LACBA Speaker November 4, 2024 - Christina Waters PhD MBA (In person lecture)

The Molecular Secrets of Survivor Bees

Research: I focus on the translation of genotype-phenotype relationship to improving bee health. The research emphasis focuses on the rich diverse genome of the southern California Survivor Bee (scutellata hybrids) that can be valuable in ensuring the production of food crops in California due to evolving pollinator requirements and climate change.

Expertise: Population Genomics, Sequencing, Biomarker development
Publications: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawaters/
Website: https://www.rarescience.org/

LACBA Speaker October 7, 2024 - Katie Lee, PhD

Title: Top Tips & Tricks for Easier Beekeeping

Description: I’ve had the privilege of traveling the country working for beekeepers by digging through their colonies to perform health assessments. This talk covers the tips I’ve learned from beekeepers and use when working with honey bees. Topics range from keeping equipment clean to signs of colony health.
Bio: Katie Lee is the University of Minnesota Extension Educator in Apiculture and co-coordinator for the Minnesota Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant program. Katie received her master’s and doctorate in entomology from the U of MN where she specialized in honey bees and focused on improving colony health. She spent six years traveling the US assessing beekeeper colonies for a non-profit called the Bee Informed Partnership, and kept >200 colonies for a research project looking at the benefits of pollinator planting on pollinators. Working with the U of MN Bee Lab, Katie develops educational resources for beekeepers and does a bit of practical research. For SARE, she helps connect people with SARE grants and educational resources. https://beelab.umn.edu/

LACBA Speaker September 9 - Tree Krzewski

Tree’s Bees with Tree Krzewski - Products of the Hive

In Person Event
Have you ever wondered what you could do with all the honey and wax that you get from your hive?  You would be surprised by how many bee-related products you can make from your hives and then gift or sell to others.  While they are fun to make, you can also earn a bit of income while doing so.

Tree has been a backyard beekeeper since 2008 and is always finding new products to make to utilize beeswax and honey.  She will share with you her experiences of creating and selling some of my bee-related products.
Some of the products showcased will be available for purchase after the presentation.

LACBA Speaker August 5 - Kian Nikzad

The California Master Beekeeper Program

Kian is co-manager of the California Beekeeper Program. He was introduced to beekeeping by founding a student organization at UCLA in 2020. He, with help from advisors from CAMBP, brought beehives to campus and developed a comprehensive beekeeping training program. Kian's background is in sustainability project management, strategic sourcing, and computer science. He enjoys traveling, learning history, conservation projects, and gardening.

LACBA Speaker July 1 - Lauren Park

Beekeeping Around the World

Lauren Park, a Commercial Beekeeper based in Nova Scotia Canada, completed a 2022 Nuffield Canada Agriculture Scholarship. This scholarship provided her with the chance to visit beekeepers and agricultural partners in 13 countries worldwide to investigate challenges related to bee health. Lauren's main focus was on addressing questions about queen health and identifying reasons behind the attribution of colony losses in Canada to queens. The outcomes of her travels encompass a comprehensive exploration of bee and queen health complexities from a beekeeper's standpoint, as well as an examination of how industry collaboration can enhance the future of the beekeeping industry. Lauren's talk will focus on highlights of her travels as well as a snapshot of her home farms Cosman and Whidden Honey Ltd. and Forest Hill Apiary in Nova Scotia, Canada.

LACBA Speaker Panel for June 3, 2024 - Face-to-Face Panel with LACBA Past Presidents

Ask 4 Beekeepers, Get 5 Answers!

Meet the Presidents!
Our 4 panelists will attend in person. We will welcome Bill Lewis, Jeremy Jenson, Keith Roberts and Jonathan Reese

Moderator: Barbara Knighton

If LACBA had a Mount Rushmore, these four faces would be carved in stone, in recognition of their contributions as our past presidents of LACBA. Continuing the tradition set by founding president, Captain J. T. Gordon, in 1873, these are the leaders that have carried forward our mission to educate beekeepers and the public about bees and beekeeping practices. Join us to learn which is harder: managing hives of thousands of stinging insects or managing a club of hundreds of beekeepers. Bring your questions and join us at our June meeting for a panel discussion with these illustrious beekeepers and leaders of beekeepers.

