Beekeeping Today Podcast

You've spent hours preparing your honey show entries—but how do you get them safely to the judging table? This month on Winning at Honey with Stephanie, Stephanie Slater tackles the challenges of transporting competition entries by car, shipping, and air travel. She shares her own techniques along with advice from experienced honey judges who regularly travel with competition honey.

You'll learn how to protect jars and delicate beeswax entries, why temperature matters, what to include in a competition cleanup kit, and how to prepare for the inevitable bubbles and honey above the fill line after a fl...

Steven Coy returns to Beekeeping Today for a wide-ranging conversation about the challenges facing American beekeepers—and the role genetics may play in building more resilient colonies.

Steven is president of the American Honey Producers Association and a longtime commercial beekeeper and Russian honey bee breeder. He begins by explaining how the AHPA represents commercial beekeepers through advocacy, Farm Bill work, anti-dumping efforts, and programs such as ELAP. He also discusses the proposed Honey Integrity Act and why the industry wants a federal standard of identity for honey.

The conversation also examines declining U.S. ho...

Norroa brings a very different approach to Varroa management. In this installment of the Beekeeping Today Podcast Varroa Treatment Series, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman welcome Dr. David Peck of Betterbee to explain how this new treatment works and, just as importantly, when it may—or may not—fit into a beekeeper's management plan.

Unlike treatments designed to quickly kill mites, Norroa uses RNA interference, or RNAi, to disrupt reproduction in female Varroa mites. The active ingredient, vadescana, is delivered in sugar syrup pouches that bees consume and incorporate into brood food, where reproductive mites can be expo...

What does honey bee health look like when researchers examine it from the inside out? In this episode, Jeff and Becky welcome three scientists from the USDA-ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona: Dr. Vanessa Corby-Harris, Dr. Kirk Anderson, and Dr. Mark Carroll. Their work spans insect physiology, nutrition, microbiomes, chemical ecology, Varroa, and the complicated ways multiple stressors influence colony health.

Vanessa explains why nutrition is one of the areas where beekeepers can directly influence colony health and how researchers use biomarkers—including the honey bee fat body—to connect individual bee physiology with broo...

Artificial intelligence is rapidly finding its way into everyday tools—but where does it fit in the bee yard? In this Beekeeping Today Podcast Short, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman begin exploring how beekeepers can put AI to practical use without treating it as an unquestioned authority.

Jeff and Becky discuss using AI to organize colony inspection notes, create spreadsheets for mite monitoring, analyze data, help locate research and extension resources, and assist with projects such as grant applications. They also address the other side of the equation: AI can sound convincing while providing inaccurate information, invent so...

What can nearly two decades of beekeeper-reported data tell us about colony health—and what can it not tell us? In this episode, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman welcome Dr. Geoff Williams, Dr. Nathalie Steinhauer, and Dr. Agostina Giacobino to discuss the 2026 U.S. Beekeeping Survey and its continuity after the closure of the Bee Informed Partnership.

The team explains why annual colony-loss rates function much like a mortality or turnover measure rather than a direct count of the nation's living colonies. Preliminary 2025–26 results suggest losses improved from the exceptionally difficult previous two years, yet the national annu...

Why do we smoke honey bees—and how much smoke do they really need? In this installment of his Bee Science mini-series on Beekeeping Today, Dr. Dewey Caron sends an audio postcard from Portland, Oregon, during a wildfire smoke advisory. He uses the smoky skies as a starting point for a discussion of the beekeeper's smoker, the behavior of honey bees, and the challenges wildfire brings to the bee yard.

Dewey's central message about smoker use is simple: use it sparingly. He walks through lighting a smoker, choosing fuel that produces cool, white smoke, keeping it working th...

What happens when a spacecraft engineer becomes fascinated with honey bees? In this episode, Jeff and Becky welcome Dan Seitz, an engineer from Los Alamos, New Mexico, whose career designing instruments for spacecraft eventually led him to tackle a very different remote-sensing challenge: understanding what is happening inside a honey bee colony.

Dan began experimenting with commercially available temperature sensors but quickly wanted more precise and frequent measurements. That curiosity evolved into ApisNode, a compact sensor system designed to sit between frames and continuously measure multiple aspects of the colony environment—including temperature, humidity, sound, vibration, and vo...

