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Every beekeeper should seek to have hives that are healthy and productive. Today, the many threats to honey bee health — including parasites, pests, disease, pesticides, and inadequate nutrition — make achieving this goal a major challenge. Successful beekeeping means closely monitoring bee health and taking proactive steps to protect them.
Nov 2019 |
Online resource
Photo: Honey Bee Health Coalition (Cropped from original)
From the Honey Bee Health Coalition: "This tool will walk you through the decisions you need to make to determine how best to manage varroa mites in your hives. Answer each of the following questions, and the tool will generate a list of your options. If you need more information to help you answer the question, we’ve included that as well."
Nov 2019 |
Online resource
Websites
Photo: Bee Informed Partnership (Cropped from original)
The Honey Bee Research and Extension program focuses on honey bee health, nutrition, and pollination with a goal of servicing commercial beekeepers, backyard beekeepers, producers, and all citizens that are interested in bees.
The Oregon State Beekeepers Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the well-being of honey bees and to the fields of beekeeping, apiculture, research, and education.
This publication outlines guidelines for best practices for beekeeping in residential areas. It outlines the steps residential beekeepers can take to operate their bees in nuisance-free manner.
Andony Melathopoulos, Ralph (Mike) Rodia, Jennifer Larsen, Ramesh Sagili |
Jan 2022 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Learn how to attract and support native pollinators by creating and maintaining the right habitat, including features like nesting sites, quality food and shelter from pesticides.
Karen Lamson, Rachel Suits, Brian Tuck, Susan Kerr, Ellen Hammond, Shilah Olson |
Mar 2023 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Credit: Chris Hedstrom, Oregon Department of Agriculture (Cropped from original)
The small hive beetle has been a menace in many states and poses a threat to Oregon through migratory and purchased bee colonies. Learn to identify the beetle and potential damage it can cause.
Karessa Torgerson, Carolyn Breece, Ramesh Sagili, Dewey Caron |
Jun 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
An overview of mason bee basic biology and life cycle, and detailed descriptions of what is needed to start keeping mason bees, including desirable plants, nesting sites and types of nests, and caring for the ...
Brooke Edmunds, Richard Little, Ramesh Sagili |
Aug 2022 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Commercial and backyard beekeepers can minimize colony losses by establishing nucleus colonies. Nucleus colonies can quickly resolve many beekeeping problems.
Ramesh Sagili, Carolyn Breece, Karessa Torgerson, Harry Vanderpool |
Nov 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
An overview of how a variety of wild and managed bees and their pollination activities are affected by pesticide application. Provides guidelines for how beekeepers, growers, and pesticide applicators can work ...
Louisa Hooven, Ramesh Sagili, Erik Johansen |
Mar 2016 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Commercial growers who rent honey bees for pollination and beekeepers who provide pollination services can learn about evaluating honey bee colony strength, the average number of colonies needed for pollination, basic honey bee biology and pollination contracts.
Ramesh Sagili, Michael Burgett |
Nov 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
The way we garden can help promote the health of bees and other insects. This guide offers detailed plant lists, garden designs and advice on creating pollinator habitat.
Andony Melathopoulos, Neil Bell, Signe Danler, Amy Jo Detweiler, Iris Kormann, Gail Langellotto, Nicole Sanchez, Heather Stoven, Dave Smitley |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Credit: : Washington State Department of Agriculture/CC 3.0 (Cropped from original)
The northern giant hornet was detected in British Columbia and Washington in 2019. This publication outlines the identification, life cycle, and predatory habits of the northern giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) for ...
Ellen Topitzhofer, Chris Hedstrom, Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu, Andony Melathopoulos, Silvia I. Rondon, Gail Langellotto, Ramesh Sagili |
Sep 2022 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Credit: : Washington State Department of Agriculture/CC 3.0 (Cropped from original)
The northern giant hornet was detected in British Columbia and Washington in 2019. This publication outlines the identification, life cycle, and predatory habits of the northern giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) for ...
Ellen Topitzhofer, Chris Hedstrom, Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu, Andony Melathopoulos, Silvia I. Rondon, Gail Langellotto, Ramesh Sagili |
Sep 2022 |
OSU Extension Catalog
The way we garden can help promote the health of bees and other insects. This guide offers detailed plant lists, garden designs and advice on creating pollinator habitat.
Andony Melathopoulos, Neil Bell, Signe Danler, Amy Jo Detweiler, Iris Kormann, Gail Langellotto, Nicole Sanchez, Heather Stoven, Dave Smitley |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Attracting hummingbirds to your garden is easy. You have a good chance of keeping them there if you meet their basic needs for cover, food, water, and space by planting a hummingbird habitat garden.
John Olson, Nancy Allen |
Apr 2023 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Learn how to attract and support native pollinators by creating and maintaining the right habitat, including features like nesting sites, quality food and shelter from pesticides. Listen to the Living on the Land podcast series -...
Karen Lamson, Rachel Suits, Brian Tuck, Susan Kerr, Ellen Hammond, Shilah Olson |
Mar 2023 |
Podcast episode
Learn how to attract and support native pollinators by creating and maintaining the right habitat, including features like nesting sites, quality food and shelter from pesticides. Listen to the Living on the Land podcast series -...