LACBA Speaker for May 6, 2024 - Kamon Reynolds

Splitting Bee Colonies

Kamon Reynolds is the co-founder of one of the largest beekeeping conferences in North America, North American Honey Bee Expo. Kamon runs Tennessee's Bees LLC and he has been keeping bees in N. Central Tennessee for 20 years.

Kamon keeps 300 hives with his wife Laurel. Kamon and Laurel also have filmed hundreds of educational videos to help new and veteran beekeepers around the world keep their bees successfully. Though Kamon does 99% of the talking, Laurel has been Beekeeping for 16 years, was a Beekeeper prior to their marriage, and is an invaluable part of their Business Tennessee’s Bees LLC. Tennessee’s Bees specializes in quality Bee Genetics, Pure Tennessee Honey, and Honeybees.

LACBA Speaker for April 1, 2024 - Giangelo “Gio” Leos

Bees, Urban Native Habitat, & Conservation: Growing for Community

Giangelo “Gio” Leos is the Education & Program Director at Food ED (Food Exploration & Discovery), with a specialty in invertebrate education, community partnership, soil management, and urban agroecology. He serves his community as a Master Gardener, Master Herpetologist, Master Composter, California Rare Fruit Tree member, certified California Naturalist, UC Climate Steward, and certified Pollinator Steward. As a Xerces Society Ambassador, Giangelo shares the mission and vision of North America's largest invertebrate conservation organization in the San Gabriel Valley and beyond. 

explorefooded.org

LACBA Speaker for March 4, 2024 - Dr. Zac Lamas

Why Don’t We Sample Drones for Varroa?

Welcome to the world of Dr. Zac Lamas. I am a researcher who studies virus transmission in honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera). I approach all of my research questions from the perspective of a behavioral ecologist. I want to know how behaviors of the host, or the vector can drive viral transmission. My studies are not only important for beekeepers, and understanding social insects, but also broadly to understand how pathogens affect social behavior.

Most students take a gap year before graduate school. I took a gap decade. During that twisty, “turny” time my life took me across the United States. I ran a bio-dynamic farm; milking cows and pasture raised poultry for CSA members. I managed fine dining restaurants at luxury hotels and spent winters roofing houses in North Carolina. And during most of that time I spent years up and down the east coast of the United States producing and selling thousands of honeybee colonies and queens. Ultimately all these experiences coalesced when I decided to go back to school. I wanted to pursue a PhD while answering one question: How can relatively few mites kill a populous honeybee colony?

After 10 years out of academia I was a very unlikely PhD candidate, but my findings overturned decades of research about Varroa and the honeybee, and led to new methods to study honey bees.

My work continues as a post-doctoral researcher at in the Evan’s Lab in Beltsville, MD at the USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory. Using functional genomics my work will attempt to link behaviors with the genes and pathogens that regulate them.

https://zaclamas.com/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zachary-Lamas

LACBA Speaker for February 5, 2024 - Dr. Heather Broccard-Bell

Tracking Honey Bee Viruses in Colonies Throughout the Beekeeping Season: A 2023 Pilot Study

Heather Broccard-Bell has degrees in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Animal Behaviour. She conducted her postdoctoral research under Dr. James Nieh at the University of California San Diego from 2014 – 2021, during which she fell in love with honey bees. Heather returned to her native Canada in 2021 to become the Honey Bee Health Researcher for NOD Apiary Products, developers and manufacturers of Formic Pro, a slow-release formic acid varroa treatment. Her current role is a combination of education, basic scientific research, product development and testing – and a LOT of beekeeping.

