24:38.839
and then cut them open to see exactly how the
00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:41.980
bees were working inside. Yes. And I think as
00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:44.799
close to that natural environment as we can get,
00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:48.519
the better. True. That's nature. Yes. That's
00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:52.420
how they like it. I agree. Yeah. I have a feeling
00:24:52.420 --> 00:24:56.720
that the boxes that we came up with over 150
00:24:56.720 --> 00:24:59.400
years ago, and I'm not slamming on anything,
00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:03.319
it's very old technology, but is that the preferred
00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:05.819
place for a bee? or is it something more like
00:25:05.819 --> 00:25:08.920
inside a tree? And if it's more like inside a
00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:11.380
tree, what can we do to make whatever kind of
00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:13.859
bee setup we have a little bit more like that?
00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:16.539
Right. So when you just look at what the trees
00:25:16.539 --> 00:25:19.299
are and the same thing with even cutouts, we
00:25:19.299 --> 00:25:22.500
can look at what bees prefer to go to when they
00:25:22.500 --> 00:25:25.079
swarm. Sometimes they'll end up in the wall of
00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:27.519
someone's house. So we can look at what the bees
00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:30.839
are looking for, whether it's in. natural materials
00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:33.619
or artificial materials. Some bees also go into
00:25:33.619 --> 00:25:35.900
caves or underground, you know, things like that.
00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:38.700
I had a friend, Anthony Baldo, who went from
00:25:38.700 --> 00:25:40.440
University of Florida that actually went and
00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:42.500
studied with Tom Seeley for a bit before he went
00:25:42.500 --> 00:25:45.400
to Africa to see. what different bees were doing
00:25:45.400 --> 00:25:48.559
there. Some were cave nesters and some were in
00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:52.700
trees. It seems they want a large space in order
00:25:52.700 --> 00:25:55.599
to start making their comb. They want to have
00:25:55.599 --> 00:25:58.619
a very small defendable entrance where they're
00:25:58.619 --> 00:26:02.799
keeping robbers from coming in or pests or thieves
00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:04.559
from coming in and stealing the honey. Yeah,
00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:06.380
they want to be able to control the environment
00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:09.319
inside their hive so they're able to ventilate
00:26:09.319 --> 00:26:12.809
and take care of everything inside. I think the
00:26:12.809 --> 00:26:15.029
primal beehive for me was the first that I saw
00:26:15.029 --> 00:26:17.630
that really kind of captured that pretty well
00:26:17.630 --> 00:26:20.890
with artificial materials and had the ventilation,
00:26:21.309 --> 00:26:23.910
has the small entrances, has the large volume
00:26:23.910 --> 00:26:26.470
for the bees to build as much as they want. When
00:26:26.470 --> 00:26:28.630
we look at a cutout, you know, it's from a wall
00:26:28.630 --> 00:26:31.349
that bees have moved into someone's house, a
00:26:31.349 --> 00:26:33.170
lot of times they'll use as much space as they
00:26:33.170 --> 00:26:36.089
possibly can. to have continuous brood so the
00:26:36.089 --> 00:26:38.609
queen doesn't have to jump over one frame and
00:26:38.609 --> 00:26:41.109
onto another she just has lots and lots of space
00:26:41.109 --> 00:26:44.150
to lay eggs and the nurse bees no obstacles for
00:26:44.150 --> 00:26:46.009
them to get around to be able to make sure all
00:26:46.009 --> 00:26:48.069
the bees are fed yeah it does a great job at
00:26:48.069 --> 00:26:51.069
that we have so many options yeah as beekeepers
00:26:51.069 --> 00:26:53.970
you do and i love experimenting yes some people
00:26:53.970 --> 00:26:56.450
just want just tell me how to do it and i'm just
00:26:56.450 --> 00:26:58.549
going to go do it and make some honey right and
00:26:58.549 --> 00:27:00.849
that's awesome yeah if that's what you're into
00:27:00.849 --> 00:27:03.869
that's awesome I like to try this new stuff.
00:27:04.349 --> 00:27:06.869
I haven't used top bar hives yet. I hear they're
00:27:06.869 --> 00:27:09.630
pretty difficult in our cold climate. But that's
00:27:09.630 --> 00:27:12.369
another thing that I want to do. Yeah. And and
00:27:12.369 --> 00:27:15.269
that's fun. And how to do it and experiment around.
00:27:15.269 --> 00:27:18.849
So before I let you go, Jason or Dr. Jay, sorry.
00:27:20.940 --> 00:27:23.619
I want to hear a wild and crazy beekeeping story.
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:26.279
You've been around all kinds of things. What
00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:29.579
do you got or more than one? Yeah, sure. So I
00:27:29.579 --> 00:27:31.920
actually I really got into native bees as well.
00:27:31.940 --> 00:27:35.180
I can speak to that for a minute. So I. was in
00:27:35.180 --> 00:27:37.880
Dr. Ellis's lab, Jamie Ellis, University of Florida,
00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:41.680
and it's a honeybee program. It's funded by both
00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:44.279
the state, you know, for honeybee research and
00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:47.519
by beekeepers putting money into beekeeping research.
00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:50.700
And I loved the beekeeping aspect of it. I still
00:27:50.700 --> 00:27:53.059
do, you know, continue beekeeping. But I also
00:27:53.059 --> 00:27:54.980
was really interested in the diversity of bees.
00:27:55.319 --> 00:27:57.440
There's 20 ,000 different species of bees in
00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:00.819
the world. 20 ,000, you know, and the honeybee,
00:28:01.059 --> 00:28:04.089
Apis mellifera. is just one of them. There's
00:28:04.089 --> 00:28:06.250
a couple different apis species, but there's
00:28:06.250 --> 00:28:08.490
so many more. So I wanted to learn more about
00:28:08.490 --> 00:28:11.470
bumblebees. And Jamie was very kind in letting
00:28:11.470 --> 00:28:14.289
me also explore these other bees as well, as
00:28:14.289 --> 00:28:16.630
long as I also tied it into honeybees in some
00:28:16.630 --> 00:28:19.450
way. So I looked at bumblebees and I was interested
00:28:19.450 --> 00:28:22.089
in if small hive beetles went into bumblebee
00:28:22.089 --> 00:28:24.970
colonies. And if so, those small hive beetles
00:28:24.970 --> 00:28:26.970
could be reproducing in bumblebee colonies and
00:28:26.970 --> 00:28:28.430
we could do everything we could to keep them
00:28:28.430 --> 00:28:30.309
out of honeybees, but they would come from the
00:28:30.309 --> 00:28:33.259
bumblebees back into the honeybee colonies. So
00:28:33.259 --> 00:28:35.319
I really wanted to see if small hive beetles
00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:38.519
could live in bumblebee colonies. And so I would
00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:41.640
go out and put some stuff up on Craig's list,
00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:44.160
you know, back in the day. And I said, if anybody
00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:45.880
sees a bumblebee colony in your back yard, let
00:28:45.880 --> 00:28:47.859
me know and I'll come and remove it so that I
00:28:47.859 --> 00:28:50.440
can look into it to see if there's any small
00:28:50.440 --> 00:28:52.480
hive beetles. I got some commercial bumblebee
00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:56.380
colonies and I put them out on blueberries for
00:28:56.380 --> 00:28:58.259
a season. And then I open them up to see if there
00:28:58.259 --> 00:29:00.779
are small hive beetles in them and to open them.
00:29:00.990 --> 00:29:03.690
I was actually working with the USDA. We had
00:29:03.690 --> 00:29:06.829
a lab inside the USDA building, and I brought
00:29:06.829 --> 00:29:10.430
aquatic bumblebees into the USDA building. And
00:29:10.430 --> 00:29:13.069
for those that don't know, honeybee workers are
00:29:13.069 --> 00:29:15.190
the only ones that have a sting that after they
00:29:15.190 --> 00:29:17.210
sting you once, they're done, right? They try
00:29:17.210 --> 00:29:19.470
to fly away, their stinger gets stuck in your
00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:22.130
skin, and they die. Well, not the case with bumblebees.