Karen Lamson, Rachel Suits, Brian Tuck, Susan Kerr, Ellen Hammond, Shilah Olson |
Mar 2023 |
Podcast episode
Knowing the levels of tracheal mites in your apiary and understanding the effects of their presence will enable you to make an educated decision on your treatment plan. In this video, we demonstrate the dissection of a honey bee worker for tracheal mite infestation.
Ellen Topitzhofer, Carolyn Breece, Ramesh Sagili |
Apr 2024 |
Video
Nosema is a microsporidian parasite that infects the gut of a honey bee. (Microsporidia are spore-forming fungi.) Nosema affects protein metabolism in honey bees and causes them to starve. In this video, we demonstrate how to ...
Ellen Topitzhofer, Carolyn Breece, Ramesh Sagili |
Jul 2024 |
Video
Photo: Andony Melathopoulos (Cropped from original)
Beekeeping takes a lot of training and mentorship. In many states, the place to learn the finer points of this trade is in state Master Beekeeper programs. We hear about the Oregon program through its annual field day. Oregon Master Beekeeper Program web page
The small stonecrop mason bee (Hoplitis emarginata) had never been found in Oregon until 2019 when it was discovered by Master Melittologist Judi Maxwell in the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon. Only one person had seen it...
Lincoln Best, Andony Melathopoulos |
Nov 2021 |
OSU Extension Catalog
As beautiful as they are to us, some horticulturally “improved” varieties of flowers just aren’t as attractive to bees, butterflies and other insects. Doubled petals, in particular, may block access to nectar or pollen.
American Foulbrood is a rare but devastating disease found in honeybee colonies all around the world, and even here in Oregon. Carolyn Breece from Oregon State University’s Honey Bee Lab shows us a honey bee frame that has...
P: We are moving to the alvord desert area and have kept bees in the past. I'm curious of your thoughts on how a honey bee hive would thrive in that high desert environment? Any thoughts or advice you have here would be great!
Showy townsendia is a member of the sunflower or aster family, the largest family of flowering plants in the world. This family is very important ecologically, especially for native bees and other pollinators.
Oregon sunshine is a member of the sunflower or aster family. It thrives in a variety of habitats, most frequently on dry, sandy sites or fine talus slopes. Many species of bees rely on Oregon sunshine.
Phil Paterno |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Credit: Tom Robertson and Julie Biddle (Cropped from original)
Resin bees build above-ground nests out of plant resin or a mix of plant resin and stones. These freestanding nests, about one-third inch, accommodate one egg and may be attached to a twig, leaf, rock or other surface.
Tom Robertson, Julie Biddle |
Apr 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Credit: Hadel Go, American Museum of Natural History / CC BY-NC
(Cropped from original)
Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee once was found in the mountainous areas of western North America from Colorado to Alaska. But there have only been a few observations in the past 20 years with the last one in 2017.
Home gardeners can provide natural habitat for native bees by leaving behind the dried, pithy stems of shrubs such as raspberries, elderberries and hydrangea. It's in those stems that carpenter bees build their nests.
Leana Dickerson |
Apr 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
That tiny anthill you noticed may actually be the entrance to a ground-nesting bee family. A single female bee excavates a ground nest by using her saliva and tough mandibles to break up and move soil.
Goldenrod crab spiders are adept at ambushing bees by changing their color to match the flower they're inhabiting. The spider will sit in the center of a flower and when a bee moves near, the spider attacks.
Emerald green sweat bees are striking in appearance with coloring that ranges from metallic green to blue or purple. It is found throughout the US from sea level to about 8,000 feet but is most common on the West Coast.
The highest period of honey bee colony mortality is during the winter. But there are a number of tricks to ensure high colony survival. In this episode we visit a Canadian bee yard to learn about what they do. Shelley ...
In late summer as most seasonal flowering plants start to wither, the cheery garden cosmos is still blooming strong. It is also attracting a diversity of bees, pollinators and other beneficial insects.
Candy Solovjovs |
Apr 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Many home gardeners put much effort into attracting bees to their summer flower and vegetable gardens. But it's just as important to be bee-friendly in the fall and winter. Here's how to do it.
Candy Solovjovs |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
How do wildfires affect Oregon bees? Flames and heat can destroy their nests and smoke can disrupt their navigation abilities. But research shows they rebound strongly along with other flora and fauna after a fire.
