Speaker Requests

Speaker Requests

We are happy to accommodate requests and give talks about honey bees, the Bee Informed Partnership, Sentinel Apiaries, or any of the other topics listed below. Once you identify the speaker or talk you would like to request, please fill out our speaker request form.

Please be aware that the Bee Informed Partnership does not have a budget for covering speaking engagements; therefore we hope that those who invite us can defray travel and accommodations (if required) costs.

We also ask for a suggested donation of $250 to be made to the Bee Informed Partnership for the talk. Your donations help cover our costs and contribute to the research and updates to this website. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

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BIP and the Tech Transfer Team (TTT) Program

The Bee Informed Partnership has 5 regional tech transfer teams providing services and consulting to commercial beekeepers in more than 10 states throughout the country. The TTTs have a unique perspective and a bird’s eye view on the industry. What do they do? How do they do it? And why and how do they make a difference? Any of our Technical Transfer Team Field Specialists and Coordinator can present this topic.

 

Geoffrey Williams presenting at 46th Apimondia

Matt Hoepfinger

Moving into Almonds

(45 minutes) A picture slideshow from a California honey bee broker crew perspective. Moving thousands of hives into almond orchards can be a lot of work. See how commercial beekeepers, big machines and the weather must all come together to get it done. Intended for hobby beekeepers that are interested in seeing what it takes to move 2 million colonies into the almonds each year.

Oxalic Acid

(45 minutes) Not just a fun word to say, oxalic acid is a tool beekeepers may want to consider adding to their toolbox in the battle against Varroa. Understand how oxalic acid works, how it can be applied to colonies and where it might fit into a treatment program. Through examples of oxalic acid uses at all levels, from hobbyists to sideliners to commercial beekeepers, see how you can integrate this practice in your management strategies.

BIP Sentinel Apiary Program

(45 minutes) A personal journey into beekeeping with the Sentinel Apiary Program. Using sentinel data, this presentation aims to demonstrate how and why the program is useful to the beekeeping community.

Ben Sallmann

Honey Bee Hygienic Behavior and Hygienic Testing

Honey bees have been selected and bred to increase hygienic behaviors conferring them resistance (or increased tolerance) toward specific pests and diseases, notably chalkbrood, sacbrood virus and potentially, the pernicious Varroa. The Bee Informed Partnership Tech Transfer Teams have been testing these hygienic behaviors with some of the key queen breeders in Northern California, with the aim of improving the hygienic stock in the US. In this presentation, we will describe what hygienic behaviors are, how we test and score colonies for the traits, and long term trends.

The Voracious Varroa

Varroa destructor is by far the most economically challenging pest in the beekeeping industry. In the spirit of ‘know thy enemy’, this presentation aims to provide information on Varroa biology, modes of reproduction, population dynamics and growth as well as their potential for disease transmission. Learning how to identify signs of mite damage and distinguishing it from other brood diseases will be covered. But do not despair, the news is not all bad, we will also share monitoring and control strategies to minimize colony damage.

Rob Snyder

Honey Bee Hygienic Behavior and Hygienic Testing

Honey bees have been selected and bred to increase hygienic behaviors conferring them resistance (or increased tolerance) toward specific pests and diseases, notably chalkbrood, sacbrood virus and potentially, the pernicious Varroa. The Bee Informed Partnership Tech Transfer Teams have been testing these hygienic behaviors with some of the key queen breeders in Northern California improving the hygienic stock in the US. In this presentation, we will describe what hygienic behaviors are and how we test and score colonies for the traits.

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

Working with the Bee Informed Partnership for over 8 years as a Tech Transfer Team in California, I have come across excellent beekeeping management that seems to yield good results and other practices that have led to disaster as well as everything in between. I have compiled a list of the 5 most successful management strategies and the 5 practices to avoid.