00:29:22.190 --> 00:29:24.630
They can sting you. as many times as they want
00:29:24.630 --> 00:29:27.069
they can you know put the stinger in move somewhere
00:29:27.069 --> 00:29:30.369
else put stinger in so anyway i had the bumblebees
00:29:30.369 --> 00:29:32.710
open in a lab and i had a piece of paper on the
00:29:32.710 --> 00:29:35.450
door that said you know bumblebees live bumblebees
00:29:35.450 --> 00:29:38.069
inside you know please don't open the door and
00:29:38.069 --> 00:29:40.990
I was opening four or five colonies. I was collecting
00:29:40.990 --> 00:29:43.730
all the bumblebees into one jar, all their pollen
00:29:43.730 --> 00:29:45.650
into another jar, all their honey into another
00:29:45.650 --> 00:29:48.130
jar, so I could test that and looking for small
00:29:48.130 --> 00:29:50.890
high beetles all the way along. And a couple
00:29:50.890 --> 00:29:53.589
bumblebees got into my bee suit inside this lab.
00:29:53.710 --> 00:29:56.529
They're loose. I got 20, 30 bumblebees flying
00:29:56.529 --> 00:29:59.069
around in the lab, trying to catch them with
00:29:59.069 --> 00:30:02.920
butterfly net and forceps. Love it. Love it couple
00:30:02.920 --> 00:30:04.779
getting inside my suit and I learned that lesson
00:30:04.779 --> 00:30:06.940
really You know quick that they can sting as
00:30:06.940 --> 00:30:09.539
many times as they want and yeah It was it was
00:30:09.539 --> 00:30:11.559
painful a different kind of painful that honeybee
00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:13.880
stings in what way? How does it feel different?
00:30:14.140 --> 00:30:17.180
Guess honeybee felt more like a burn honeybee
00:30:17.180 --> 00:30:19.140
sting kind of feels like a match burn or something
00:30:19.140 --> 00:30:22.160
like that This was it was almost more like a
00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:25.279
sharp poke and then yeah like fire under your
00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:28.259
skin But it didn't go away quite as quickly as
00:30:28.259 --> 00:30:30.359
as honey bees did and I had a different feel
00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:32.420
There's different chemistry there. So I'm sure
00:30:32.420 --> 00:30:34.400
my body was fighting different types of chemicals
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:38.160
and it was doing different things But yeah, it
00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:40.519
was it's interesting. They they also have an
00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:43.160
alarm pheromone bumblebees. So, you know, they
00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:45.339
would have a different smell to them than honey
00:30:45.339 --> 00:30:48.339
bees did. All right, if you could leave one tip
00:30:48.339 --> 00:30:51.039
or one piece of advice for everybody before we
00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:53.900
sign off. And I know that's hard to come up with
00:30:53.900 --> 00:30:56.619
just one, but what would that be? I think one
00:30:56.619 --> 00:30:59.160
recommendation is to get to know the other bees
00:30:59.160 --> 00:31:02.500
in your area as well, and also the flowers, the
00:31:02.500 --> 00:31:04.900
flower sources that your bees have. Not everyone
00:31:04.900 --> 00:31:07.339
gets interested in the flowers and things like
00:31:07.339 --> 00:31:09.799
that, but there's an app that's very helpful.
00:31:10.019 --> 00:31:12.680
So I've used field guides in the past to be able
00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:14.680
to tell what flower is which and when's it blooming
00:31:14.680 --> 00:31:16.660
and things like that. But there's an app called
00:31:16.660 --> 00:31:19.700
iNaturalist that's made by National Geographic
00:31:19.700 --> 00:31:21.660
and California Academy of Science. It's a free
00:31:21.660 --> 00:31:23.839
app. You can take a picture of any living thing.
00:31:24.029 --> 00:31:29.450
bees or flowers or fish or birds and it'll identify
00:31:29.450 --> 00:31:32.750
it for you and link off to a wikipedia type page
00:31:32.750 --> 00:31:35.130
that tells you their life cycle and all kinds
00:31:35.130 --> 00:31:37.609
of information about it so i use that a lot of
00:31:37.609 --> 00:31:39.349
times if i'm trying to figure out what honeybees
00:31:39.349 --> 00:31:42.410
are on different flowers in my yard i also use
00:31:42.410 --> 00:31:44.450
it for citizen science to figure out what the
00:31:44.450 --> 00:31:47.329
diversity of bees are in different areas so that's
00:31:47.329 --> 00:31:49.730
a great great tool and so i'd recommend that
00:31:49.730 --> 00:31:52.049
to folks it's one that i've enjoyed along the
00:31:52.049 --> 00:31:54.670
way All right, thanks a lot, Dr. J. I appreciate
00:31:54.670 --> 00:32:00.029
your time. Yeah, thank you. Thanks again for
00:32:00.029 --> 00:32:02.710
joining us on Bee Love Beekeeping presented by
00:32:02.710 --> 00:32:05.009
our great friends over at Man Lake. Hey, and
00:32:05.009 --> 00:32:07.500
don't forget to order your bees. and a shout
00:32:07.500 --> 00:32:10.500
out to Vita B Health for their support. Vita's
00:32:10.500 --> 00:32:13.160
Varroa Control Ranger products includes Epistan,
00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:17.680
Epigard, and now Varroxan Extended Release Oxalic
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:21.559
Acid Strips. Thank you so much guys. If you haven't
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:24.680
yet, please subscribe and follow the show, tell
00:32:24.680 --> 00:32:27.599
your friends about it, and click on over to BeLoveBekeeping
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:31.339
.com to sign up for our free newsletter. If you
00:32:31.339 --> 00:32:34.319
have a guest suggestion or topic that you'd like
00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:39.950
discussed on the show, shoot me an And remember,
00:32:40.329 --> 00:32:42.509
if you're not just in it for the honey or the
00:32:42.509 --> 00:32:45.029
money, you're in it for the love. See you next
00:32:45.029 --> 00:32:45.369
week.
00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:06.660
in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:12.839
embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:17.699
precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
00:00:17.699 --> 00:00:22.420
motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:28.800
instinct each act in service to the whole and
00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:34.560
then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:40.500
of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:45.460
part poet, they move along their hives with the
00:00:45.460 --> 00:00:50.539
efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
00:00:50.539 --> 00:00:54.219
the bees' needs as best they can comprehend,
00:00:54.859 --> 00:00:59.670
and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
00:00:59.670 --> 00:01:05.569
Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
00:01:05.569 --> 00:01:12.150
like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
00:01:12.150 --> 00:01:27.909
journey. I recently attended the North American
00:01:27.909 --> 00:01:30.890
Honey Bee Expo and while there had the pleasure
00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:33.689
of conducting a few interviews for this podcast
00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:37.049
just a quick heads up these interviews were in
00:01:37.049 --> 00:01:40.989
a very busy noisy expo hall with thousands of
00:01:40.989 --> 00:01:43.629
people milling around so our audio and video
00:01:43.629 --> 00:01:45.849
quality may be a little bit below our regular
00:01:45.849 --> 00:01:48.549
standards but I think you'll find the content
00:01:48.549 --> 00:01:51.129
well worth it and we'll be back in the studio
00:01:51.129 --> 00:01:55.530
shortly and speaking of the expo Huge thank yous
00:01:55.530 --> 00:01:57.709
to all the listeners who came up and introduced
00:01:57.709 --> 00:02:00.349
themselves. It was really fun meeting so many
00:02:00.349 --> 00:02:03.390
of you. So over the next few weeks, we'll be
00:02:03.390 --> 00:02:05.849
hearing from beekeepers with various backgrounds
00:02:05.849 --> 00:02:09.289
and beekeeping experiences, discussing new products,
00:02:09.469 --> 00:02:12.409
new methodologies, and of course, some fun stories.