Andony Melathopoulos, Brooke Edmunds, Jim Rivers |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
The white mariposa lily is a bulb-forming perennial that produces a flowering stem up to 20 inches tall. Flowers have three large white petals with purple blotches, and bloom occurs June to August.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Mountain death camas is a perennial that grows in mountain meadows, rocky slopes and forests. Its creamy flowers bloom in the summer. The plant is toxic, including its pollen and nectar, and attracts one type of bee.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
The California poppy blooms from March to October and attracts hundreds of native bees. It grows in grassy areas up to 7,000 feet. Flowers respond phototropically to low light levels, closing at night and on cloudy days.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Small camas is a perennial that produces a stem up to three feet high with blue-violet, star-shaped flowers. It is found on grassy slopes and meadows at low to mid-elevations and blooms from April to June.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Scarlet gilia is a biennial to perennial forb with a flowering stem up to 2 feet tall. Long, red tubular flowers grow on stems, and bloom occurs August to October. Found on hillsides and slopes at higher elevations.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Credit: Trish Drury Danita Delimont stock.adobe.com (Cropped from original)
Penstemon procerus features blue-purple, tubular petals and attracts bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. The plants are fairly common at middle to high elevations of western North America from Alaska to California.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Silvery lupine has multiple erect stems 1 to 2 feet tall with blue to violet flowers that grow on spikes 8 inches long. Bloom occurs June to August. Found in stream valleys, dry roadsides and rocky prairies.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Fireweed is a perennial forb with erect stems 1 to 6 feet tall. Pink flowers grow on long stems, and bloom occurs June to September. Grows in moist to dry disturbed areas such as clearings, roadsides and river bars.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Sulphur-flower buckwheat is a perennial forb or subshrub that grows in sandy and gravelly areas in sagebrush communities on dry slopes, ridges and rock outcrops at elevations up to 10,000 feet.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Parsnip-flower buckwheat features white to yellow flowers on branching woody stems that are 4 to 24 inches tall. Bloom is from May to July or later in higher elevations. Found in forest openings and on ridges.
Jeannette Krampien, Greg Low |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Providing healthy habitat alongside pollen and nectar sources for our native bees is one of the best ways to support a healthy pollinator population. For cavity-nesting bees, home can be as simple as a hole in the wall.
Leana Dickerson |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Humans tend to recoil from the sight of wasps but they are an important part of nature's pollinating community. Even though they don't collect pollen, they are effective at transferring it from plant to plant.
Leana Dickerson |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Credit: : Washington State Department of Agriculture/CC 3.0 (Cropped from original)
The northern giant hornet was detected in British Columbia and Washington in 2019. This publication outlines the identification, life cycle, and predatory habits of the northern giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) for ...
Ellen Topitzhofer, Chris Hedstrom, Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu, Andony Melathopoulos, Silvia I. Rondon, Gail Langellotto, Ramesh Sagili |
Sep 2022 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Male Wool Carder Bees (Anthidium manicatum) use size and agility to protect their territory. Females gather fuzz from wooly leaves for their nests, hence their name.
Yarrow attracts an incredible richness of pollinators, including all of the short-tongued bee genera, like the Halictus in the video. Watch her mandibles open and she extends her tongue to collect nectar.
Want to entice more bees to your vegetable garden? Plant mustard. Bees absolutely love mustard flowers! The pretty, bright yellow flowers produce an abundance of both pollen and nectar for bees and other pollinators.
Candy Solovjovs |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
When squash blossoms are abloom in Oregon gardens, bees take notice. And one of those might be a squash bee, which was only recently discovered to exist in Oregon.
Candy Solovjovs |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Desert buckwheat is an attractive, long-lived perennial with variably colored, ball-shaped flower clusters. It provides nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinators, as well as seeds for songbirds and rodents.
While both bumblebees and honey bees are attracted to lavender, the plant is more popular among bumblebees whose long tongues allow them to efficiently extract nectar from lavender’s tubular flowers.
Candy Solovjovs |
Mar 2025 |
OSU Extension Catalog
That tangle of dead blackberry canes just might be hiding new life! Look for hollow stems, signs that the small carpenter bee has built a safe nest for her eggs.
Have you ever looked into a flower and discovered a bee just sitting there? Depending on the kind of bee, it might actually be sleeping. And that's a great time to get an up-close look at these tiny marvels.
Rebecca Sweet is the founder of Buzz Cover Crop Seeds, which provides diverse mixes of cover crop, pasture and insectary seeds to small and mid-sized farms in the Pacific Northwest. Rebecca has 16 years of experience ...
If you want to raise bees in your yard but aren't up to maintaining a hive, old raspberry canes might be the answer. Friendly carpenter bees like to burrow into spent berry canes to create their nests.
Jocelyn McAuley |
Dec 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
There has been an explosion in people keeping bees for a hobby. But for many, beekeeping is a bigger commitment than they expected. This week we are joined by Carolyn Breece who will help you figure out if beekeeping for you and what’s involved in getting started.
Idaho and Oregon’s Treasure Valley have a deep connection to bee management for alfalfa seed, but in this episode we hear about how that tradition is being transferred to pollinator management in vineyards.
Some of the best plants for long-tongued bees like bumble bees and honey bees are grown for livestock. This week we dive deep into these livestock plants with Dr. Serkan Ates. Dr. Ates is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences.
There is nothing about browsing though a magazine. There are some great beekeeping magazines, but what’s missing is a magazine devoted to pollinators more broadly. Enter 2 Million Blossoms, a new quarterly magazine launched in January.
When you think of a bee you probably think of an insect hard at work growing its nest and pollinating plants. But over 10% of bees are kleptoparasites; bees that don’t build their own nests, but are parasites on other bees.
Many of us put mason bees out in our backyard or farm. But when they leave the nest, do you know where they are going to forage? In this episode we hear how a sleuthing graduate student in Seattle is beginning to piece together a picture of what resources these bees are actually using.