LACBA Speaker for January 8, 2024 - James Nieh

Honeybee waggle dance

Professor James C. Nieh was born in Taiwan, and grew up in Southern California. He received his B.A. at Harvard in 1991 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1997. He subsequently received a NSF-NATO Postdoctoral fellowship to study at the University of Würzburg in Germany. After this, he received the prestigious Harvard Junior Fellowship. In 2000, he joined the faculty in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California San Diego where he is a professor in the Department of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. He held the Heiligenberg Chair of Neuroethology, was chair of his department, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society in 2017. He is an Associate Dean in the School of Biological Sciences.

Dr. Nieh’s interests focus on bee communication, cognition, and health. He studies many types of social bees, including honey bees, bumble bees, and stingless bees. His lab studies natural and man-made stressors of social bees. A major part of his work focuses on foraging and communication in honey bees and honey bee health. The research on honey bee health focuses on how pesticides alter honey bee behavior and learning, how a common pathogen, Nosema ceranae, infects bees and alters their behavior, how honey bee immunity can be boosted to fight Nosema infection, how the bee gut microbiome may help us find new ways to counter Nosema infection, and how a nutritionally balanced diet can help bees exposed to pesticides.

To learn more about the lab’s research
https://labs.biology.ucsd.edu/nieh/

LACBA Speaker for November 6, 2023 - Albert Robertson

Saskatraz Breeding and Selection Program

Join us for a presentation on the Saskatraz Breeding Program and our honeybee research. We'll discuss the UBeeO assay, biomarkers, kinome analysis, survivor colony genetics, and the Saskatraz Hybrid Project in partnership with Olivarez Honey Bees. Get a glimpse of our ongoing and upcoming initiatives.

Albert J. Robertson operates Meadow Ridge Enterprises LTD, a 3300-acre family farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, engaged in honey production, cereal grain, pulses, oilseeds, and pedigreed seed, along with a herd of 150 purebred Black Angus cows. Dr. Robertson's journey into apiculture began in 1975 and spread to honey bee breeding in 1992, resulting in the establishment of the Saskatraz project in 2004, a collaborative effort with beekeepers from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We currently manage 1400 production colonies along with 6-700 nucs and raise 2000 Saskatraz queens each year. Simultaneously, his academic career at the University of Saskatchewan spanned three decades, during which he earned an MSc in 1976 and a Ph.D. in 1982. He has published over 100 scientific articles, holds several patents, and has significantly contributed to molecular genetics and molecular biology. His mentorship and support have guided numerous graduate students. More details can be found at http://saskatraz.com

Below is the link to the presentation to Albert talk he gave to LACBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R4ZxXChXlU

LACBA Speaker for October 2, 2023 - Dr. Ruben Alarcón

Dr. Ruben Alarcón is a Biology Professor at California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), where he teaches entomology, behavior ecology, and apiculture & bee biology.  He earned his Ph.D. at UC Riverside, studying high-elevation pollinator communities in the Colorado Rockies and the San Bernardino Mountains.   As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona he studied hawkmoth communities in the Sonoran Desert, followed by a position at the USDA’s Carl Hayden Bee Research Center where he studied honeybee foraging behavior and nutrition in almonds.   Dr. Alarcón has also studied plant-pollinator interactions on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Inlands as well as native bees in agricultural systems in Ventura Co.  Dr. Alarcón is the Director of the Pest Control Adviser Certificate Program, faculty advisor for CSUCI’s Bee Club and is leading the effort to create a Sustainable Agriculture degree.

Dr. Alarcón will be presenting some of his work on native bee diversity in pepper fields, as well as providing an update on CSUCI’s collaboration with the UC’s Hansen Agriculture Research and Extension Center to provide local opportunities for the California Master Beekeeping Program.

LACBA Speaker for September 11, 2023 - Thomas Seeley

The bee colony as a honey factory

Dr. Thomas D. Seeley is the Horace White Professor Emeritus in Biology at Cornell University. He is retired from the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, where he taught courses on animal behavior and conducted research on the behavior and social life of honey bees. His work is summarized in three books: Honeybee Ecology (1985), The Wisdom of the Hive (1995), and Honeybee Democracy (2010).