00:02:12.849 --> 00:02:16.050
I hope you'll enjoy as we kick off today's episode
00:02:16.050 --> 00:02:19.349
with someone who really knows his stuff and has
00:02:19.349 --> 00:02:27.189
the PhD to prove it, Dr. Jason Graham. All right,
00:02:27.189 --> 00:02:29.289
we're back here at the North American Honey Bee
00:02:29.289 --> 00:02:33.310
Expo. We've got Dr. Jason Graham with us today.
00:02:33.409 --> 00:02:35.349
Jason, how are you? I'm excellent, Eric. How
00:02:35.349 --> 00:02:39.530
are you? Fantastic. Great. I say, I say doctor.
00:02:40.110 --> 00:02:43.110
Is that medical? Is that PhD? What's it is? PhD.
00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:47.250
Yeah. And I go by Dr. J or, you know, I went,
00:02:47.250 --> 00:02:50.650
I went to get out of the Philadelphia area. So
00:02:50.650 --> 00:02:54.030
Dr. J was, you know, my, my I was a big fan of
00:02:54.030 --> 00:02:57.030
basketball and I thought if I ever become a doctor,
00:02:57.090 --> 00:02:58.469
that's what I'd tell the kids. You know, you
00:02:58.469 --> 00:03:01.669
call me Dr. J, so. Can you slam it like Dr. J?
00:03:01.770 --> 00:03:05.430
Yeah, I could try. I mean, he was such an early
00:03:05.430 --> 00:03:08.610
pioneer in that kind of in that kind of basketball.
00:03:08.610 --> 00:03:11.750
That was kind of fun. So some of these young
00:03:11.750 --> 00:03:14.949
people, if you don't know who Dr. J is, Julius
00:03:14.949 --> 00:03:18.150
Irving. Yeah, yeah. Look him up. OK, but we're
00:03:18.150 --> 00:03:21.110
here to talk about bees today, not NBA basketball.
00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:26.460
So what is your PhD in? It's in entomology and
00:03:26.460 --> 00:03:30.099
nematology. I earned the PhD at University of
00:03:30.099 --> 00:03:32.560
Florida. I got my master's there as well, but
00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:35.460
I went on for my PhD. And so I learned about
00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:38.860
all things insects and also nematodes, which
00:03:38.860 --> 00:03:41.740
are almost microscopic worms that live in the
00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:44.460
soil. And some are very beneficial and some are
00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:47.159
pests to our agriculture. So I kind of learned
00:03:47.159 --> 00:03:51.569
both realms there. but bees were my specialty.
00:03:52.030 --> 00:03:54.229
So when you're an entomologist you almost pick
00:03:54.229 --> 00:03:56.949
a specialty, a different insect or maybe a different
00:03:56.949 --> 00:04:00.770
aspect of entomology. Some are looking at pests
00:04:00.770 --> 00:04:03.669
and diseases, others are looking medical entomology.
00:04:03.990 --> 00:04:06.889
I really got excited about beneficial insects
00:04:06.889 --> 00:04:09.069
and of course bees I think are the most beneficial.
00:04:09.889 --> 00:04:13.770
So that's always my focus. So with you having
00:04:13.770 --> 00:04:16.430
a PhD, we're going to get into some really boring
00:04:16.430 --> 00:04:20.889
data today. I'll try. No, we're not. That never
00:04:20.889 --> 00:04:23.870
happens on this show. We try not. No, we want
00:04:23.870 --> 00:04:27.569
practical advice for beekeepers at all levels.
00:04:28.250 --> 00:04:32.069
Tell me about your beekeeping first. Sure. So
00:04:32.069 --> 00:04:35.569
I first got into beekeeping actually at University
00:04:35.569 --> 00:04:38.360
of Delaware. I was looking for an easy science
00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:41.860
class. So may sound strange now, I am a PhD,
00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:46.060
but at the time I had been a high school dropout.
00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.319
Took about 10 years off. I worked lots of different
00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.040
jobs. And I was a little intimidated to go back
00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:53.579
to school. And I was always looking for an easy
00:04:53.579 --> 00:04:56.519
science. I wasn't ready to dive into biochemistry
00:04:56.519 --> 00:04:59.040
or anything like that yet, but I saw a beekeeping
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:03.319
class. And so I wanted to try it out and... I
00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:07.040
met Dewey Karen there. He's a pretty famous beekeeping
00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:10.000
teacher and researcher and educator and great
00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.819
guy. I'm learning from him and the first time
00:05:13.819 --> 00:05:16.639
I opened up the hive, I was hooked. I wanted
00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:19.459
to do beekeeping for life. I think that's a big
00:05:19.459 --> 00:05:23.680
part of it is taking the PhD, the heavy science
00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:26.860
and trying to share that with folks so it's not
00:05:26.860 --> 00:05:29.819
so intimidating and more interesting and relatable
00:05:29.819 --> 00:05:32.759
to them is a big part of what I try to do. What
00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:35.500
was it about him that made you fall in love immediately?
00:05:35.819 --> 00:05:38.180
We had a lab portion of the class and also a
00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:40.300
lecture portion. So in the lecture portion, we
00:05:40.300 --> 00:05:42.300
learned all the book stuff, you know, the biology
00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:44.839
of the bee. But he kept it very interesting.
00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:48.579
You know, he's shared the life of the bee, you
00:05:48.579 --> 00:05:50.560
know, even from a human perspective, what they
00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:52.000
were doing, you know, how they were changing
00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:55.079
careers throughout their their lifespan and different
00:05:55.079 --> 00:05:57.399
things like that. They were relatable to me.
00:05:58.339 --> 00:06:02.079
He one day dressed up as a bee and came in and.
00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:04.360
showed everyone he demonstrated the waggle dance
00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.879
as a professor in a classroom full of, you know,
00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:09.939
college students and a great professor is amazing.
00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:13.939
So I ended up his teacher assistant the following
00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:17.600
year. And I decided I was going to make my major.
00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:20.459
I was switched it from business, what I was thinking
00:06:20.459 --> 00:06:24.120
to entomology. And I thought I was only going
00:06:24.120 --> 00:06:26.459
to go for my bachelor's and ended up, you know,
00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:28.079
I was talking to him and I was like, you know,
00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:30.069
I'm going to get out and get a job. He said,
00:06:30.129 --> 00:06:32.149
why don't you stick in and go for your master's
00:06:32.149 --> 00:06:35.009
and PhD? And he kind of talked me into reaching
00:06:35.009 --> 00:06:37.029
out to Jamie Ellis at University of Florida.
00:06:37.850 --> 00:06:39.889
He was just getting his lab started up and was
00:06:39.889 --> 00:06:42.870
looking for new graduate students and right timing.
00:06:43.409 --> 00:06:45.430
I went down and visited with Jamie. He drove
00:06:45.430 --> 00:06:48.209
me around the campus. We had lunch and talked
00:06:48.209 --> 00:06:50.209
and he ended up bringing me on as a research
00:06:50.209 --> 00:06:52.329
assistant. That helped out with my school, you
00:06:52.329 --> 00:06:54.509
know, payments, tuition and whatnot. Yeah, I
00:06:54.509 --> 00:06:56.709
got some amazing experience working with him.
00:06:57.009 --> 00:06:59.050
We started the Master Beekeeping program there
00:06:59.050 --> 00:07:03.089
in Florida. We started Bee College, which is
00:07:03.089 --> 00:07:05.709
a really successful other conference that happens,
00:07:05.829 --> 00:07:08.329
you know, in spring now, summer and multiple
00:07:08.329 --> 00:07:12.490
times a year in Florida. So I got to work with...
00:07:12.990 --> 00:07:14.970
Beekeepers that had been keeping bees longer
00:07:14.970 --> 00:07:17.329
than I had but still being able to share new
00:07:17.329 --> 00:07:19.449
things with them and learn from them along the
00:07:19.449 --> 00:07:22.410
way So yeah, I feel really blessed to have kind
00:07:22.410 --> 00:07:24.730
of fell it into the path that I have I like it.