Hedgerows can be great ways to attract pollinators in agriculture and forestry settings. But how can such relatively small plantings impact pollinator abundance and diversity on larger scales? This week we dig deep into the science of how hedgerows contribute to pollinator health.
Literacy on pollinator biology and ecology in the US is poor. But schools can be skittish about insects, especially bees, and teachers lack resources to make pollinator education come alive. This week we hear about an initiative that to get around these obstacles – The Bee Cause Project.
What happened in 2019 when it came to Apiculture? We visit the Apiculture unit at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry in Lethbridge to find out. Hear about highlights from Apimonida, the introduction of an Asian giant hornet in ...
People living in cities are confronted by a range of pest problems, some of which impact pollinator health. This week we hear about an initiative to make science-based information on managing these pests clearer, more intuitive and easy to find.
The Pacific Northwest got not just one, but two great pollinator positions in 2019. Claire Kremen has moved her lab from Berkeley to the University of British Columbia and Corin Pease is the new regional Pollinator Conservation Planner at Xerces.
Alfalfa leafcutting bees don’t get the attention of honey bees, but they are also a remarkable example of how people have learned to manage a bee species. It’s often hard to get details about this industry, but this ...
Oregon’s bumble bees are all hibernating. Mated bumble bee queen are known to winter in loose soil or leaf litter, but we don’t know much more beyond that. This week we talk with Rich Hatfield about a new community ...
Ever heard the term “native beekeeper” before? Me neither, until I talked with Gregory Lynch from the Miel Montréal Co-op. In this episode he explains how the Co-op has developed a wide range of educational services that ...
Andony Melathopoulos |
Nov 2019 |
Podcast episode
Photo: Bee Informed Partnership (Cropped from original)
The Honey Bee Research and Extension program focuses on honey bee health, nutrition, and pollination with a goal of servicing commercial beekeepers, backyard beekeepers, producers, and all citizens that are interested in bees.
Every beekeeper should seek to have hives that are healthy and productive. Today, the many threats to honey bee health — including parasites, pests, disease, pesticides, and inadequate nutrition — make achieving this goal a major challenge. Successful beekeeping means closely monitoring bee health and taking proactive steps to protect them.
Nov 2019 |
Online resource
Photo: Honey Bee Health Coalition (Cropped from original)
From the Honey Bee Health Coalition: "This tool will walk you through the decisions you need to make to determine how best to manage varroa mites in your hives. Answer each of the following questions, and the tool will generate a list of your options. If you need more information to help you answer the question, we’ve included that as well."
In this episode we take a stroll through the tradeshow at the world’s largest beekeeping conference, Apimondia, which was held in Montreal, Canada in September. In this episode you’ll hear about a machine that can turn ...
Roads crisis-cross the state of Oregon, making roadsides an appealing focus for creating an interconnected network of pollinator habitat. But roadside habitat has to fit within the constraints faced by Departments of Transports. In ...
There is a lot of ground under solar panels that could be planted to pollinator habitat. In this episode guest host Maggie Graham (MSc candidate, Water Resources Science, OSU) talks with John Jacob, a Southern Oregon beekeeper,...
How important are trees to the health of bees? In many cases we don’t know because trees are a lot bigger than us. That doesn’t stop our next guest from scaling into the canopy for her research. This week we ...
Pollinating crops can be difficult on honey bees. Since 2014, the California Almond Board has been working with beekeepers, pest control advisors and groups like Project ApisM to come up with standards (Best Management Practices, BMPs) to increase the health of bees in California Almonds.
Learning the bees of your local area can be a daunting task. Most guides and keys, for example, include bees that don’t even exist where you live, and are packed with hard-to-understand terminology. This week we talk to ...
The Fourth International Pollinator Conference was held in Davis, CA. In this episode you will hear about some of the interesting new research happening on pollinator health from around the world. 2019 International Pollinator ...
Honey bee queen quality is an often overlooked dimension of colony health. In this episode we catch up with Dr. Shelley Hoover who is the Apiculture Researcher with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. She tells us about...
In this episode we talk with Dr. Rosalyn (Ros) Johnson from Yardbio.com about how to establish local, native, and drought-tolerant species in backyards to support pollinators and wildlife. After Dr. Johnson earned her degree in ...
Although solitary bees make up the bulk of bee diversity, there hasn’t been a comprehensive biology book about them. That is until now. This week we catch up with Dr. Bryan Danforth about his new book, The Solitary Bee, authored along with Frances Fawcett, John Neff, and Robert Minckley.
Squash bees were recently discovered in Oregon last year. This week we talk to Dr. Jim Cane about the biology of squash bees and what how far (and fast) it might spread into the state. We also take this opportunity to ...
There has been a lot of attention lately to whether there is a long-term towards declining insect abundance across the world. This week we catch up with Dr. Tyson Wepprich who recently reported on butterfly abundance declines ...
Public outreach may seem simple, but impactful and effective outreach is an art. Bonnie Shoffner from Portland Metro is a real pro at pulling off pollinator outreach events and this week she shares here secrets for success.
Oregon and Florida may seem miles apart, but the role of bees in both states has remarkable parallels. This week Dr. Rachel Mallinger University of Florida talks about blueberry pollination, bees in forest systems and interests of gardeners around bees in the Sunshine State.