The Varroa Treatment Series continues with another oxalic acid option: Api-Bioxal RTU, a ready-to-use liquid formulation designed for dribble application.

Dr. David Peck of Betterbee joins Jeff and Becky to explain what makes RTU different from the traditional oxalic acid and sugar-syrup dribble beekeepers may already know. Instead of weighing, measuring, and mixing oxalic acid, RTU arrives premixed and ready for application at 5 milliliters per occupied seam of bees.

David discusses why the glycerin-based formulation may remain active in the hive longer than a sugar-based dribble and how brood status affects its performance. In a...

Beekeeping challenges rarely stop at national borders. This week, Jeff and Becky cross the Atlantic for a conversation with Dr. Andrea Quigley and Norman Carreck, co-editors of the UK-based Beekeepers Quarterly.

Norman, a longtime beekeeper and bee scientist, introduces listeners to the UK's extensive beekeeping education system and his work conserving the native dark European honey bee, Apis mellifera mellifera. The conversation explores what locally adapted honey bees can teach beekeepers about genetics, winter survival, colony size, temperament, and management.

Andrea then takes us inside Beekeepers Quarterly, an independent, internationally focused magazine published by Northern...

What does it look like when beekeeping equipment moves from an idea in the bee yard to full-scale manufacturing?

In this Beekeeping Today Podcast Short, Jeff Ott takes listeners onto the production floor at Premier Bee Products in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Premier founder Jeff Johnson explains how the company approached woodenware manufacturing with a clean slate, borrowing technology and techniques from industries such as cabinetmaking to produce frames and hive bodies with speed, precision, and consistency.

The conversation also traces Premier's beginnings in plastic foundation and Johnson's philosophy of allowing honey bees—not manufacturing co...

This month on Winning at Honey with Stephanie, Stephanie Slater turns her attention to a honey show category that doesn't appear at every competition: pollen. Preparing pollen for competition requires more than simply collecting it from a pollen trap. Stephanie walks through what judges look for, including cleanliness, proper moisture, aroma and flavor, consistent fill levels, and a colorful variety of pollen. She also shares lessons from her own first pollen entry—and the judge's comment card that showed her where she could improve.

You'll learn how Stephanie collects and freezes pollen, uses a fan to separate lig...

Four hundred episodes. What started with a conversation between Jeff Ott and the late Kim Flottum in Medina, Ohio, has grown into hundreds of conversations about honey bees, beekeeping, research, management, and the people who make up the beekeeping community.

For this special 400th episode, Jeff and Becky Masterman are joined around the virtual Beekeeping Today table by three familiar voices: Dr. Jim Tew, Dr. Dewey Caron, and Stephanie Slater. Together, they look back at how the podcast began, what they've learned from years of talking with beekeepers, and why those conversations continue to matter.

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What will a healthy beekeeping industry look like five or ten years from now—and what needs to change to get us there? Recorded live at the Tri-States and Minnesota Beekeepers meeting in Fargo, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman moderate a wide-ranging conversation with Randy Oliver of Scientific Beekeeping, Dr. Izzy Hill of Project Apis m., and Dr. Brandon Hopkins of Washington State University about protecting the future of beekeeping.

The discussion begins with the economics. Commercial beekeeping has long depended on two major sources of income: honey production and pollination services. But changing almond acreage, pressure on...

What does it take to make beekeeping look authentic in a Hollywood movie? In this BT Short, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman talk with Adam Hickman of Foxhound Bee Company, who served as a bee wrangler and beekeeping consultant for The Rivals of Amziah King, starring Matthew McConaughey.

Adam's involvement began when a member of the production team visited his Alabama bee supply business looking for inspiration. Before long, Adam and his team were working with the filmmakers—and teaching McConaughey how to look and move like a beekeeper.

Adam takes us behind the scenes of...

Do you listen to your bees? Beekeepers rely heavily on sight when inspecting a colony, along with touch and even smell. But in this installment of Bee Science with Dr. Dewey Caron, Dewey asks us to consider another source of information—the remarkable world of sound and vibration produced by honey bees.

Honey bees live in an acoustic world that extends well beyond the familiar buzz we hear around a colony. Dewey explores how bees produce sound through their flight muscles and how they perceive airborne vibrations through their antennae and substrate-borne vibrations through their legs. He al...