00:07:24.930 --> 00:07:27.790
You mentioned the lifespan of bees This is something
00:07:27.790 --> 00:07:29.970
we haven't talked a lot about on the show. Okay,
00:07:30.230 --> 00:07:32.970
let's so let's dig into that one Yeah, let's
00:07:32.970 --> 00:07:36.629
talk about first a little bit about what people
00:07:36.629 --> 00:07:40.689
call bee time or bee calendar or bee mass Okay,
00:07:40.910 --> 00:07:44.050
let's talk about And I don't want to get too
00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:47.629
scientific. But the life cycle. From the day
00:07:47.629 --> 00:07:51.069
an egg is laid, what happens and how long does
00:07:51.069 --> 00:07:54.769
it take? OK, so after the egg is laid, then you
00:07:54.769 --> 00:07:57.129
have about two, three days while that egg turns
00:07:57.129 --> 00:08:00.129
into a very young larva that they're fed both
00:08:00.129 --> 00:08:03.689
royal jelly and also pollen and nectar. And for
00:08:03.689 --> 00:08:07.449
that three days, that egg, if it's a female egg,
00:08:07.730 --> 00:08:09.949
so if it's been fertilized, then it's going to
00:08:09.949 --> 00:08:12.259
be a female. If it's unfertilized, it'll become
00:08:12.259 --> 00:08:14.939
a male on a drone bait. So the fertilized eggs,
00:08:14.939 --> 00:08:18.180
if it's a female larva, then it could potentially
00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:21.980
be a queen while it's still on royal jelly. When
00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:25.120
they turn it onto pollen and nectar after the
00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:28.379
third day, then it's going to end up being a
00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:31.040
worker and not a queen. It becomes a larva. It
00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:34.200
eats all of its royal jelly. Then it becomes
00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:37.240
the larva. It's fed the pollen and nectar mixture,
00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:41.029
gets older, goes into pupation. And when it emerges
00:08:41.029 --> 00:08:44.929
out as a adult bee for the first time, its first
00:08:44.929 --> 00:08:48.850
job is to go and clean its cell out. So it's
00:08:48.850 --> 00:08:51.769
that I do a lot of talks with elementary school
00:08:51.769 --> 00:08:54.110
students and families and things like that. And
00:08:54.110 --> 00:08:56.110
so I like to tell the kids, you know, their first
00:08:56.110 --> 00:08:58.350
job is to clean their room, probably like, you
00:08:58.350 --> 00:09:00.409
know, the kids first job. So they clean their
00:09:00.409 --> 00:09:02.409
room and then they clean their sister's rooms.
00:09:02.529 --> 00:09:04.549
They go around and start cleaning those. And
00:09:04.549 --> 00:09:09.039
then they're a cleaner bee for a few days. then
00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:12.320
they become a a nurse bee where they're feeding
00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.919
their sisters and their their glands develop
00:09:14.919 --> 00:09:16.779
differently so they have the glands where they're
00:09:16.779 --> 00:09:18.759
able to actually feed their sisters royal jelly
00:09:18.759 --> 00:09:21.820
the the young larva they can sense and smell
00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:24.600
when those larvae are hungry and go over and
00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:27.379
feed the hungry ones it's pretty amazing and
00:09:27.379 --> 00:09:29.840
then they get a little bit older and they start
00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:32.379
doing other tasks in the in the hive other you
00:09:32.379 --> 00:09:35.480
know chores jobs they move on to being wax maker
00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.480
bees honey store bees. So as the foragers come
00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:42.659
in, they take that nectar and take it up to the
00:09:42.659 --> 00:09:44.659
the nectary and they fan their wings and turn
00:09:44.659 --> 00:09:48.679
it into honey. They cap wax the, put the wax
00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:52.080
cappings on that to preserve it as honey. Some
00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.779
are processing the bee bread from pollen as a
00:09:54.779 --> 00:09:56.840
bee bread and most of the jobs kind of work from
00:09:56.840 --> 00:09:58.360
that center of the hive, the heart of the hive,
00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:01.860
the nursery out towards the entrance. So eventually
00:10:01.860 --> 00:10:04.000
they become guard bees and they're spending a
00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:05.970
lot more time out on the porch. and that's when
00:10:05.970 --> 00:10:09.330
they're about 18 days old. So the 18 year olds,
00:10:09.429 --> 00:10:13.210
the teenagers, they're getting new glands and
00:10:13.210 --> 00:10:15.889
they're actually able to defend the hive with
00:10:15.889 --> 00:10:19.289
alarm pheromone at that point. And they also
00:10:19.289 --> 00:10:21.850
are doing some orientation flights and when they
00:10:21.850 --> 00:10:23.769
become foragers, that's kind of the elder bees,
00:10:24.110 --> 00:10:27.149
the about 21 day olds, and they'll forage for
00:10:27.149 --> 00:10:30.210
the rest of their lives. So if you see a bee
00:10:30.210 --> 00:10:33.399
out on a flower, then it's one of the the oldest
00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:35.460
bees in the hive, the elders that are going and
00:10:35.460 --> 00:10:37.720
getting resources for the other bees. How about
00:10:37.720 --> 00:10:40.679
some of the other tasks like the what we call
00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:43.500
the morticians? Yeah. They're cleaning out the
00:10:43.500 --> 00:10:46.580
dead bees. Yeah, the undertakers. Do they all
00:10:46.580 --> 00:10:48.879
have a chance to do that at some point in their
00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:51.019
life or are there some just assigned to that?
00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:54.120
I think we're not 100 % sure. And there's some
00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:56.039
flexibility there. So we're talking about the
00:10:56.039 --> 00:10:58.259
undertaker bees. And so they're very important
00:10:58.259 --> 00:11:00.240
for helping to clean the hive and get rid of
00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:02.480
the you know, the dead decaying bees, some bees
00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:07.080
that may have, they're also kind of nurse, maybe
00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:10.320
not say nurse bees, but healthcare bees that
00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:13.720
are going around to check inside the cells for
00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:18.059
bees that have some type of a pathogen or illness.
00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:21.360
So they would take out those bees as well. And
00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:22.820
so this is helping to keep the hive healthy.
00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:25.200
And I'm not sure that all the bees do all of
00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:29.399
the tasks. The way that they can tell a lot of
00:11:29.399 --> 00:11:31.860
this information is they'll mark the bees with
00:11:31.860 --> 00:11:34.559
little stickers different color codes numbers
00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:37.259
letters and have them in observation hives where
00:11:37.259 --> 00:11:39.019
they're watching you know what's going on in
00:11:39.019 --> 00:11:41.820
the life of these bees and taking notes on okay
00:11:41.820 --> 00:11:45.460
we saw number 48a uh you know taking a dead bee
00:11:45.460 --> 00:11:47.919
out and things like that and so i'm not sure
00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:49.840
that someone's watched every you know bee in
00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:51.960
a hive for their entire lifespan to make sure
00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:54.240
that this happens regularly but there is a lot
00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:57.279
of flexibility so if at one point they need more
00:11:57.279 --> 00:11:59.559
foragers They could, you know, bring some of
00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:03.200
the guard bees faster. Or if, you know, they
00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:05.279
need more guards, some of the foragers may stay
00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:08.100
behind and guard. So much flexibility in the
00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:10.419
bee colony. Here's what I don't get and part
00:12:10.419 --> 00:12:13.860
of what really, really fascinates me. How do
00:12:13.860 --> 00:12:16.879
they make the decision on who's going to do what?
00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:19.659
Now, you would think that would be the queen's
00:12:19.659 --> 00:12:22.379
job. We know that's not realistic. Right. Is
00:12:22.379 --> 00:12:26.470
it just do they somehow instinctively know there's
00:12:26.470 --> 00:12:29.370
a need there, I'm gonna go do it. Or is there
00:12:29.370 --> 00:12:32.149
some boss in charge that's saying, you do that,
00:12:32.169 --> 00:12:34.710
you do that, you do that? Well, a lot of it is
00:12:34.710 --> 00:12:36.750
very pheromone controlled. They're getting a
00:12:36.750 --> 00:12:40.690
lot of their input through smells. So when nurse
00:12:40.690 --> 00:12:43.889
bees are looking for which bees to feed, they're
00:12:43.889 --> 00:12:47.210
smelling which bees are hungriest. When the guard
00:12:47.210 --> 00:12:48.970
bees are trying to see who they need to defend
00:12:48.970 --> 00:12:51.549
against, they're smelling for alarm pheromone.