Watermelons are hard notoriously to pollinate. But pollination is not their only problem; they can also experience reduced yield from pest damage. This week we hear from Jacob Pecenka, a PhD candidate at Purdue University, from ...
To mark 100 episodes of PolliNation we have assembled the dedicated faculty from OSU to answer your questions: Lincoln Best (Taxonomist, Oregon Bee Atlas), Dr. Sandra DeBano (OSU Terrestrial Invertebrate Ecology Lab, Hermiston), ...
Adam Allington in a reporter with Bloomberg Environment in Washington DC. He covers environmental issues including pesticides and chemicals. Prior to coming to Bloomberg he spent more than ten years working in public radio. Over ...
Bob Falconer joined the OSU Master Gardeners in 2009 but has been gardening since the 1970s. He’s been involved with horticulture since high school, with experience spanning 50 years. He was part of the team that developed ...
Hannah Levenson is a North Carolina native with a diverse research background ranging from working on reef degradation in The Bahamas to the impacts of pesticide applications on honey bee hives in South Dakota. Now she is a ...
Dr. Mia Park is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biological Sciences Department at North Dakota State University, Fargo. Dr. Park’s research asks, “Who are our wild pollinators? How are they impacted by anthropogenic disturbance? ...
Although we estimate there are 500 species of bees in Oregon, there has never been a concerted survey of the state’s bees. Without even a checklist of species, it is very difficult to know whether the health of Oregon bees is improving or declining.
In this episode, Aaron Anderson, a Ph.D. student in the OSU Department of Horticulture, talks about his research on gardening with native plants. Under the direction of Dr. Gail Langellotto, Aaron is researching native plants ...
Dr. Elina L Niño’s research interests are broad and range from understanding reproductive processes involved in queen bee mating to developing and evaluating new control methods to combat Varroa mites.
Dr. Cane is a Research Entomologist with the USDA’s Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research in Logan, UT. Dr. Cane has been interested in comparative studies of solitary bees for 30 years, beginning with the ...
Left unchecked, varroa mites can severely damage the colony and lead to collapse. Visual inspection of honey bee adults is not a reliable way to monitor for varroa. This video demonstrates two methods for sampling a colony for varroa mites: the alcohol wash and the powdered sugar shake.
Pierre Lau is a Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University, where he has devoted his time and effort to studying honey bee nutritional ecology. He started building his academic resume at the University of California, San Diego ...
Dr. Casey Delphia is a Research Scientist at Montana State University and Associate Curator of Apoidea in the Montana Entomology Collection (MTEC) where she conducts research on managed solitary bees and wild native bees in agricultural and wildland ecosystems.
This week we talk with Kim Flottum. Kim has not only thought long and hard about communicating with people of bees, as editor of Bee Culture and BEEKeeping magazines, but he has a tremendous sense of the history of this endeavor, being situated in the historic A. I. Root Company in Medina, OH.
This week we are joined by Rebecca Perry and Grace Cope from Dr. Adam Dale’s Landscape Entomology program at the University of Florida. Rebecca is a graduate student whose masters project focused on conserving monarch ...
Steve Peterson has been working with cavity nesting bees for a long time. His company, Foothill Bee Ranch, helps people figure out how to make solitary bee systems work in crops like almonds, cherries, plums, strawberries, alfalfa seed, carrot seed, onion seed and lettuce seed.
Dr. Chakrabarti is currently working as a post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Ramesh Sagili’s Honey Bee Lab at Oregon State University. Her chief focus lies in improving honey bee health by understanding honey bee nutrition and deciphering the effects of pesticides on pollinators.
Lynda Boyer was hired in 2001 by Heritage Seedlings to facilitate restoration of native habitats on nursery properties and manage a native seed production program. Heritage Seedlings now grows over 120 species of native Willamette...
Kathleen Baughman is a 1995 graduate of Washington State University with a degree in Landscape Architecture. In 2009, Kathleen made a lateral shift into Horticulture and worked in pest management at a rose nursery for several years before coming to Iwasaki Bros., Inc.
Harry Vanderpool has been a beekeeper for 25 years in the south hills of Salem, Oregon. Vanderpool Farms is now a family operation providing pollination services and farm direct honey. Harry has served as Vice President and ...
Sarah Kincaid is an entomologist and pollinator specialist in the Insect, Pest, Prevention, and Management Program (IPPM) with the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA). Sarah is a founder and ODA IPPM project lead for the Oregon Bee Project.
Dr. Valerie Peters is an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at Eastern Kentucky University. Valerie is an ecologist interested in the conservation of biodiversity, with research projects both in Kentucky but also Costa Rica,...
Dr. Mogren is an assistant researcher of pollinator ecology at University of Hawaii Manoa, with a research program focused on how nutrition can be used to increase pollinator health to mitigate stress caused by pesticides, parasites, and disease.
Oregon is one of the biggest vegetable seed producing states in the US. In this episode, we catch up with Robyn Shephard, an agronomist with Lakeside Ag-Ventures, in a red radish seed field to learn how hybrid systems work...
