bees Archives - Page 3 of 3 - PolliNation Podcast

Bee habitat in agricultural landscapes is key element in any good strategy for pollinator health. But farmers have a lot going on and may not have clear answers to some important pollination questions.

Our guest is here to help us with these issues. Jessa Kay Cruz is the Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist for California with the Xerces Society.

Based in Sacramento, Jessa works closely with landowners and farmers, developing strategies for overcoming misconceptions when it comes to pollinators and their habitats.

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“One thing that has happened with modern agriculture is that we really lost biodiversity in our agricultural systems..” – Jessa Kay Cruz

Show Notes:

How diverse agricultural landscapes are today compared to past decades
Why food deserts are being created for bees
How farmers can be stewards of the land
Some of the misconceptions about bees that growers have
How the Xerces Society provides support for farmers and growers
As a farmer, what are key considerations when you want to put in a pollinator habitat?
Why even some organic pesticides are harmful to bees and how to separate spray areas from habitat areas
How to select the plants to put in when making a habitat area
Why it’s important to plant a diversity of different types of plants
Why planting un-flowering plants can help create nesting areas for bees
How to prepare the habitat area before you plant
Why you might not want to till up the soil

“Bees are just like people that way, they have different preferences, and they eat a good diversity of different sources of pollen. And different pollen provides certain nutrients for bees.” – Jessa Kay Cruz

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Ruth Marsh is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Halifax, NS. Her work uses absurd and often comically deadpan narratives to address loss, absence and longing in the context of living creatures and the natural world. She is interested in investigating themes of environmental loss through labour intensive meditations on transformation: life to death, experience to memory and the surrealistic degradation of information that occurs with each successive change of state.

In this episode, we talk about her work repairing bees. She creates these labor-intensive repairs using found objects, and uses exhibitions of the work to bring together people from the scientific and art community.

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“I am hoping that when someone sees an individual bee that has been repaired with so much care that they can build an empathetic relationship with a creature that might not necessarily be seen as an individual and not necessarily relatable to in a human way.” – Ruth Marsh

Show Notes:

How Ruth creates her work and why
Why people send her bees in the mail
About her stop-motion video with the bees she repairs
How her work showcases the diversity of bees
The distinct rolls that scientists and artists can take in engaging people around issues in pollinator health
What it’s like to see one of Ruth’s exhibitions
The importance of amateur scientists
How to taxidermy a bee
How artists can be activist for change

“There seems to be a really strong grassroots movement making people aware of issues faced by pollinators, so there’s a more hopeful aspect to my work.” – Ruth Marsh

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Laura Taylor works for the West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. In this episode, find what happens when a local government wants to do something to help pollinator health.

As a conservation technician and an educational coordinator, Laura created an innovative program to monitor wild pollinators around restoration sites.

Learn how she got the monitoring program off the ground, what you can do for landowners wanting to help create pollinator habitats, and how they teach people to identify pollinators.

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“What can we do to encourage people to convert their monoculture lawns into something more diverse that will support a myriad of wildlife including pollinators and beneficial insects?” – Laura Taylor

Show Notes:

How wild pollinators fit into the mission of the West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District
Some of the biggest challenges to pollinators in this area
How they work with land owners to set priorities for conservation and pollinator habitat
What initially drew her interest in pollinators
How they build their Meadowscaping Handbook
How their pollinator monitoring program works
What the program does to educate landowners
How long it takes to teach someone to be able to identify insects and bees
What they learned from teaching people about bees in the first year of their program
What the future holds for the pollinator monitoring program

“Our pollinator monitoring, citizen science program sounds like a data collection program, but the main inspiration for it was the education benefit it would have for participants.” – Laura Taylor

Links Mentioned:

Attracting Native Pollinators: The Xerces Society Guide to Conserving North American Bees and Butterflies and Their Habitat
The Meadowscaping Handbook (PDF)
West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District
Laura mentioned this bee at the end of the episode. Can you tell what kind of bee it is?