00:12:52.470 --> 00:12:55.080
Queens... produce queen pheromone and this goes
00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:58.480
through the entire hive because bees pass nectar
00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:01.279
from each other and along with that they're also
00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:04.200
passing pheromones so if you have a very big
00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:07.179
hive that queen pheromone might not get around
00:13:07.179 --> 00:13:10.259
to all of the bees but it does a pretty good
00:13:10.259 --> 00:13:12.299
job because the way they pass the food along
00:13:12.299 --> 00:13:15.360
so I think pheromones is one of the key things.
00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:17.320
It could be instincts, but this is one of the
00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:19.000
great mysteries of life, you know, that we're
00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.519
all trying to learn. How do the bees know what
00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:24.539
they're doing and making decisions? And I think
00:13:24.539 --> 00:13:26.620
a lot of it is they're just walking around looking
00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:29.080
for what needs to be done or sensing what needs
00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:31.919
to be done and jumping in and doing it. It's
00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:34.399
one of the things I love about honey bees is
00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:38.509
we don't know at all. We just see them. make
00:13:38.509 --> 00:13:42.250
amazing decisions, work as this perfect community
00:13:42.250 --> 00:13:46.529
somehow. And we're like, as people, we haven't
00:13:46.529 --> 00:13:49.210
figured out how to do that yet. Not even close.
00:13:49.350 --> 00:13:51.750
Our government's all screwed up. Our elections
00:13:51.750 --> 00:13:55.950
are messed up and stuff. And they somehow figured
00:13:55.950 --> 00:13:59.299
out, although... It's really good, but it's not
00:13:59.299 --> 00:14:02.240
perfect. Let's talk about swarming for a second.
00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:05.320
I've read a bunch of Tom Seeley stuff, including
00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:07.500
Honey Bee Democracy. I've had him on the show.
00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:10.960
We've got a couple episodes with him. He's fantastic
00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:15.940
and just the nicest gentleman. I really like
00:14:15.940 --> 00:14:18.580
him a lot. But there still are a few missing
00:14:18.580 --> 00:14:21.700
pieces. That's one of the exciting things for
00:14:21.700 --> 00:14:25.039
me too is constantly learning whether it's techniques
00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:27.659
in beekeeping or our new equipment coming out
00:14:27.659 --> 00:14:30.740
that we're learning how to use or Older equipment
00:14:30.740 --> 00:14:33.679
we're finding out about you know that that is
00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:36.779
coming out again Nectar sources for bees because
00:14:36.779 --> 00:14:38.639
you when you get into beekeeping you start to
00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:40.879
become a miner in botany because you're learning
00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:44.720
What flowers are nearby when the blooms are but
00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:46.259
yeah, there's there's so much to learn. It's
00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:50.039
amazing swarming. It's a is really interesting
00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:54.100
was the bee's natural instinct as a colony. So
00:14:54.100 --> 00:14:56.679
one of the things Jamie was teaching us, you
00:14:56.679 --> 00:14:58.440
know, when I was a graduate student was you can
00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:01.940
also think of the honeybee colony on the individual
00:15:01.940 --> 00:15:03.860
level, each worker, you know, going and doing
00:15:03.860 --> 00:15:05.960
its individual thing. But if you look at the
00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:09.220
hive itself, you can think of it as a super organism.
00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:12.250
This hive is... has its own circulatory system,
00:15:12.470 --> 00:15:16.049
its own nervous system and its own immune system.
00:15:16.110 --> 00:15:18.789
It's defending against pathogens coming in almost
00:15:18.789 --> 00:15:21.970
on an individual level, individual organism level.
00:15:22.289 --> 00:15:24.950
Also has its reproductive system and swarming
00:15:24.950 --> 00:15:27.809
is kind of the reproductive system of the hive.
00:15:27.970 --> 00:15:30.450
They want to get their goal is to get as big
00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:33.769
as they can and then reproduce. So they send
00:15:33.769 --> 00:15:36.070
half their colony out somewhere else. And somehow
00:15:36.070 --> 00:15:39.220
they know when it's time to do that. They know
00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:42.080
how to get the queen prepared. Yes. Will you
00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:44.740
tell us some of the things, some of what they
00:15:44.740 --> 00:15:47.440
do to get the queen prepared? They of course
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.820
have to start making the next queen, the next
00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:51.600
generation. So they pick out the worker that
00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:53.740
this, you know, the egg that they're going to
00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:56.039
turn into queen. They make some queen cells in
00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:58.320
preparation for the swarm. And then they'll chase
00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:01.360
the queen around and stop feeding her as much.
00:16:01.500 --> 00:16:04.279
The queen doesn't really feed. From the the honey
00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:07.340
or pollen, I guess on her own She actually needs
00:16:07.340 --> 00:16:10.279
the attendant bees to follow her around and feed
00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:12.919
her and groom her and so they kind of put her
00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:15.620
on a diet stop feeding her so much and keep her
00:16:15.620 --> 00:16:18.320
moving so that she loses some weight and is ready
00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.460
to fly and Yeah, it kind of stops that egg production
00:16:21.460 --> 00:16:24.080
for a little while, but it is fascinating. Yeah,
00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.500
it's hilarious Okay, let's talk about drones
00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:30.759
for a second And I just read something and and
00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:34.340
we may talk about it earlier about how drones
00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:38.460
can't feed themselves. Tell me how that works.
00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:43.399
Who feeds them, why, when? Right, so the worker
00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:47.200
bees will feed the drones and the drones are
00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:49.679
voracious eaters. They're constantly hungry too,
00:16:49.799 --> 00:16:52.460
but they're not really contributing much to the
00:16:52.460 --> 00:16:55.259
food stores. They're not foraging at all. Zero?
00:16:55.500 --> 00:16:59.419
Zero. Okay, not much, it's zero. Zero, it's actually
00:16:59.419 --> 00:17:01.500
probably negative because of how much they eat
00:17:01.500 --> 00:17:05.039
too. It may seem early, but right now is a great
00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:08.799
time to order your live bees for 2026 because
00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:12.059
they do sell out and because Man Lake is offering
00:17:12.059 --> 00:17:16.000
a discount for B -Luv podcast listeners. Wait,
00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:18.880
what? I know you're saying live bees, they never
00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:22.519
go on sale. Well, they are now. Click on over
00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:26.250
to Man Lake, order your bees any variety. nukes
00:17:26.250 --> 00:17:29.630
or packages, and anything in the beginner essentials
00:17:29.630 --> 00:17:32.910
category. And when you check out, use the code
00:17:32.910 --> 00:17:35.789
GETSTARTEDINBEEZ, it's down in the show notes
00:17:35.789 --> 00:17:38.230
so you don't have to remember, for a discount
00:17:38.230 --> 00:17:41.930
on everything. So get your orders in early and
00:17:41.930 --> 00:17:45.970
save. But the drones aren't very important because
00:17:45.970 --> 00:17:49.829
if the colony dies, if we lose the queen, what
00:17:49.829 --> 00:17:53.470
happens is the workers are now able to lay eggs.
00:17:53.950 --> 00:17:57.059
But they're laying unfertilized eggs because
00:17:57.059 --> 00:17:59.440
they never mated. So those unfertilized eggs
00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:02.420
will become drones. Those drones will end up
00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:04.880
flying out. And even if that hive crashes and
00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:06.640
totally dies, they were not able to make a new
00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:09.480
queen. The genetics from that hive are carried
00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:11.839
on by those drones to other hives in the county.
00:18:12.619 --> 00:18:15.099
So yeah, it is still the survival of the fittest
00:18:15.099 --> 00:18:17.140
and the mating really carries on those genes.