Emily is a PhD student in entomology at Pennsylvania State University. Her work focuses on the plant-pollinator interactions, with a focus to supporting pollinators and biodiversity in urban environments. Emily did her undergraduate ...
David Cantlin is the Facility and Operations Manager for the City of Fife in Washington State, where he is implementing his Bee Clover project. His goal is to educate the people of Fife of the wonderful benefits that clover...
Dr. Chelsea Cook is a postdoctoral researcher, funded by the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellowship, at Arizona State University. Chelsea’s focus is using behavior, neurophysiology, and genetics to understand how social insects organize, especially to accomplish critical tasks.
How can we ask not what greenspaces can do for us but what greenspaces can do for the environment? Portland-based Pro Time Lawn Seed was one of the first businesses to tackle this question, with the founder of the company...
Lila Westreich is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, in the Department of Environment and Forest Sciences. She has a B.S. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Minnesota. Her ...
The OSU Research Retinue goes into depth on research papers that have been recently featured in the news. We convened Retinue this week to review a paper that got a fair amount of press over the past few months. ...
This episode explores the fascinating relationship between bees and specialty seed crops. Oregon vegetable and flower seed industries are deeply invested in the health of pollinators. Moreover, the great conditions for growing seeds ...
Courtney MacInnis received her MSc from the University of Alberta in 2017. As a MSc student, Courtney examined the viability and infectivity of Nosema ceranae spores in various substrates associated with honey bee colonies. ...
Dr. Sara Galbraith is a postdoctoral researcher in the Forest Animal Ecology Lab at Oregon State University in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. She has a B.A. in Biology from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. in...
Michelle Flenniken is an Assistant Professor in the Plant Sciences Department at Montana State University. She is a microbiologist investigating honey bee host–pathogen interactions and Co-Director of the Pollinator Health Center at ...
Our guest today is Danielle Downey, the Executive Director for Project Apis m., whose mission is to fund and direct research to enhance the health and vitality of honey bee colonies while improving crop production. Danielle has...
Rich Hatfield is a senior conservation biologist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. He has authored several publications on bumble bees, including a set of management guidelines entitled Conserving Bumble Bees.
We are starting a new series to help expand our understanding of the amazing diversity in the bee genera of the Pacific Northwest. This week, we are focusing on the small carpenter bee from the genus Ceratina with Dr. ...
In past episodes, we have highlighted the important role golf courses play in pollinator health. In today’s episode, we talk about a fantastic success story here in Oregon. Earlier this month, Stewart Meadows Golf Course in ...
Ralph (Mike) Rodia, a life time member of the Oregon State Beekeepers Association (OSBA) and the Willamette Valley Beekeepers Association [WVBA], has a PhD in Organic Chemistry, was a research scientist, college educator, ...
This week we catch up with Lori Weidenhammer about her book Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide to Saving the Bees. Lori was recently through Corvallis for the Oregon Bee School and this offered an opportunity to talk about the book before class one morning.
This week, students with Oregon State University’s Bee School took a break in the OSU Pollinator Gardens on their last day of class (they were working on the Apidae) to ask questions of native bee biologist Sam Droege. ...
Beginning in 2013, Oregon faced a series of bumble bee poisoning incidences associated with pesticide use on linden trees. In response, the Oregon Legislature passed the Avoidance of Adverse Effects on Pollinating Insects bill.
Alfalfa leafcutting bees (Megachilie rotandata) don’t make the headlines like honey bees do, but they are pretty important to agricultural production. These bees pollinate alfalfa plants to make the seed that gets planted out ...
Bees can live in some extreme environments; from the hot deserts of the US southwest, to the tundra in Alaska and northern Canada. Dr. Hollis Woodard’s research focuses on the underlying mechanisms that allow these bees to ...
Oregon just hosted its largest Pollinator Week in its history and we thought it was a great opportunity to catch up with some of the people who made the over 20 events in the state happen. We start the episode at the...
PolliNation was joined this week by Drs. Margaret Couvillon and Roger Schürch from Virginia Tech. As you will learn in this episode, the Couvillon Lab investigates the dynamics of how pollinators collect their food in the ...
Dr. Ramesh Sagili is an Associate Professor in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University and heads up OSUs mighty Bee Lab. He is a regular guest on PolliNation and this week he comes on the show to tell ...
Mimi Jenkins is a PhD candidate at Clemson University in wildlife biology studying how wildflowers in watermelon fields affect the diversity and crop pollination services by native bees to watermelon. Mimi works with watermelon ...
Ron has worked with honey bees since childhood, producing a million pounds of honey and thousands of queens and packages. He has had bee farms in Pennsylvania, Florida, Saskatchewan, and Alberta and has migrated bees for ...
Eleven years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator ...
The OSU Research Retinue reviews a research study that garnered a fair amount of press this month on the connection between lawn mowing frequency and bee abundance and diversity. The study, led by Susannah Lerman from USDA ...
Heather began working with honey bees in 1987 at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia, Canada and completed a Master’s degree in bee research under Mark Winston. On completion she took on the position of SFU ...
Lincoln Best is the Lead Taxonomist for the Oregon Bee Project/Atlas. He is obsessed with natural history, the little things, and designing plant communities to support biodiversity. He has studied the biodiversity of native bees from Haida Gwaii to Tasmania, and from Baja California to Taiwan.
