Beekeeping Podcast Hyve Time™: Bee expert interviews and beekeeping news, tips, & discussions. (Mike James)

I sit down with Emily Pedzinski, a YouTube™ beekeeper blazing her path in her beekeeping business. Emily joins to discuss her YouTube™ channel and how she is using Discord to help reach her audience and grow her beekeeping business as it evolves into different beekeeping strategies as well as how she hopes to grow her business.  

Emily's Links- 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjwvWim46dlNGsgwqmu1HMA 

https://discord.gg/6SCzY7JZ 

Follow Mike- 

https://twitter.com/solarwoof13

I sit down with Dr. Kaira Wagoner who has discovered a new, simpler, and more effective way to detect honey bee colonies that express varroa hygienic behavior through the detection of unhealthy brood via odors produced by the brood. This discovery will help the industry with her new business detect and identify much more easily and with higher precision, which colonies may manage diseases and pests like the varroa mite extremely effectively.   Her process involves spraying compounds that have been synthetically processed to mimic the scents injured brood emit when attacked by mites and other pests and diseases. The hygienic colonies then open each cell up by chewing the capping off and within 2 hours you as a beekeeper will have an identifiable score for each colony.  

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Links: 

Contact Dr. Wagoner- email: opterallp@gmail.com 

Research Paper- https://www.hyperhyve.com/dr-kaira-wagoner-ubo-essay-hygienic-bees

Support the show @ Patreon: Mike James- https://www.patreon.com/solarwoof13

Citizen Scientist Kit- https://amzn.to/3Q4hU2u

Our very first interview podcast episode with Dr. Erica Shelley at Best for Bees™. Dr. Shelley is the inventor of ProtectaBee™, which is a hive entrance for honey bees on a standard 10 frame langstroth hive. We discuss her experience in beekeeping and the research projects that led her to inventing the ProtectaBee™ which is now available on Indiegogo™.  

Resources- 

• Dr. Erica Shelley- Linkedin 
• Best for Bees™- Website 
• ProtectaBee™- Indiegogo campaign 
• Mike James- Twitter 
• Hyper Hyve- Website 
• Podcast Forum 
• Secret Indiegogo Perk for our fans only- https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/protectabee-all-in-one-adjustable-hive-entrance?secret_perk_token=b5c10c3f#/

Episode 003: Springtime apiary setup and cleanup

I am a week behind on getting this episode out, but for good reason. In this episode, we talk through the steps and best practices for your spring apiary setup or maintenance of it. 

What we discuss:

1. Assess your hives
2. Inspecting your hives
3. Clean out your hives that did not survive
4. Feed your surviving hives
5. Setup your new hives
6. Remove winter gear
7. Installing your new bees
8. Put a plan together for managing future swarming

Resources- 

Instagram photo of the hives with legs- Instagram (follow while you're there)

Youtube Channel- Hyper Hyve

This is the launch episode of Hyve Time, I discuss the podcast's strategy as well as what influenced me to start a beekeeping/ business podcast in the first place. Especially after having no interviewing skills, but after being an entrepreneur since 2006 (Almost 26 years now), if you never try something new, you'll continue to be your old self.

The launch is in tandem with my new business Hyper Hyve, hence the funny spelling of the show, and we will be doing a bit of a build in the public throughout these shows, and talking to other business people within and outside of the beekeeping business. So take a listen (this one's only 5 min long) and hit that subscribe button for weekly show's.

You can follow me @

• Twitter- SolarWoof13
• Hyper Hyve Website
• Kinnickinnic Bees Website
• Patreon- Donate

On today's episode, I sit down with Brian Spiesman, a community and landscape ecologist at the University of Kansas, who is broadly interested in how environmental change affects the diversity and function of ecological communities. He has a focus on understanding how land cover change affects communities of plants and their pollinators. The goal of his research is to wrangle knowledge of complex systems for the effective conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Brian also helped create the Bee Machine™, an application for identifying bumble bee species using machine learning. We discuss the Bee Machine and what it does, how it was developed, how it works, and the future of the application. We also discuss the relationship between habitat and the web of species that rely on each other for survival.