Aimee Code is the Pesticide Program Director at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

During her career she has worked in urban and agricultural setting to mitigate the risks of pesticide use and promote integrated pest management programs.

She also works with communities around the country to implement policies and practices to restore dwindling pollinator populations.

Today we discuss how to mitigate the use of chemicals and pesticides on farms and around pollinator habitats, as well as what to do when you have to use chemicals.

We talk about the best places to build and locate pollinator habitat, and more.

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“If we take step back we realize that about half of the US land base is agriculture.” – Aimee Code

Show Notes:

What the Xerces society is all about
The initiatives that they have to work with farmers to better preserve pollinators
How to look for habits in agriculture landscapes
What the society does to put pollinator habit back in place where it was lost
Why they are focusing on habit for pollinators instead of other aspects of conservation
How pesticide exposure commonly happens
How to create more resilient farming practices so that less chemicals are being used
The growing body of research on how harmful fungicides can be to pollinators
How to choose where your pollinator habits are going to be located
Why native bees are often more at risk to pesticides than honey bees

“He used to work to deter insects on his farm. Now he’s working to support beneficial insects. It’s a complete shift in his thinking.” – Aimee Code

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Dr. Meghan Milbrath began working bees with her father as a child over 20 years ago, and now owns and manages The Sand Hill Apiary, a small livestock and queen rearing operation in Munith, Michigan.

She studied biology at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and received degrees in public health from Tulane University and the University of Michigan, where she focused on environmental and disease transmission risk. Meghan worked as a postdoctoral research associate under Zachary Huang at Michigan State University, studying nosema disease, and is currently an academic specialist at MSU, where she does honey bee and pollinator research and extension and is the coordinator of the Michigan Pollinator Initiative.

Meghan is active in multiple beekeeping organizations, writes for multiple beekeeping journals, and speaks about bees all over the country. She currently runs the Northern Bee Network, a directory and resource site dedicated to supporting queen producers, and she is passionate about keeping and promoting healthy bees.

Today, we discuss queen rearing, keeping healthy bees, and how to make the best use of the Northern Bee Network.

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“We need this national system of bees because we need to eat food. My little backyard operation doesn’t necessarily need to be a part of that national system.” – Dr. Meghan Milbrath

Show Notes:

Why genetics is such an important part of how a colony performs
What queen breeding involves
How people go about trying to make bees that can better handle different diseases
Why demand for queens is unbelievably high
What the Northern Bee Network is and how they provide access for bees in their area
Why Northern backyard beekeepers don’t need bees from the South
How to get involved in the network
What to do if you want to sell local queens
Other things you can do on the Northern Bee Network website
How bees are bred to develop resistance to diseases
Resources for small scale queen-rearing operations
How the trading and exchange portion of the network functions
What they are going to do with the Northern Bee Network in the future
Why it’s important when you’re starting out to find people who are raising bees really well

“The most important thing is to talk to people and work with someone who is already keeping bees really well.” – Dr. Meghan Milbrath

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Today on the show we explore bees and their social impact.

In 2012, Sarah Common co-founded Hives for Humanity Society, alongside her mother, Julia, in response to a gap she saw in opportunities for connection to nature, to community and to meaningful work for marginalized citizens.

She has coordinated partnerships between a variety of organizations and businesses, developing programming that builds self-worth and community pride.

We talk about how it got founded, how it works, and tips for other groups looking to do something similar in their communities.

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“We are looking to enhance communities through apiculture.” – Sarah Common

Show Notes:

How beekeeping can keep people healthy as well
What her organization does to bring together marginalized communities
How planting seeds creates a transformative moment for disadvantages communities
Why you have to be focused when handling bees and how it helps people stay present
What’s been the hardest thing about getting this garden project growing
How she pulled together the resources to get this projected started in the community
How the beekeeping community has responded to this project
What is specific about keeping bees in this part of Vancouver, BC
What the project is doing to collaborate with professors and other experts
Where they want the Society to be in the future
How to get the project to a point where it will be self-sustaining
What foundations could do to better support the organizations

“Holding a frame of hundreds of living, vibrating, colorful bees creates an interaction and a responsibility that builds self worth .” – Sarah Common

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Dr. David Lowenstein is a post-doc researcher at Oregon State University’s Department of Horticulture.