What if carbon dioxide could offer beekeepers another way to control Varroa mites? In this episode, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman talk with award-winning high school researcher Aakash Manaswi, whose multi-year research project investigates using carbon dioxide (CO₂) as a treatment against Varroa mites. Aakash traces his interest in honey bees back to a childhood visit to an apiary, where a beekeeper explained how Varroa was affecting his colonies. That encounter eventually led Aakash to ask whether there might be another way to tackle the parasite.

Aakash explains the development of his CO₂ treatment prototype—a hive-top device...

What is the current state of honey bee health in the United States? Recorded live at the Tri-States Beekeeping Conference in Fargo, North Dakota, Jeff Ott and Dr. Becky Masterman moderate a lively panel discussion featuring Randy Oliver, Jackie Park-Burris, Dr. Katie Lee, and Dr. Rogan Tokash.

The conversation explores the biggest challenges facing beekeeping today—from Varroa mite resistance and evolving treatment strategies to honey bee nutrition, forage loss, pesticide exposure, queen breeding, and the economic pressures confronting commercial beekeepers. The panel also discusses the importance of applied research, the future of almond pollination, and why co...

Preparing extracted honey for competition may seem intimidating, but according to Stephanie Slater, success comes down to patience, attention to detail, and understanding what judges are really looking for.

In this episode of Winning at Honey, Stephanie shares practical advice for preparing award-winning extracted honey—from bottling weeks in advance to achieving the proper fill level, eliminating bubbles, selecting matching jars, and avoiding common defects that cost exhibitors valuable points. She also explains how judges evaluate entries, what can disqualify an otherwise beautiful jar of honey, and why proper handling begins long before the honey reaches the ex...

What happens when a beekeeper with a zoology background, a manufacturing business, and a tendency to question conventional wisdom starts redesigning beekeeping equipment? In this episode, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman welcome Michael Mahar of 21st Bee, an Arkansas beekeeper and manufacturer who has spent years developing his own approach to bees, equipment, and even value-added honey.

Michael explains how frustration with assembling and repairing conventional frames led him to design an injection-molded plastic frame intended to withstand years of abuse. He discusses communication passages built into the frames, multiple cell sizes, drone foundation, small-cell foundation, and...

Education remains one of the most powerful tools available to beekeepers, and few people exemplify that mission better than Amy Vu. As Extension Coordinator for the University of Florida Honey Bee Lab, Amy oversees one of the country's premier Master Beekeeper Programs, co-hosts Two Bees in a Podcast, develops online educational resources, and helps translate university research into practical information for beekeepers everywhere.

In this episode, Amy shares her journey from agronomy and soils science to becoming one of the nation's leading honey bee educators. Along the way, she discusses how Extension programs help bridge the gap...

Sometimes the most memorable beekeeping stories have very little to do with honey production.

This week, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman welcome Nehemiah Ray, a Georgia beekeeper whose family's everyday life inspired the Sundance Award-winning documentary The Boys and the Bees. What began as a pest control assignment to remove honey bees from a home unexpectedly launched Nehemiah into beekeeping, live honey bee removals, and eventually a life centered around teaching others about nature, family, and stewardship.

Nehemiah recounts learning beekeeping almost entirely through books, YouTube, and experience before joining the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association...

How can a honey bee with a brain smaller than a sesame seed communicate the exact location of food to thousands of nestmates? In this episode of Bee Science with Dewey, Dr. Dewey Caron explores one of the most remarkable discoveries in honey bee biology—the dance language.

Beginning with the evolutionary pressures that shaped honey bee communication, Dewey explains why efficient foraging became essential for colonies surviving long northern winters. He describes how scout bees locate profitable nectar, pollen, water, and even potential nest sites before returning to the colony to recruit other foragers through highly st...

What can beekeepers learn from Australia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Georgia, and Thailand?

This week Jeff Ott and Dr. Becky Masterman welcome Dr. Robert Owen, beekeeper, educator, researcher, author, and international consultant, for a wide-ranging conversation about honey bees, beginning beekeeping, queen breeding, honey bee genetics, disease management, and global beekeeping practices.

Robert shares the remarkable story of purchasing his first colony in Australia, building a successful beekeeping supply company, earning a PhD in honey bee genetics, and writing several influential beekeeping books.

The discussion explores his newest publication, Beekeeping Success: Start Right, Grow...