Links to Brian's work and SM accounts-

Brians Twitter- https://twitter.com/BrianSpiesman

Brian's Website- https://spiesmanecology.com/

Bee Machine Twitter- https://twitter.com/BeeMachineAI

Bee Machine Website- https://beemachine.ai/

Sponsor- Kinnickinnic Bees

If you are looking for package bees or nucs, Kinnickinnic Bees has you covered check it out at -https://www.kinnibees.com/order-honey-bees

Hyve Time™ Podcast Episode #17  We are back at it with this episode as I sit down with Dr. Heather Grab, an Entomologist from Cornell University in NY. We discuss many different topics, such as, habitat on farms and their interactions with local native bee populations and how honey bees may be competing for resources in limited habitat areas, as well as how honey bees as well as native bees interact with the hemp/ cannabis plant.   

For more information on Dr. Heather Grab- 

heathergrab@cornell.edu 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-grab/

landscape-agroecology.com 

https://cals.cornell.edu/heather-grab 

Check out our sponsor Kinnickinnic Bees  @Kinnickinnic Bees  - 

A place to purchase your hybrid mite-resistant bee packages and nucs www.kinnibees.com/order-honey-bees  

Follow Mike, the host- 

https://twitter.com/solarwoof13 

https://twitter.com/HyperHyve

This week I am joined by Michael Bush, a beekeeper, speaker, and author of "The Practical Beekeeper, Beekeeping Naturally". This is a 2 part podcast episode where we discuss bees, comb design, natural beekeeping, studies, the experience Michael has in beekeeping, and the knowledge around how we as beekeepers can and should get off the chemical treatment "train". 

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From BushFarms.com

Beekeeping Pests

So why are we having problems? We have a lot of recent pests and diseases that have made it to North America (and most other places in the world) in the last 30 years or so. As someone once said, "You can't keep bees like grandpa did cause grandpa's bees are dead." Most of us beekeepers have lost all of our bees one time or another in the last few decades and this seems to be getting worse. So part of the problem for beekeepers is the pests, but there are other issues.

Shallow Gene Pool

We have a narrow gene pool to start with here and between pesticides, pests, and overzealous programs to control Africanized Honey Bees, many of the pockets of feral bees have been depleted leaving only the queens that people buy. When you consider that there are only a handful of queen breeders providing 99% of the queens, that's a pretty small gene pool. This deficiency used to be made up by feral bees and people rearing their own queens. But the recent trend is to encourage everyone to not rear their own queens and only buy them. Especially in AHB (Africanized Honey Bee) areas.

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Show Notes:

Observation Beehive Link

Bush Farms Observation Hive Link

Michael Bush's Books

Today I have Peter Berthelsen a Wildlife Biologist and expert in prairie restoration and pollinators' habitat transformations on all sizes of plots of land as well as large utility-grade solar fields. We discuss many aspects of how the mixes used in new and managed prairie for pollinators matter not only on how the plot is used as well as the expectations of the client and limitations on blends of prairie seed.   

For more information on the show you can check out these links:  

Seed harvest pollinator habitat tip- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbNKFNpfyMw 

Gifts That Grow- https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org/give.html 

Conservation Blueprint Video Pollinator Habitat Tips- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAWj3BMbw5xfW4Y8vtpJfDQ 

Conservation Blueprint Website- http://www.conservationblueprint.com/ 

Conservation Blueprint Facebook Page- https://www.facebook.com/conservationblueprint 

Habitat Establishment & Management Guide- https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org/habitat-guide.html 

Conservation Blueprint Twitter Account- https://twitter.com/ConserBlueprint

We sit down with Peter Berthelsen again to talk about the Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund which is helping people give gifts of pollination projects and free seeds for anyone looking to start a prairie to help benefit butterflies, honey bees, and other native pollinators. If you have a project in mind of over 2 acres this fund will send you FREE seeds. This is a must-listen-to find out how the program works and Peter discusses the benefits of the program as well as some of the other things the fund helps with as it pertains to pollinators.   

