Date:  Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Time:  7:00 pm (Beginner Q&A at 6:30pm)
Place: Matthaei Botanical Gardens auditorium or Online

There are 20,000 species of bees worldwide in all shapes, sizes, and colors. The University of Minnesota Bee Squad’s Brooke Nikkila will teach us how to tell the difference between different bees, wasps, flies, and even moths.  We will learn how to support these pollinators in our own backyards.

Speaker:  Brooke Nikkila

Brooke Nikkila manages bees and serves as the Program Manager for the University of Minnesota Bee Squad and their Pollinator Ambassadors Program.  She also gives pollinator talks to groups throughout the Twin Cities. Brooke first discovered her interest in bees while doing research at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where she completed her undergraduate degree in Applied Science with a concentration in Biotechnology, and has been a Bee Squadder since she finished her internship in 2015. 

Dealing with Deadouts
Date:  Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Time:  7:00 pm (Beginner Q&A at 6:15pm)
Place: Matthaei Botanical Gardens auditorium or Online

Beginner Q&A: 6:15-7:00 pm
Description:  A mockup  of a winterizing set-up that incorporates insights into ventilation and thermoregulation that Bill Hesbach discussed in September will be displayed during the Q&A by our special Q&A guest
 
Presenter:  Andrew Mills
Andrew Mills is an avid beekeeper and member of A2B2 since 2014.  He teaches the German course “The Hidden Life of German Bees” and has traveled extensively throughout Germany to visit hobbyist and commercial beekeepers, as well as honeybee researchers and beekeeping equipment manufacturers.

Speaker Presentation: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Speaker Topic: Dealing with Deadouts  Description:  Dead outs are an unfortunate part of beekeeping.  In this talk we will discuss how to clean up a deadout, and how to make decisions on what to do with used equipment.  This talk is a mix of science (what we know about disease risk) and management (how do we deal with disease risk in the real world).  

Presenter:  Dr. Meghan MilbrathDr. Meghan Milbrath began working bees over 25 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 health sciences and disease transmission risk.  Meghan worked as a postdoctoral research
associate at Michigan State University, studying Nosema disease, and at Swedish agricultural university.  

She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology 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 through the US.

She currently runs the Northern Bee Network, a directory and resource site dedicated to supporting queen producers. She is passionate about keeping and promoting healthy bees.

Description: What we do now, in August, - including queen replacement, colony splitting, mite control, feeding in preparation for winter- is anticipatory beekeeping.  Anticipatory beekeeping, versus reaction beekeeping, is the better approach toward successful beekeeping.
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Speaker: Dr. Dewey M. Caron is Emeritus Professor of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology, at the University of Delaware, & Affiliate Professor in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University.  He enjoyed professional appointments at Cornell University (1968-70), and acted as entomology chair at the University of Maryland (1970-81) and the University of Delaware (1981-2009). He moved to Portland, Oregon, in retirement, to be closer to his grandchildren.  

​Dr. Caron  remains active in bee education at state, local and regional levels, and in master beekeeping programs. He is the author of Honey Bee Biology & Beekeeping, a main textbook used in university and bee association courses.
His newest bee book (his 10th), The Complete Bee Handbook, was published by Rockridge Press in 2020. He is a major author of several Honey Bee Health Coalition publications, including Tools for Varroa Management, and is finishing a USDA APHIS Bee MD web program. His books will be available for purchase at the meeting.

Description: With years of beekeeping experience under his belt, Andy will openly and humorously expound on the litany of mistakes, missteps and miscalculations he has made during his beekeeping adventures. ​

Speaker: Andy Hemken  has been a successful beekeeper since 1995, tending as many as 400 hives, selling honey at multiple markets, teaching beekeeping, ergonomics, and farm market classes, and mentoring many beekeepers and mead makers.  Andy served as president of the Milwaukee Waukesha Beekeeping Association for 17 years and did a two-year term as the President of the Wisconsin Honey Producers. He is a member of the Beer Barons of Milwaukee, one of the largest beer and mead clubs in the Midwest, and has won 25 awards for mead making. His article Secrets of Beekeeping published in the May 2023 edition of the American Bee Journal.   

​​Date:  Tue, June 13, 2023  |  Time: 7 pm  |  Location: Auditorium at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Online on Zoom

Description: Learn to distinguish between healthy and sick brood and to recognize signs of European Foulbrood, American Foulbrood, chalkbrood, and varroa parasitic mite brood syndrome.

Speaker: Ana Heck is Michigan State University's apiculture extension educator. She learned beekeeping in Nicaragua while working with a nonprofit organization that led rural development projects. She later worked with the University of Minnesota Bee Squad and Michigan State University's Department of Entomology before joining Extension. Her role engages beekeepers, growers, pesticide applicators, and home gardeners to improve the health of pollinators. Ana holds a master’s degree in public policy and a graduate minor in entomology from the University of Minnesota.​

​Date:  Tue, May 9, 2023  |  Time: 7 pm  |  Location: Auditorium at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Online on Zoom

Description: Dorothey Morgan will discuss the reasons we mark our queens and which traits we want passed on to their offspring.  She will also discuss re-queening and catching swarms in our own apiary.

Speaker: Dorothey Morgan is president and founder of the Kentucky Queen Bee Breeders' Association, a board member of the Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Co-op, and the instrumental inseminator and founding member of ‘Chasing Feral Honey Bees’, where, selecting for the mite biting trait, she inseminates 100 queens yearly.  She’s been a resident of Kentucky since 2001, having retired as Master Firefighter and EMT from the Anchorage, Alaska Fire Department that year. She has inseminated queens for the Purdue Bee Lab and the Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Co-op, who market their queens. With her group, ‘Chasing Feral Honey Bees’, she and her team collect feral swarms in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and Central Ohio.  She was chosen Kentucky’s Beekeeper of the Year in 2018.

William Hesbach will discuss less toxic and more natural alternatives for successful Varroa control.  Bill will explain how manipulations using splits and based on knowledge of the mites life cycle can achieve successful Varroa control.