Last month the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR) announced a $7 million investment in Pollinator Health. FFAR targeted key gaps in our ability to focus research into innovative and concrete initiatives that can ...
The Oregon State Beekeepers Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the well-being of honey bees and to the fields of beekeeping, apiculture, research, and education.
Travis Owen is a self-described nature enthusiast with a passion for pollination ecology and the role of pollinators in the environmental context of Southern Oregon. His passions have grown and evolve over time. In his twenties ...
Briana Ezray received her BA in biology from Willamette University and worked for the Oregon Department of Agriculture on a survey of native bees pollinating crops. She began her PhD in Entomology at the Pennsylvania State ...
Dr. Chris Marshall is the curator of the Oregon State Arthropod Collection (OSAC) located at Oregon State University. In this episode, Dr. Marshall discusses the value of museum collections in being able to piece together ...
This week we are joined by Heath Keirstead and Jerry Paul from the Benton Soil and Water Conservation District (BSWCD). Heath is BSWCD’s Communication and Community Engagement Manager and Jerry has been involved with BSWCD as ...
John Gates has been a beekeeper for 43 years. He served as the Apiculture Specialist British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Apiculture Program 1975-2002. He was a full-time commercial beekeeper from 2002-2015, specializing in bee...
Mark Winston was the recipient of the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction for his book Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive. One of the world’s leading experts on bees and pollination, Dr. Winston is also an internationally recognized researcher, teacher and writer.
The Research Retinue is a new segment on PolliNation that goes into depth on research papers that have been recently featured in the news. The Retinue is made up of intrepid OSU undergraduates and this week involved Addison ...
Rose Kachadoorian is a Pesticide Regulatory Leader with the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) and oversees efforts involving pesticide registrations, certification and licensing of pesticide applicators, endangered species, and other ...
Tom Landis has a PhD in Forest Ecology and has worked for 30 years as a nursery specialist for the USDA Forest Service. He now runs Native Plant Nursery Consulting and is a member of the Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates, where he provides educational and hands-on Milkweed and Monarch Workshops.
Representative Jeff Reardon has served the East Portland District of Happy Valley (District 48) in the Oregon Legislature since January 2013. Shortly after coming to office there was a tragic pesticide poisoning of bumble bees in a suburban big-box parking lot in Portland.
Dr. Ramesh Sagili is an Associate Professor in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. He obtained his PhD in Entomology from Texas A&M University in 2007, specializing in honey bee research. His primary research focus at OSU is honey bee health, nutrition and pollination.
Alison Center has worked as a wildlife biologist for the Bureau of Land Management and U. S. Forest Service and volunteers on the Coast Fork Willamette watershed council’s technical team. She is presently working as the ...
John Gruszka served as the Provincial Apiculturalist in Saskatchewan, Canada between 1978 and 2011. As John mentions in the interview, Saskatchewan is one of the most productive honey producing places on the planet, but it ...
BEEvent is really without equal in the US. Started in 2014, this annual event provides gardeners and land managers with the practical knowledge and tools to help bee pollinators. The conference is organized by the Linn County ...
Dr. Gail Langellotto is an Associate Professor of Horticulture at Oregon State University, and coordinator of OSU Extension Master Gardener program. As the secretary of the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture, Gail works ...
Mehmet Ali Döke earned his bachelor’s in Molecular Biology and Genetics, and master’s in Biology from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. During his junior year, he started working with honey bees and was a part of...
Matt Arrington recently graduated with a Ph.D. in horticulture from Washington State University. He has experience in applied plant research with small fruit and tree fruit. Matt is currently working with Dr. Lisa DeVetter at the...
Doug is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State University’s Center for Pollinator Research. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, and he went on to receive his PhD from Ohio State University. His research brings...
Dr. Steve Frank is an entomologist who recognizes that urban trees provide a lot of services back to people living in cities. Trees also provide a lot resources to pollinating insects as well. Given the importance of trees ...
Alan leads vision, innovation and continuous improvements at GloryBee. Ranging from sustainability, technology, facilities and being a cause forward company, he is committed to ensuring GloryBee is a business as a force for good. ...
Al Shay is currently an instructor in the Horticulture Department at Oregon State University. Al holds undergraduate degrees in art as well as horticulture. Additionally Al has a Masters in Agriculture degree from OSU. Al has ...
This publication outlines guidelines for best practices for beekeeping in residential areas. It outlines the steps residential beekeepers can take to operate their bees in nuisance-free manner.
Andony Melathopoulos, Ralph (Mike) Rodia, Jennifer Larsen, Ramesh Sagili |
Jan 2022 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Sarah Johnson is the lead biologist for Wildlife Preservation Canada’s Native Pollinator Initiative. WPC is a nation-wide organization focusing on hands-on recovery initiatives for critically endangered species, and the pollinator ...
Our guest today on PolliNation is Skyler Burrows, a taxonomist working with Utah State University, the USDA Bee Lab, and formerly with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Virginia Working Landscape program.
Dr. Dewey M. Caron is Emeritus Professor of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology, Univ of Delaware, & Affiliate Professor, Dept Horticulture, Oregon State University. He spent 40+ years teaching, doing bee extension and bee research at ...