00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:20.000
I call drones the teenage boys living in the
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:22.240
basement. Yeah, it is. It is very similar. Yep.
00:18:22.420 --> 00:18:25.819
They don't produce anything. Right. All they
00:18:25.819 --> 00:18:29.359
want to do is go out and mate. And when they
00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:32.779
do, they just die. And if they don't mate, they
00:18:32.779 --> 00:18:36.059
also die. Right. So they either go out with a
00:18:36.059 --> 00:18:41.440
bag or not so much, fizzle out. That is a crazy
00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.359
thing. You mentioned new equipment a minute ago.
00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:46.779
Tell me, I don't know how much you've walked
00:18:46.779 --> 00:18:49.220
around this expo yet, but what are some of the
00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:51.599
new things that you've seen over the last even
00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:54.240
a couple of years? to get you excited. Sure.
00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:57.740
So actually, I was working, teaching folks in
00:18:57.740 --> 00:19:01.079
the Bay Area. I'm in Silicon Valley in California.
00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:04.200
And so I was just working with a nonprofit. We
00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:07.539
had sponsors like Google and Genentech. And so
00:19:07.539 --> 00:19:09.579
some of these high tech companies would have
00:19:09.579 --> 00:19:12.240
us come in and they would have their own hives
00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.960
on campus. And so the employees wanted to learn
00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:17.400
more and more about beekeeping. and one of them
00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:20.440
had asked if we could do a presentation on innovations
00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:23.380
in beekeeping. Some of the new innovations that
00:19:23.380 --> 00:19:26.759
I came across while doing research on this was
00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:28.740
Primal Bee, which is the company that I'm now
00:19:28.740 --> 00:19:30.400
with, and I could talk a little bit about that.
00:19:30.660 --> 00:19:33.460
BeeWise is another I've worked with them, and
00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:36.799
so I'll kind of scale into each of them a little
00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:39.680
bit more in detail, but there's a lot of new
00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:41.859
sensors that are going into hives, like Broodminder,
00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:45.380
which is looking at... the temperature and humidity
00:19:45.380 --> 00:19:47.500
inside of hives, the number of bees coming in
00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:49.819
and out. We're just learning so much with the
00:19:49.819 --> 00:19:53.559
internet of things. The BeeWise is a large box
00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:56.480
that has multiple hives inside of it that uses
00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:59.920
AI and robotics to lift frames up, take pictures
00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:01.839
of what's going on inside the hive, identify
00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:04.299
the queen, look for pathogens, and that's a pretty
00:20:04.299 --> 00:20:06.759
exciting, interesting thing. I've had them on
00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:09.480
the show, by the way. So if somebody wants to
00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:12.099
hear a whole episode with them, we'll try to
00:20:12.099 --> 00:20:14.819
remember to stick it in the show notes. So you
00:20:14.819 --> 00:20:17.160
can go back a little ways and see it was fascinating.
00:20:17.220 --> 00:20:19.259
I've met the founder going into those hives and
00:20:19.259 --> 00:20:20.819
check them out. And they're amazing. Did some
00:20:20.819 --> 00:20:23.079
work with them. I'm working with Primal B right
00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:25.839
now, and that's a thermodynamic hive. I'm looking
00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.380
at the insulation and the brood space. It has
00:20:29.380 --> 00:20:31.900
a triple deep frame in the bottom. So we're getting
00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:34.519
really large populations. And I think it's an
00:20:34.519 --> 00:20:37.170
incredible innovation. You've also had Primal
00:20:37.170 --> 00:20:40.049
B on the show. We've had Alex on the show all
00:20:40.049 --> 00:20:43.750
the way from Italy. He was awesome and so fun
00:20:43.750 --> 00:20:47.529
and actually one of our largest audiences. People
00:20:47.529 --> 00:20:51.329
loved Alex. Alex is great and the whole team
00:20:51.329 --> 00:20:53.490
is really great with Primal B. They're coming
00:20:53.490 --> 00:20:56.089
out with some amazing things and folks should
00:20:56.089 --> 00:20:57.869
definitely check that out. And I'm trying one
00:20:57.869 --> 00:21:01.549
of those hives myself right now. I think it's
00:21:01.549 --> 00:21:04.069
fascinating. I can't wait to see how the bees
00:21:04.069 --> 00:21:08.789
over winter and over summer. Yeah. Because a
00:21:08.789 --> 00:21:11.549
lot of insulation has got to make it easier on
00:21:11.549 --> 00:21:14.950
the bees also when it's hot. They're not expending
00:21:14.950 --> 00:21:18.170
as much energy trying to cool everything. Yeah.
00:21:18.289 --> 00:21:20.430
Yeah. I'm in California, so it's pretty mild
00:21:20.430 --> 00:21:21.990
there. We don't have to worry about snow where
00:21:21.990 --> 00:21:25.710
I'm at. We might get frost or freeze. But I do
00:21:25.710 --> 00:21:27.670
have a primal beehive right outside my kitchen
00:21:27.670 --> 00:21:31.089
and I have a Langstroth wooden hive right next
00:21:31.089 --> 00:21:32.970
to it and I keep an eye on both of them. I also
00:21:32.970 --> 00:21:36.150
have a tap bar hive and a few other styles. But
00:21:36.150 --> 00:21:38.470
my primal beehive I noticed in the heat wave
00:21:38.470 --> 00:21:43.460
when we had 104, 105 degree. days for a week
00:21:43.460 --> 00:21:46.720
or two at a time, my Langstroth, wooden hive
00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:49.579
out front, would all the bees we had outside
00:21:49.579 --> 00:21:52.559
try to ventilate and keep it cool and bearding
00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:55.039
up on the outside of the hive. Whereas the primal
00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:57.940
bee hive, it was still active, but they weren't
00:21:57.940 --> 00:21:59.859
hanging out on the front of the hive. They were
00:21:59.859 --> 00:22:02.720
comfortable inside. They got out earlier in the
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:04.720
morning. They came back later at night because
00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:06.700
they didn't have to worry about keeping a lot
00:22:06.700 --> 00:22:09.880
of bees in or out in order to keep the hive.
00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:12.460
at a comfortable temperature inside for the brood.
00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:15.660
Tell me about thermodynamics. And one of the
00:22:15.660 --> 00:22:18.700
big questions that I have, because I get differing
00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:21.079
opinions all the time. Welcome to beekeeping.
00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:24.960
Right. For example, in winter, do I need to get
00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:30.279
my hive as closed up as possible and have an
00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:32.799
entrance reducer where they can only get in something
00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:37.400
this big so that it's really warm, but also realizing
00:22:38.169 --> 00:22:40.269
What's going to happen? Moisture is going to
00:22:40.269 --> 00:22:43.269
build up inside. And so I worry about that. Right.
00:22:43.349 --> 00:22:45.569
Sure. And then there's other people that tell
00:22:45.569 --> 00:22:48.529
me, no, air circulation is really important.
00:22:48.829 --> 00:22:51.730
You can get too much moisture. Sure. Tell me
00:22:51.730 --> 00:22:54.650
what the heck you know about this. OK. So I'm
00:22:54.650 --> 00:22:56.589
also I don't have all the answers, but I'm still
00:22:56.589 --> 00:22:58.509
learning along the way what I've learned so far
00:22:58.509 --> 00:23:02.029
that that makes a lot of sense to me. The condensation.
00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:05.200
will run down the sides of the walls a lot of
00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:07.599
times. These actually need a lot of water also
00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:10.240
during the wintertime, right? And it may be less
00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:12.279
accessible to them because they're not leaving
00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:14.519
the hive to go look for water if it's too cold
00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:17.019
outside. So they'll actually go to the side walls
00:23:17.019 --> 00:23:19.279
and pull some of that moisture off of the side
00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:21.940
walls. So it is important to have some condensation
00:23:21.940 --> 00:23:24.500
inside the hive so that your bees can stay hydrated.