Honey Bee Disease Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention

How to properly identify honey bee diseases and how to treat and prevent the spread of these diseases. Images showing early signs of disease and how to combat the symptoms

Varroa mite: How to identify when there is a problem and how to prevent mite outbreaks

During this presentation, I will use multiple images to demonstrate the signs that mite levels are getting close to threshold. How to treat and salvage honey bee colonies that have high mite levels and how to prevent mite levels from becoming too high will also be addressed.

Nelson Williams

BIP and the Tech Transfer Team (TTT) Program

The Bee Informed Partnership has 5 regional tech transfer teams providing services and consulting to commercial beekeepers in more than 10 states throughout the country. The TTTs have a unique perspective and a bird’s eye view on the industry. What do they do? How do they do it? And why do they make a difference?

Dan Wyns

BIP and the Tech Transfer Team (TTT) Program

The Bee Informed Partnership has 5 regional tech transfer teams providing services and consulting to commercial beekeepers in more than 10 states throughout the country. The TTTs have a unique perspective and a bird’s eye view on the industry. What do they do? How do they do it? And why do they make a difference?

Anne Marie Fauvel

Hobby Beekeepers as Citizen Scientists: The Sentinel Apiary Program

(45-50 min) This presentation aims to describe the Bee Informed Partnership and their efforts/programs, more specifically, the Sentinel Apiary Program. Using data collected through the Sentinel Apiary network, I share some of the valuable lessons I have learned as a user and beekeeper. You too can participate, contribute to the national honey bee solution and become a better beekeeper in the process!

BIP Bites: BIP Tech Transfer Team Field and Trial Data

(40-50 min) A quick overview of BIP’s most important programs and the value they bring to the beekeeping industry. This presentation will focus more specifically on the most recent BIP Tech Transfer Team work in the field, from regular monitoring, consulting, sampling and reporting to beekeepers, along with the most up to date results on funded field trials.

A Year Across the Country with the BIP Tech Transfer Teams (TTT)

(60 min) You probably know that most of the commercial honey bee colonies start their year pollinating almonds in California. However, do you know where they go and what they do afterward? Do all commercial beekeepers produce honey? What is the biggest honey-producing state? Did you know that carrot seed pollination is the second most lucrative pollinating event after almonds? This presentation is a narrative photo journal of a year in the life of the 5 regional tech transfer teams, their beekeepers and the US honey bee colonies.

Full Colony Inspection – À la BIP

(30-40 min) The Bee Informed Partnership has been collecting data and documenting honey bee colony health for over a decade. In the process, we developed monitoring programs and standardized tools and methods to collect colony health metrics. What is important to observe and record, what is nice to notice and what not to bother with? This presentation will also showcase the value of the Sentinel Apiary Program and the Tech Team Program data collected when performing full colony inspections à la BIP.

Honey Bee Hygienic Behavior and Hygienic Testing

(50 min) Honey bees have been selected and bred to increase hygienic behaviors conferring them resistance (or increased tolerance) toward specific pests and diseases, notably chalkbrood, sacbrood virus and potentially, the pernicious Varroa. The Bee Informed Partnership Tech Transfer Teams have been testing these hygienic behaviors with some of the key queen breeders in Northern California improving the hygienic stock in the US. In this presentation, we will describe what hygienic behaviors are and how we test and score colonies for the traits.

What Am I Looking For? Signs of Honey Bee Diseases

(45 min) I don’t know about you, but when I started reading about the different honey bee diseases, I started imagining them all over my colonies. After years of working alongside the BIP Tech Transfer Team Honey Bee Health Field Specialists, I picked up a few tricks to spot potential signs of diseases, focus on problem areas and look for information and clues to piece together what may be going on. This presentation focuses on the main signs of diseases and what to look for while reading a few honey bee frames.