Honey bee nutrition is more complex than simply providing protein. In this episode, Jeff Ott and Dr. Becky Masterman welcome Dr. Vincent Ricigliano to discuss emerging research exploring algae-based supplemental diets, functional feeds, RNA interference technologies, and new approaches to supporting colony health.

Vincent explains how microalgae such as spirulina and chlorella may help improve supplemental feeding by providing highly bioavailable proteins, amino acids, lipids, vitamins, and micronutrients that more closely resemble natural pollen. The discussion explores how modern nutritional science can help create more complete diets for honey bees.

The conversation also examines RNA...

In this Bonus Short episode of Beekeeping Today, Stephanie Slater returns with another installment of Winning at Honey with Stephanie, sharing updates from a busy start to summer and offering practical guidance for preparing beeswax entries for honey show competition.

Stephanie begins with highlights from the Heartland Apicultural Society Conference at Michigan State University, where attendees enjoyed presentations, vendors, social events, and hands-on apiary experiences. She also recaps teaching a youth beekeeping summer camp for fifth through eighth graders, where the students learned honey bee biology, made lip balm, tasted honey, and practiced simulated mite checks.

In this episode of Beekeeping Today, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman continue the Queen Series with Dr. Jack Rath, former owner of Betterbee, veterinarian, beekeeper, and queen breeder. The conversation focuses on instrumental insemination of honey bee queens, a highly technical process used to support selective breeding and maintain valuable honey bee genetics.

Jack explains how he moved from beekeeping as a high school student to veterinary medicine, queen rearing, and eventually instrumental insemination. Drawing on his experience with reproductive work in cattle and horses, he describes both the similarities and major differences between livestock breeding and...

The Honey Bee Health Coalition just released the 9th edition of the  Varroa Management Guide. For many beekeepers, this guide has become the go-to reference for cutting through misinformation and focusing on proven, research-backed practices. With this latest edition, the Coalition has made meaningful updates that reflect the increasing difficulty of controlling Varroa, even when best practices are followed.

One of the most important changes is the adjustment of treatment thresholds. Becky points out that previous thresholds may not have been aggressive enough, particularly in environments where reinfestation pressure is high. The updated guide now takes a m...

Beekeepers often think of wax production as something that simply happens when colonies build comb. But what if bees are constantly moving wax throughout the hive, recycling it from one location to another as colony needs change? This week, Jeff and Becky welcome Massachusetts beekeeper Dave Wade to discuss his observations and experiments exploring how honey bees utilize and relocate wax within the colony.

Dave's journey into beekeeping began nearly twenty years ago when concerns about pollination of backyard fruit trees led him to a local bee school. Since then, he has become an active member of...

The North American Honey Bee Expo is expanding for 2027, and organizer Kamon Reynolds joins Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman to share what attendees, educators, and prospective speakers can expect at next year's event.

Kamon discusses the Expo's continued growth, plans for additional presentation rooms, expanded educational tracks, and a formal call for speaker submissions. The goal is to broaden the range of topics available to attendees by introducing new subject areas, specialized beekeeping interests, emerging research, honey production techniques, fermentation with honey, honey shows, and other educational opportunities that may not fit traditional conference programming.

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In this sixth installment of Bee Science with Dr. Dewey Caron, Dewey turns attention to one of the final major management tasks of the summer beekeeping season: removing honey supers and preparing honey for extraction and storage.

Building on the previous discussion about timely supering, Dewey explains why proper honey super removal is every bit as important as adding supers at the right time. He emphasizes that beekeepers should only remove honey when they are fully prepared to process it, reminding listeners that bees know how to protect their honey stores far better than we do. Delays...

Moving package bees across North America is a specialized business that most beekeepers never see firsthand. In this episode, Jeff and Becky welcome Chris Hansen of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, a longtime beekeeper, bee supplier, and professional package bee hauler, to discuss the unique challenges of transporting thousands of honey bees safely across the country.

Chris shares how his beekeeping journey began nearly thirty years ago and how a small sideline operation gradually expanded into bee sales, a beekeeping supply business, and eventually a dedicated package bee transportation company. What started as a necessity to move his own bees...