Links: 

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 

Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund Website- https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org/ 

Gifts that Grow- https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org/give.html 

Seed a Legacy- https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org/seed-a-legacy-program.html 

Schedule a Webinar- https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org/contact-us.html 

Social Media Links- https://www.facebook.com/BeeAndButterflyFund/ 

Site Prep Herbicide- https://amzn.to/3RgMCqf 

Battery Powered Herbicide Sprayer- https://amzn.to/3OMpmic 

Soybean seeds- https://amzn.to/3NH1R8V

I sat down and interviewed Emily Bondor, owner and operator of Santa Cruz Bee Company where we discuss social media and growing your following as well as beekeeping education and mentoring. We touch on how Emily got started with beekeeping and why she has chosen to manage treatment-free. You can reach out to Emily and Santa Cruz Bee Company by following her and the company on:

Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl3sveaaW4vCGhPdaylTrbA

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/santacruzbeeco/

Company Website- https://www.santacruzbeecompany.com

Don't forget to follow her and the company and if you have a need for mentoring or a group event in the Santa Cruz, CA area reach out. And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsplMNFEZJCXBUmEAK6YQRg and our podcast at- https://www.hyperhyve.com/hyve-time-beekeeping-podcast

Sponsor the Host Mike at- https://www.patreon.com/join/8306560/checkout?ru=undefined

Mikes Twitter- https://twitter.com/solarwoof13

Tools used in recording this podcast- 

Mic- https://amzn.to/3QllVj2

Camera/ Computer- https://amzn.to/3BTTJj4

Mic Boom- https://amzn.to/3PlIHpI

Mike James covers some of the news in the beekeeping world over the past week and if you haven't heard, Australia has its first detection of the Varroa Mite. Also covered is a new discovery on a microbe in the colony that is protecting the honey bee larvae. 

Links on some of the news- 

https://news.iu.edu/stories/2022/06/iub/releases/27-honey-bee-protective-microbe-study.html

https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/biosecurity/seasonal-pests-and-diseases/spring/varroa-mite?fbclid=IwAR0zwEpHCMdBaWQr9OeRoV3zjK81QbfATqkEumtG7En9GGYt3uuisZTKZu4&fs=e&s=cl

Help Mike James continue doing the show by supporting him personally at Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/solarwoof13?fan_landing=true

In this episode, we discuss the tasks of inspecting a beehive and how having a list is a great way to keep track of your hive's performance as well as tasks done and needed in the future. We offer this as a FREE Download (link below) including a quick and easy way to grade each of your beehives.

What we cover this week:

• Scoring your beehive performance 
• The colonies temperament
• Queens laying pattern
• How to find the Queen
• Tracking levels of varroa mites in the hive
• Locating the queen and tracking her
• Are their queen cells- What type? 
• A strong hive population
• What is the hive's condition?
• Type of hive equipment you are using
• Pest and disease management
• Identifying the problem
• Are you using integrated management devices?
• What type of treatments- when were they applied and when were they removed
• Hive tasks and preparation for Spring, Summer (Honey Flow), and Winter
• How is your hive configured?

We also recorded this and have it posted on our youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsplMNFEZJCXBUmEAK6YQRg where we show a couple of examples of inspections and what to look for as well as a follow along, on the form we are offering for free. Check it out and don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and follow us on all the platforms you listen to and watch us on. Thanks!

Youtube Channel- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsplMNFEZJCXBUmEAK6YQRg

FREE Inspection Form- https://www.hyperhyve.com/freedownload

Today we discuss beehive diseases, swarming, and honey supers-

Disease Management- EFB, AFB, Sacbrood, and Varroa. How to test for varroa before adding supers.

Swarming- Why do bees swarm and what is the difference between a supersede cell and a swarm cell.