00:23:24.759 --> 00:23:27.549
There's also On the primal beehive there's a
00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:29.750
screen bottom board and there's a head space
00:23:29.750 --> 00:23:31.950
of about four inches or so between the bottom
00:23:31.950 --> 00:23:34.930
board and the bottom of the first frame and this
00:23:34.930 --> 00:23:36.970
air and the way that the shape of the inside
00:23:36.970 --> 00:23:39.470
of the hive is is designed really for the you
00:23:39.470 --> 00:23:42.089
know keep the perfect humidity perfect temperature
00:23:42.089 --> 00:23:44.750
in there for the brood so the queen has a great
00:23:44.750 --> 00:23:47.349
nursery and you know the incubation is perfect
00:23:47.349 --> 00:23:50.490
for the bees. You could also wrap a hive with
00:23:50.490 --> 00:23:52.869
insulation but it's going to be very difficult
00:23:52.869 --> 00:23:56.390
to get the same level of thermal efficiency with
00:23:56.390 --> 00:23:58.309
a jacket around the hive and different things
00:23:58.309 --> 00:24:00.490
like that. The material that we're working with
00:24:00.490 --> 00:24:04.769
is EPS and it's at 80 % density and very strong
00:24:04.769 --> 00:24:07.470
and it's made specifically for this purpose for
00:24:07.470 --> 00:24:10.660
insulation. I'm just of the attitude of let's
00:24:10.660 --> 00:24:13.599
look at bees where they came from. When they
00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:15.700
live in the wild, and I'm talking honey bees
00:24:15.700 --> 00:24:18.000
still, not native bees, because some of them
00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:20.420
nest in the ground and things like that. But
00:24:20.420 --> 00:24:23.539
your honey bees, they seek out hollow trees.
00:24:23.859 --> 00:24:25.980
This isn't just a Winnie the Pooh thing. Right.
00:24:26.339 --> 00:24:29.059
They seek out hollow trees. In fact, Dr. Tom
00:24:29.059 --> 00:24:31.539
Seeley was telling me about when he was doing
00:24:31.539 --> 00:24:34.839
some of his study, he actually cut down trees.
00:24:35.099 --> 00:24:38.839
and then cut them open to see exactly how the
00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:41.980
bees were working inside. Yes. And I think as
00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:44.799
close to that natural environment as we can get,
00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:48.519
the better. True. That's nature. Yes. That's
00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:52.420
how they like it. I agree. Yeah. I have a feeling
00:24:52.420 --> 00:24:56.720
that the boxes that we came up with over 150
00:24:56.720 --> 00:24:59.400
years ago, and I'm not slamming on anything,
00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:03.319
it's very old technology, but is that the preferred
00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:05.819
place for a bee? or is it something more like
00:25:05.819 --> 00:25:08.920
inside a tree? And if it's more like inside a
00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:11.380
tree, what can we do to make whatever kind of
00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:13.859
bee setup we have a little bit more like that?
00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:16.539
Right. So when you just look at what the trees
00:25:16.539 --> 00:25:19.299
are and the same thing with even cutouts, we
00:25:19.299 --> 00:25:22.500
can look at what bees prefer to go to when they
00:25:22.500 --> 00:25:25.079
swarm. Sometimes they'll end up in the wall of
00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:27.519
someone's house. So we can look at what the bees
00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:30.839
are looking for, whether it's in. natural materials
00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:33.619
or artificial materials. Some bees also go into
00:25:33.619 --> 00:25:35.900
caves or underground, you know, things like that.
00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:38.700
I had a friend, Anthony Baldo, who went from
00:25:38.700 --> 00:25:40.440
University of Florida that actually went and
00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:42.500
studied with Tom Seeley for a bit before he went
00:25:42.500 --> 00:25:45.400
to Africa to see. what different bees were doing
00:25:45.400 --> 00:25:48.559
there. Some were cave nesters and some were in
00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:52.700
trees. It seems they want a large space in order
00:25:52.700 --> 00:25:55.599
to start making their comb. They want to have
00:25:55.599 --> 00:25:58.619
a very small defendable entrance where they're
00:25:58.619 --> 00:26:02.799
keeping robbers from coming in or pests or thieves
00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:04.559
from coming in and stealing the honey. Yeah,
00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:06.380
they want to be able to control the environment
00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:09.319
inside their hive so they're able to ventilate
00:26:09.319 --> 00:26:12.809
and take care of everything inside. I think the
00:26:12.809 --> 00:26:15.029
primal beehive for me was the first that I saw
00:26:15.029 --> 00:26:17.630
that really kind of captured that pretty well
00:26:17.630 --> 00:26:20.890
with artificial materials and had the ventilation,
00:26:21.309 --> 00:26:23.910
has the small entrances, has the large volume
00:26:23.910 --> 00:26:26.470
for the bees to build as much as they want. When
00:26:26.470 --> 00:26:28.630
we look at a cutout, you know, it's from a wall
00:26:28.630 --> 00:26:31.349
that bees have moved into someone's house, a
00:26:31.349 --> 00:26:33.170
lot of times they'll use as much space as they
00:26:33.170 --> 00:26:36.089
possibly can. to have continuous brood so the
00:26:36.089 --> 00:26:38.609
queen doesn't have to jump over one frame and
00:26:38.609 --> 00:26:41.109
onto another she just has lots and lots of space
00:26:41.109 --> 00:26:44.150
to lay eggs and the nurse bees no obstacles for
00:26:44.150 --> 00:26:46.009
them to get around to be able to make sure all
00:26:46.009 --> 00:26:48.069
the bees are fed yeah it does a great job at
00:26:48.069 --> 00:26:51.069
that we have so many options yeah as beekeepers
00:26:51.069 --> 00:26:53.970
you do and i love experimenting yes some people
00:26:53.970 --> 00:26:56.450
just want just tell me how to do it and i'm just
00:26:56.450 --> 00:26:58.549
going to go do it and make some honey right and
00:26:58.549 --> 00:27:00.849
that's awesome yeah if that's what you're into
00:27:00.849 --> 00:27:03.869
that's awesome I like to try this new stuff.
00:27:04.349 --> 00:27:06.869
I haven't used top bar hives yet. I hear they're
00:27:06.869 --> 00:27:09.630
pretty difficult in our cold climate. But that's
00:27:09.630 --> 00:27:12.369
another thing that I want to do. Yeah. And and
00:27:12.369 --> 00:27:15.269
that's fun. And how to do it and experiment around.
00:27:15.269 --> 00:27:18.849
So before I let you go, Jason or Dr. Jay, sorry.
00:27:20.940 --> 00:27:23.619
I want to hear a wild and crazy beekeeping story.
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:26.279
You've been around all kinds of things. What
00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:29.579
do you got or more than one? Yeah, sure. So I
00:27:29.579 --> 00:27:31.920
actually I really got into native bees as well.
00:27:31.940 --> 00:27:35.180
I can speak to that for a minute. So I. was in
00:27:35.180 --> 00:27:37.880
Dr. Ellis's lab, Jamie Ellis, University of Florida,
00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:41.680
and it's a honeybee program. It's funded by both
00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:44.279
the state, you know, for honeybee research and
00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:47.519
by beekeepers putting money into beekeeping research.
00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:50.700
And I loved the beekeeping aspect of it. I still
00:27:50.700 --> 00:27:53.059
do, you know, continue beekeeping. But I also
00:27:53.059 --> 00:27:54.980
was really interested in the diversity of bees.