Jennie Durant, PhD, joins Beekeeping Today to discuss her new book, Bitter Honey: Big Ag's Threat to the Bees and the Fight to Save Them. Drawing from more than fifteen years of research, interviews, and fieldwork, Jennie explores the complex relationship between commercial beekeeping and modern agriculture. She shares how her interest in honey bees began during her graduate studies in the Philippines and eventually led to a PhD focused on the challenges facing managed pollinators in large-scale agricultural systems.

Jennie discusses the evolution of commercial beekeeping in response to the growing demand for almond pollination and...

In this edition of Winning Honey with Stephanie, Stephanie Slater checks in on her own honey show preparations and admits that her comb honey supers still aren't ready despite last month's plans. A strong nectar flow in southeastern Wisconsin has kept her busy in the bee yard, including hosting a retail partner for an apiary visit that showcased queen cells, egg-laying activity, pollen collection, and royal jelly production.

Stephanie looks ahead to the major honey competitions coming in January, including the North American Honey and Beeswax Championship, the American Honey Show, and the Midwest Honey Bee Expo...

In this spring 2026 edition of Regional Beekeepers, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman welcome a familiar panel of beekeepers from across North America to compare notes on how the season is unfolding in their respective regions. Joining the discussion are Ang Roell (Northeast), Bonnie Morse (Northern California), Duane Combs (Arizona), Jay Williams (Tennessee), and Paul Longwell (Pacific Northwest).

The conversation highlights the remarkable regional differences in weather, nectar flows, colony buildup, and honey production. Duane reports one of Arizona's best honey seasons in decades following unusually wet conditions, while Bonnie describes strong honey production in California alongside increasing...

Beekeeping Today welcomes back two familiar voices in honey bee education: Dr. Robyn Underwood and Ana Heck. Together, they discuss the growing role of the Apiculture Extension Educators of America (AEEA) and how extension professionals are helping connect beekeepers with trusted, science-based information across the United States.

Jeff and Becky begin the episode with a seasonal conversation about swarming management and aggressive spring splitting strategies before turning to this week's Hive IQ listener question on introducing mated queens successfully into colonies. Ana and Robyn share practical field-tested approaches for improving queen acceptance, including push-in cages, timing considerations...

Ang Roell of They Keep Bees joins Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman for another installment of the Beekeeping Today Podcast Queen Series. Ang shares the story behind building a migratory queen breeding operation and explains how years of working with Carniolan, Russian, and hygienic stock shaped the breeding philosophy behind their Massachusetts-based apiary.

The conversation explores the realities of raising queens professionally, including drone saturation, mating yards, queen cells, virgins, instrumental insemination, and the challenges of selecting for Varroa-sensitive hygienic behavior while maintaining strong overwintering performance in northern climates. Ang discusses how They Keep Bees evaluates breeder...

The Heartland Apicultural Society returns to Michigan State University May 30–31, 2026, bringing together beekeepers from across the region for two days of education, networking, and hands-on learning. In this Beekeeping Today Podcast Short, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman welcome Ana Heck of Michigan State University and Dr. Robyn Underwood of Penn State University to preview the upcoming conference and explain why this event offers something valuable for everyone from beginning beekeepers to experienced sideliners.

This year's conference emphasizes practical learning. Ana explains that Michigan State University is setting up apiaries near the conference center so participants can attend in...

Spring is a season of rapid change inside the hive, and in this Bee Science segment, Dr. Dewey Caron walks through what drives colony expansion—and how beekeepers can respond effectively.

Dewey emphasizes that spring growth is fundamentally tied to pollen availability and favorable flying weather. Colonies in warmer climates may expand gradually, while northern colonies often experience a compressed and intense buildup. This variability makes local awareness and timing essential.

Nutrition plays a central role. Research going back to Heather Mattila's 2006 work shows that colonies receiving pollen or protein supplements begin brood rearing earlier an...

In this episode of Beekeeping Today Podcast, Jeff Ott and Becky Masterman continue their queen-focused spring series with longtime beekeeper, researcher, and educator Randy Oliver and commercial beekeeper Eric Oliver. The conversation explores the realities of large-scale selective breeding for Varroa-resistant honey bees and the development of the Golden West queen line.

Randy explains how his operation shifted toward breeding for mite resistance after discovering a colony in 2015 that consistently maintained zero Varroa counts without treatment. That colony became "Queen Zero," launching a years-long selective breeding effort focused on resistance, gentleness, and honey production. Eric discusses how...