Kristen Healy is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at Louisiana State University. She obtained her B.S. in Zoology and M.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Rhode Island, her Ph.D. in ...
After a short six-year career as a public school teacher, George and his wife Susan transformed a hobby beekeeping operation into a commercial endeavor. The business started from a few swarms and a collection of retrieved nuisance hives, but now runs 5000 + colonies in three states.
Linda Hardison is the leader of the Oregon Flora Project, based out of Oregon State University’s Herbarium. The Oregon Flora Project seeks to present scientifically sound information about the vascular plants of Oregon that grow...
Dr. Jim Rivers is a vertebrate ecologist and leader of the Forest Animal Ecology Lab at Oregon State University. With broad research interests that are focused in the fields of animal behavior and physiological ecology, his ...
Erin Udal leads community pollinator conservation projects out of Vancouver, BC and was formerly the Program Manager and Pollinator Specialist with the Environmental Youth Alliance. With her background in conservation biology, she ...
David Phipps is considered one of the Northwest’s leaders in golf course environmental stewardship and innovation. While working as the superintendent at Stone Creek Golf, he received the GCSAA President’s Award for Environmental ...
Lynn A. Royce, Ph.D. did her doctoral research on tracheal mites of honey bees and has studied pollinators for over 30 years. She is a passionate scientist who cares deeply about implementing research in practical applications ...
Ellie Andrews is a PhD student in Development/Rural Sociology at Cornell University. As honey bees across the US face a range of challenges, keeping bees healthy and productive requires ever more skill and investment. Her ...
Ellen Topitzhofer works for the Bee Informed Partnership, an innovative organization across the U.S. that works with commercial bee keepers to tackle some of their most pressing pest management issues. In this episode, we discuss ...
Jen Holt is the brand new Coordinator for the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program at OSU. In this episode, we’ll learn about how Jen got interested in bees, what she sees for the future of the program, and the ins and outs of how the program functions today.
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 ...
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 ...
Scott MacIvor is an Assistant Professor of Urban Ecology at the University of Toronto at Scarborough in the Department of Biological Sciences. Scott is also a researcher at the Green Roof Innovation Testing (GRIT) lab at the ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Today on the podcast talk about bumblebees in agriculture. Dr. Sujaya Rao is a Professor in Entomology at Oregon State University. Her research covers IPM in field crops and native bee pollinators in diverse cropping systems, ...
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 ...
Dr. Dave Smitley is a professor and researcher at Michigan State University. He works with the turf grass and nursery industries to deal with emerging pest problems, and the greenhouse industry to grow plants in ways that are...
Mike Burgett is the Emeritus Professor of Entomology at OSU, where he has taught since 1974. He has conducted a huge amount of work on apiculture research, including a survey of beekeepers and growers in the Pacific Northwest...
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...
Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Utah, Dr. Joseph Wilson has coauthored a marvelous book called The Bees in Your Backyard. We discuss the book in detail in the interview, including how to tell bees apart ...
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 ...
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...
PolliNation is a podcast from Oregon State University Extension Service that tells the stories of researchers, land managers and concerned citizens who are making bold strides to improve the health of pollinators. You can Subscribe...
Learn how to attract and support native pollinators by creating and maintaining the right habitat, including features like nesting sites, quality food and shelter from pesticides.
Karen Lamson, Rachel Suits, Brian Tuck, Susan Kerr, Ellen Hammond, Shilah Olson |
Mar 2023 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Credit: Chris Hedstrom, Oregon Department of Agriculture (Cropped from original)
The small hive beetle has been a menace in many states and poses a threat to Oregon through migratory and purchased bee colonies. Learn to identify the beetle and potential damage it can cause.
Karessa Torgerson, Carolyn Breece, Ramesh Sagili, Dewey Caron |
Jun 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
An overview of mason bee basic biology and life cycle, and detailed descriptions of what is needed to start keeping mason bees, including desirable plants, nesting sites and types of nests, and caring for the ...
Brooke Edmunds, Richard Little, Ramesh Sagili |
Aug 2022 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Commercial and backyard beekeepers can minimize colony losses by establishing nucleus colonies. Nucleus colonies can quickly resolve many beekeeping problems.
Ramesh Sagili, Carolyn Breece, Karessa Torgerson, Harry Vanderpool |
Nov 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
An overview of how a variety of wild and managed bees and their pollination activities are affected by pesticide application. Provides guidelines for how beekeepers, growers, and pesticide applicators can work ...
Louisa Hooven, Ramesh Sagili, Erik Johansen |
Mar 2016 |
OSU Extension Catalog
Commercial growers who rent honey bees for pollination and beekeepers who provide pollination services can learn about evaluating honey bee colony strength, the average number of colonies needed for pollination, basic honey bee biology and pollination contracts.
Ramesh Sagili, Michael Burgett |
Nov 2024 |
OSU Extension Catalog
This publication describes hummingbirds and their habits. It explains what type of habitat they need and how you can provide habitat in your yard. Includes sources of additional information and fun facts.
Jenelle Jones, Sarah Sells |
Apr 2023 |
OSU Extension Catalog