00:27:55.319 --> 00:27:57.440
There's 20 ,000 different species of bees in
00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:00.819
the world. 20 ,000, you know, and the honeybee,
00:28:01.059 --> 00:28:04.089
Apis mellifera. is just one of them. There's
00:28:04.089 --> 00:28:06.250
a couple different apis species, but there's
00:28:06.250 --> 00:28:08.490
so many more. So I wanted to learn more about
00:28:08.490 --> 00:28:11.470
bumblebees. And Jamie was very kind in letting
00:28:11.470 --> 00:28:14.289
me also explore these other bees as well, as
00:28:14.289 --> 00:28:16.630
long as I also tied it into honeybees in some
00:28:16.630 --> 00:28:19.450
way. So I looked at bumblebees and I was interested
00:28:19.450 --> 00:28:22.089
in if small hive beetles went into bumblebee
00:28:22.089 --> 00:28:24.970
colonies. And if so, those small hive beetles
00:28:24.970 --> 00:28:26.970
could be reproducing in bumblebee colonies and
00:28:26.970 --> 00:28:28.430
we could do everything we could to keep them
00:28:28.430 --> 00:28:30.309
out of honeybees, but they would come from the
00:28:30.309 --> 00:28:33.259
bumblebees back into the honeybee colonies. So
00:28:33.259 --> 00:28:35.319
I really wanted to see if small hive beetles
00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:38.519
could live in bumblebee colonies. And so I would
00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:41.640
go out and put some stuff up on Craig's list,
00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:44.160
you know, back in the day. And I said, if anybody
00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:45.880
sees a bumblebee colony in your back yard, let
00:28:45.880 --> 00:28:47.859
me know and I'll come and remove it so that I
00:28:47.859 --> 00:28:50.440
can look into it to see if there's any small
00:28:50.440 --> 00:28:52.480
hive beetles. I got some commercial bumblebee
00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:56.380
colonies and I put them out on blueberries for
00:28:56.380 --> 00:28:58.259
a season. And then I open them up to see if there
00:28:58.259 --> 00:29:00.779
are small hive beetles in them and to open them.
00:29:00.990 --> 00:29:03.690
I was actually working with the USDA. We had
00:29:03.690 --> 00:29:06.829
a lab inside the USDA building, and I brought
00:29:06.829 --> 00:29:10.430
aquatic bumblebees into the USDA building. And
00:29:10.430 --> 00:29:13.069
for those that don't know, honeybee workers are
00:29:13.069 --> 00:29:15.190
the only ones that have a sting that after they
00:29:15.190 --> 00:29:17.210
sting you once, they're done, right? They try
00:29:17.210 --> 00:29:19.470
to fly away, their stinger gets stuck in your
00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:22.130
skin, and they die. Well, not the case with bumblebees.
00:29:22.190 --> 00:29:24.630
They can sting you. as many times as they want
00:29:24.630 --> 00:29:27.069
they can you know put the stinger in move somewhere
00:29:27.069 --> 00:29:30.369
else put stinger in so anyway i had the bumblebees
00:29:30.369 --> 00:29:32.710
open in a lab and i had a piece of paper on the
00:29:32.710 --> 00:29:35.450
door that said you know bumblebees live bumblebees
00:29:35.450 --> 00:29:38.069
inside you know please don't open the door and
00:29:38.069 --> 00:29:40.990
I was opening four or five colonies. I was collecting
00:29:40.990 --> 00:29:43.730
all the bumblebees into one jar, all their pollen
00:29:43.730 --> 00:29:45.650
into another jar, all their honey into another
00:29:45.650 --> 00:29:48.130
jar, so I could test that and looking for small
00:29:48.130 --> 00:29:50.890
high beetles all the way along. And a couple
00:29:50.890 --> 00:29:53.589
bumblebees got into my bee suit inside this lab.
00:29:53.710 --> 00:29:56.529
They're loose. I got 20, 30 bumblebees flying
00:29:56.529 --> 00:29:59.069
around in the lab, trying to catch them with
00:29:59.069 --> 00:30:02.920
butterfly net and forceps. Love it. Love it couple
00:30:02.920 --> 00:30:04.779
getting inside my suit and I learned that lesson
00:30:04.779 --> 00:30:06.940
really You know quick that they can sting as
00:30:06.940 --> 00:30:09.539
many times as they want and yeah It was it was
00:30:09.539 --> 00:30:11.559
painful a different kind of painful that honeybee
00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:13.880
stings in what way? How does it feel different?
00:30:14.140 --> 00:30:17.180
Guess honeybee felt more like a burn honeybee
00:30:17.180 --> 00:30:19.140
sting kind of feels like a match burn or something
00:30:19.140 --> 00:30:22.160
like that This was it was almost more like a
00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:25.279
sharp poke and then yeah like fire under your
00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:28.259
skin But it didn't go away quite as quickly as
00:30:28.259 --> 00:30:30.359
as honey bees did and I had a different feel
00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:32.420
There's different chemistry there. So I'm sure
00:30:32.420 --> 00:30:34.400
my body was fighting different types of chemicals
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:38.160
and it was doing different things But yeah, it
00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:40.519
was it's interesting. They they also have an
00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:43.160
alarm pheromone bumblebees. So, you know, they
00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:45.339
would have a different smell to them than honey
00:30:45.339 --> 00:30:48.339
bees did. All right, if you could leave one tip
00:30:48.339 --> 00:30:51.039
or one piece of advice for everybody before we
00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:53.900
sign off. And I know that's hard to come up with
00:30:53.900 --> 00:30:56.619
just one, but what would that be? I think one
00:30:56.619 --> 00:30:59.160
recommendation is to get to know the other bees
00:30:59.160 --> 00:31:02.500
in your area as well, and also the flowers, the
00:31:02.500 --> 00:31:04.900
flower sources that your bees have. Not everyone
00:31:04.900 --> 00:31:07.339
gets interested in the flowers and things like
00:31:07.339 --> 00:31:09.799
that, but there's an app that's very helpful.
00:31:10.019 --> 00:31:12.680
So I've used field guides in the past to be able
00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:14.680
to tell what flower is which and when's it blooming
00:31:14.680 --> 00:31:16.660
and things like that. But there's an app called
00:31:16.660 --> 00:31:19.700
iNaturalist that's made by National Geographic
00:31:19.700 --> 00:31:21.660
and California Academy of Science. It's a free
00:31:21.660 --> 00:31:23.839
app. You can take a picture of any living thing.
00:31:24.029 --> 00:31:29.450
bees or flowers or fish or birds and it'll identify
00:31:29.450 --> 00:31:32.750
it for you and link off to a wikipedia type page
00:31:32.750 --> 00:31:35.130
that tells you their life cycle and all kinds
00:31:35.130 --> 00:31:37.609
of information about it so i use that a lot of
00:31:37.609 --> 00:31:39.349
times if i'm trying to figure out what honeybees
00:31:39.349 --> 00:31:42.410
are on different flowers in my yard i also use
00:31:42.410 --> 00:31:44.450
it for citizen science to figure out what the
00:31:44.450 --> 00:31:47.329
diversity of bees are in different areas so that's
00:31:47.329 --> 00:31:49.730
a great great tool and so i'd recommend that
00:31:49.730 --> 00:31:52.049
to folks it's one that i've enjoyed along the
00:31:52.049 --> 00:31:54.670
way All right, thanks a lot, Dr. J. I appreciate
00:31:54.670 --> 00:32:00.029
your time. Yeah, thank you. Thanks again for
00:32:00.029 --> 00:32:02.710
joining us on Bee Love Beekeeping presented by
00:32:02.710 --> 00:32:05.009
our great friends over at Man Lake. Hey, and
00:32:05.009 --> 00:32:07.500
don't forget to order your bees. and a shout
00:32:07.500 --> 00:32:10.500
out to Vita B Health for their support. Vita's
00:32:10.500 --> 00:32:13.160
Varroa Control Ranger products includes Epistan,
00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:17.680
Epigard, and now Varroxan Extended Release Oxalic
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:21.559
Acid Strips. Thank you so much guys. If you haven't
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:24.680
yet, please subscribe and follow the show, tell
00:32:24.680 --> 00:32:27.599
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00:32:31.339 --> 00:32:34.319
have a guest suggestion or topic that you'd like
00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:39.950
discussed on the show, shoot me an And remember,
00:32:40.329 --> 00:32:42.509
if you're not just in it for the honey or the
00:32:42.509 --> 00:32:45.029
money, you're in it for the love. See you next
00:32:45.029 --> 00:32:45.369
week.