Nathalie Steinhauer, Research Coordinator

BIP Updates

(45 min) The Bee Informed Partnership has a lot of projects going on! From the Tech Transfer Teams, to the Sentinel Apiaries Program, Loss and Management Survey, and even more! Our core mission is to improve honey bee health by supporting beekeepers. We do so by monitoring bee health and collecting data from beekeepers, analyzing and sharing that information back to beekeepers, so they can take informed management decisions in their operation. Most of our programs rely on Citizen Scientists. We do not share identifiable information, but summarize the data into regional and seasonal trends that are meaningful to all beekeepers, participants or not. BIP updates are the opportunity to share the newest results of our programs, and how beekeepers can apply those results to become better beekeepers themselves.

Honey Bee Losses or Decline?

(45 min) No one will disagree that honey bees are not in the best of health; but their population is actually not declining in the US, contrary to general belief. In this talk, we will differentiate the notions of population declines, CCD, mortality rates and poor health. We will clarify the health status of honey bees, in the US and in the world, identify the major drivers of poor bee health, the concerns and possible consequences of a status quo, and what can be done to improve the situation.

Survey Says – Documenting a decade of changes in management practices

(45 min) Through the Bee Informed Partnership’s annual Colony Loss and Management Survey, we are monitoring the level of colony loss over time, as well as documenting the management practices used by US beekeepers. The survey taught us that between dead-outs and the combining and splitting of colonies, the average turnover – or “loss” – of colonies in a calendar year is ~40%. The risk of colony loss varies by season, operation type, year, and region, but also according to the management practices beekeepers use. Honey bees face many stressors, but good management offers a chance to prevent or rectify some of them. Survey results indicate that management of the ectoparasitic mite Varroa in particular is associated with very different outcomes. But not all beekeepers are as likely to employ Varroa management… In this talk, we will go over some of the lessons learned from the survey, and  point to some encouraging shifts in beekeepers’ practices.

The Enemies of the Hive – Honey bee pests and diseases

(60-120 min) In this talk addressed to beginner and intermediate beekeepers, we will cover the biology, prevention, monitoring, and control of the main pests and diseases affecting US honey bee colonies: Varroa mites, viruses, fungal diseases (Nosema and chalkbrood), bacterial diseases (EFB and AFB), and opportunistic pests (wax moths and small hive beetles) [Other topic, or special focus, upon request]. This talk takes advantage of the expertise built by BIP’s Tech Transfer Team Field Specialists working in the field with large scale operations, as well as the monitoring data gathered by BIP over the years through its various programs.

Pollinators and Pesticides

(45 min) The risk of pesticides is one of the most contentious questions of pollinator health. Honey bees are the most studied pollinator, so we have a lot of data on them. Still, there are a lot of questions left unanswered, but this is a topic that is in constant flux with new research reaching us constantly. In this talk, we start by explaining what a pesticide is, and the diversity of products behind this catch-all term. We will cover how pesticide risk is evaluated, both in terms of toxicity and exposure, and how many different aspects come into play, from the chemistry of the product, to its application method. If it is of interest to the group, we will learn how to read a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). We also cover the gaps in knowledge, and what are the most recent advances in that regard.

Mikayla Wilson, Sr Information Technology & Database Engineer

Beekeeper record keeping and visualizing your data

(45 min) The what and how of collecting beekeeping data to ‘bee’ informed. The Research.Beeinformed.org database is used to manage honey bee health data by scientists and beekeepers for commercial and hobby apiaries. We will review how this looks and works with our mobile app, user dashboards, and public data visualizations. This platform is available many use case scenarios. Any beekeeper joining the Sentinel program gains access to the mobile app and a user dashboard to visualize results. Tech Team beekeepers receive data reports from BIP field specialists from this application, and the beekeeper can also access their results through a user dashboard. National programs of importance like the USDA APHIS Honey Bee Health Survey use this same application to coordinate efforts among many participants and make appropriate data publicly available on the web. Multiple honey bee research labs have access to this system with customizations that make the application more relevant to their needs. In reviewing these features, we will cover what data BIP recommends to collect, how to collect them, and how you can further leverage this system to improve your beekeeping.

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