Pollination | A Pollinator Health Podcast

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 week we bring you one of the industry's gurus - Weldon Hobbs - whose dad helped found the industry in Western Canada. 

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 than that. This week we talk with Rich Hatfield, a biologist at the Xerces Society, about a new community science initiative called Queen Quest, to learn more about the wintering requirements of bumble bees.  

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 goes beyond (honey bee) beekeeping, to promoting native bees and urban biodiversity more generally. 

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 1000lbs of liquid honey into velvety-creamed honey, the latest in varroa control, styrofoam hive equipment and tips on how to re-use plastic foundation. 

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 Transportation. In this episode we hear about some of those constraints and successes achieved in Oregon by ODOT.  

There is a lot of ground under solar panels that could be planted to pollinator habitat. In this episode guest host Maggie Graham talks with John Jacob, a Southern Oregon beekeeper who has been working with a solar panel company to get pollinator habitat into new panel installations in Oregon. 

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 feature PhD Candidate Kass Urban-Mead. 

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. This week we talk with former Director, Agricultural Affairs, Almond Board of California (ABC), Bob Curtis, about how the BMPs were developed and how effective they have been to help bees during pollination. 

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 August Jackson, who has come up with a solution - a concise guide to the bees of the Willamette Valley. 

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.

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 work to assess different commercial queen stocks and to fit queen production into crop pollination. 

In this episode we talk with Dr. Rosalyn Johnson from Yardbio.com about how to establish local, native, and drought-tolerant species in backyards to support pollinators and wildlife.

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 discovered in Oregon last year. This week we talk to Dr. Jim Cane about this bee, as well as a bee that is widespread in Oregon gardens, the sunflower bee.  

There has been a lot of attention lately to historic declines of insect abundance across the world. This week we catch up with Tyson Wepprich who recently reported on butterfly abundance declines in Ohio over the past 20 years. 

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 to pollinate. But they can also experience reduced yield from pest damage. This week we hear from Jacob Pecenka who tells us about the trade-offs from managing pests and loosing pollination and how Integrated Pest Management can provide an excellent way to navigate these trade-offs. 

There has been a lot of demand for nursery plants that are good for pollinators, but also confusion on whether these plants have been grown using practices that minimize impacts to pollinators. This week we hear from Sharon Selvaggio, Program Director at Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP), about a pilot study to see what consumers respond to when labeling pollinator plants around the practices they were grown under. 

For the 100th Episode of PolliNation we assembled our crack team of OSU pollinator faculty together to answer your burning questions.