Honey Supers- No more feeding the bees, top or bottom supering, and troubles associated with new supers and the queen excluders.

We are working on providing more episodes and youtube videos and really need your support by following, subscribing, and sharing our podcasts and videos. If you'd like to show your support to Mike James, you can support him at Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/solarwoof13?fan_landing=true

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Links-

Learn how to bee keep- https://www.beekeepershub.com

AFB testing strips- https://amzn.to/3QBjIAA

EFB testing strips- https://amzn.to/3N2n6S1

Metal Queen excluder- https://amzn.to/39BVupd

Formic Pro Mite Treatments- https://amzn.to/39EQW1i

Mite wash- https://amzn.to/3zORvAo

Stay up to date on the beekeeping world, and today we discuss the latest beekeeping news and talk about a new testing essay called UBO.

Today's news is brought to you by the Hyve Time™ host "Mike James" who discusses some of the top stories from the last week on honey bees, beekeeping, and a weekly tip. Today's tip covers hummingbird feeders.

So, if you want to stay up to date on beekeeping news, don't forget to follow and subscribe to the show. And you can check out our other episodes at https://www.hyperhyve.com/hyve-time-beekeeping-podcast

This episode sponsor is the Beekeepers Hub, where beekeepers can join to belong to local communities, participate in online and live training, as well as get special access to podcast interviews, events, and much more. You can check it out at https://www.beekeepershub.com/

Today we interview Cory Stevens, owner of Stevens Bee Co., out of Bloomfield, MO. Cory started beekeeping the traditional way and quickly discovered the benefits and needs of breeding VSH queen honey bees. His side hustle has him rearing 2,000 VSH queens that he ships out all over the country. We discuss how genetics will replace the need for most chemical treatments and the future of bee genetics role in commercial and backyard beekeeping.  

 Notes or Treatment efficacy: 

Oxalic label dosage- https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/ppls/091266-00001-20151013.pdf 

Oxalic Effective dosage- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00218839.2021.1877447 

Links and Notes: 

Annual colony loss reports- www.beeinformed.org 

John Harbo VSH level rating for measurement- https://www.harbobeeco.com/measure-vsh/ 

Stevens Bee Co: 

Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfeQNytNL-X94MlaaM-03ug

Website- www.stevensbeeco.com

This week I am joined by Michael Bush, a beekeeper, speaker, and author of "The Practical Beekeeper, Beekeeping Naturally". This is a 2 part podcast episode where we discuss bees, comb design, natural beekeeping, studies, the experience Michael has in beekeeping, and the knowledge around how we as beekeepers can and should get off the chemical treatment "train".

_______________________________________________

From BushFarms.com

Beekeeping House of Cards

So beekeepers, with the advice and assistance of the USDA and the universities, have built this precarious system of beekeeping that relies on chemicals, antibiotics, and pesticides to keep it going. And beekeepers keep breeding the resistant pests that can survive the treatments, contaminating the entire wax supply with poisons (and we make our foundation out of that contaminated wax so it is a closed system) and breeding queens that can't survive without all of this treatment.

What can we do to have a sustainable beekeeping system?

Stop treating

The only way to have a sustainable system of beekeeping is to stop treating. Treating is a death spiral that is now collapsing. To leverage this, you need to raise your queens from local surviving bees. Only then can you get bees who genetically can survive and parasites that are in tune with their host. As long as we treat we get weaker bees who can only survive if we treat, and stronger parasites who can only survive if they breed fast enough to keep up with our treatments. No stable relationship can develop until we stop treating.

The other problem, of course, is that if we just stop now with the system of beekeeping we have, the genetically and environmentally weakened bees will usually die. Even if they are genetically capable of surviving in a clean (uncontaminated) environment, we have to get to an environment they can survive in or they will still die. So what is that environment?

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Show Notes:

Hyperthermia Treatment Study1

Hyperthermia Treatment Study2

Hive Type Study1

Hive Type Study2

Bush Farms

Michael Bush's Books