Today we talk about Dr. Lowenstein’s fascinating research on urban pollinators during his time in Chicago.

In this episode we discuss biodiversity in a city, what property owners can do to attract pollinators, and the unique challenges of urban bee research.

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“Think of each homeowner as a land manager. So you’re working with a number of different perspectives.” – Dr. David Lowenstein

Show Notes:

Why Dr. Lowenstein starting researching wild pollinators in cities
About the biodiversity within a city
How pollinator numbers can be enhanced in cities
What property owners can do to encourage pollinators
The unusual places where bees nest in cities
The bee habitat he encountered in Chicago for his research
How you take a sample of plant life in a city lot
The unique challenges related to urban ecology work
How different bee communities can visit different plants in the same location
Why many urban bees that are pollinating are not honey bees
How vacant lots in cities with population decline effects bees
What Dr. Lowenstein has heard from everyday people about bees when doing his highly-visible urban research

“Even if we are producing an environment that is just great for pollinators, there’s a lot of factors that are out of our control.” – Dr. David Lowenstein

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Today’s episode is all about getting the public involved in surveying and identifying different species of bees. Dr Elaine Evans is our guest. She’s the new Extensions Educator working on bee conservation at University of Minnesota.

Dr. Evans has been working on education and advocacy for native pollinators for a long time, and is the lead on a fascinating project called the Minnesota Bumblebee Survey.

Listen in to this episode to understand how you can get involved in some important citizen science initiatives.

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“We have really good evidence of decline in bumble bees. There are some bee species that seem to be stable though.” – Dr. Elaine Evans

Show Notes:

Why the University of Minnesota’s Extension decided to focus on pollinators this year
Getting citizens involved in monitoring bees
How Dr. Evans became interested in bees
About the book she wrote on bumblebees
How she started the Bumblebee Watch program
What’s going on with the decline of bumblebees in North America
How Citizen Science works in Minnesota to track bees
Ways that the Bumblebee Watch program uses pictures to identify bees
How to teach people to tell different bee species apart
How the program uses volunteers to track cavity nesting bees

“The Bee Squad is looking at using honey bees as a gateway to other pollinators.” – Dr. Elaine Evans

Links Mentioned:

Francis Ratnieks on PolliNation with Andony Melathopoulos Welcome to the first episode of PolliNation Podcast.

“A hairy vegetarian wasp.”

That’s how professor Francis Ratnieks of the University of Sussex describes the bee.

Professor Ratnieks has done a lot of research on bees, from honeybee biology to practical solutions for beekeepers and homeowners interested in encouraging pollinators.

This wide-ranging interview is full of tips for how to select pollinator plants, reasons for becoming a beekeeper, and common myths that people have about bees.

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“If you a beginning beekeeper, I would greatly advise getting some assistance from an experienced beekeeper.” – Francis Ratnieks

Show Notes:

Where Francis got his interest in honeybees
Why the advice on honeybees given to the public is not often that good
What the benefits are to keeping bees in cities
The unique challenges to keeping bees in urban areas
Tips for keeping bees in a way that doesn’t bother your neighbors
How many bee colonies a city block can support
Why planting floral resources may be the best way to save the bees
Why foreign species of plants may be just as good for honeybees as local varieties
How honeybees can fly up to 12km to find pollinators
Dispelling the myths that the public has about bees
How to recognize different species of bees
Avoiding bee stings and telling the difference between a bee sting and yellow jacket sting
What you can do to help bees in urban areas

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“Bees only sting if you get close to the hive, not when they are foraging.” – Francis Ratnieks

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