In Spring 2024, he will be releasing a new book: Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners, 20 Mysteries of Honey Bee Behavior Solved. Princeton Univ. Press.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691237695/piping-hot-bees-and-boisterous-buzz-runners/

Research Focus
My scientific work focuses on understanding the phenomenon of swarm intelligence (SI): the solving of cognitive problems by a group of individuals who pool their knowledge and process it through social interactions. It has long been recognized that a group of animals, relative to a solitary individual, can do such things as capture large prey more easily and counter predators more effectively. More recently it has been realized that a group of animals, with the right organization, can also solve cognitive problems with an ability that far exceeds the cognitive ability of any single animal. Thus SI is a means whereby a group can overcome some of the cognitive limitations of its members. SI is a rapidly developing topic that has been investigated mainly in social insects (ants, termites, social wasps, and social bees) but has relevance to other animals, including humans. Wherever there is collective decision-making—for example, in democratic elections, committee meetings, and prediction markets—there is a potential for SI.

Presentation topic:
The bee colony as a honey factory
We will explore how a colony of honey bees operates as a factory that produces honey efficiently despite tremendous day-to-day swings in the supply of nectar, the raw material for making honey. An important feature of the organization of the honey production process is a division of labor between the nectar foragers (elderly workers who toil outside the hive collecting the nectar) and the nectar receivers (middle-age workers who toil inside the hive converting the nectar into honey). We will see how the nectar foragers can boost their colony’s rate of nectar collecting during a honey flow, using the waggle dance and the shaking signal. And we will see how these bees can also boost their colony’s rate of nectar processing—to keep the rates of nectar collecting and nectar processing in balance—by means of the tremble dance and stop signal. I will show videos of nectar foragers producing these signals, each in its own, specific context.

LACBA Speaker for August 7, 2023 - Grace Kunkel and Stetcyn Maldonado

The Project Apis M
Update on Varroa Resistant Bees
Seeds for Bees program

Grace Kunkle
Communications Manager, Virginia

Grace is our champion for grad students and researchers. Her studies at the University of Maryland and subsequent Masters Degree studying honey bee toxicology and hive dynamics, connect her to the unique challenges that researchers face in the lab and field.
Her supportive approach to communications helps PAm connect with researchers and share their findings with beekeepers and the public at large. Grace has supported several bee related projects including the APHIS National Honey Bee Survey, the Bee Informed Partnership, and the Bee Health Collective website-a resource that hosts accurate industry information and advertises bee-related opportunities. She has also worked for companies studying honey bee nutrition and toxicology. You can most often find Grace walking with her dogs Mac and Lucy and taking note of the bees and bugs around town.
Grace@ProjectApism.org

Stetcyn Maldonado
Seeds for Bees Manager, California

Stetcyn is always up for a challenge. Her passion for the environment and agriculture drives her to discover new things and inspired her to pursue an advanced degree in the sciences. A California native, she holds a Master of Science in Agriculture Education and is licensed as a PCA, CCA, and TSP.
She views every day as a chance to learn something new and to share her discoveries with others.
Stetcyn works with all growers participating in the Seeds for Bees program, working towards educating and implementing best practices in cover crop management.
Stetcyn@ProjectApism.org

LACBA Speaker for July 10, 2023 - George Davidson

Understanding the Asian mite, Tropilaelaps

George Davidson has been a beekeeper for six years and has completed the apprentice level with the California Master Beekeeper Program, UC Davis. He mentors with Hives for Heroes and RAISE; RAISE is an environmental non-profit created by high school students about awareness. He has served as VP of BASC and is currently running the bee program at The Little Parrot Farm in Rowland Heights. George is passionate about getting young people involved in helping bees.

He is going to present on the Asian mite, tropilaelaps, which we don’t have at the moment in the US, but like everything, it will come. He will compare and contrast this mite with one we know all too well, Varroa Destructor.

LACBA Speaker for June 5, 2023 - Priya Chakrabarti Basu

Understanding the various facets of bee nutrition

Priya Chakrabarti Basu is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University, where she teaches “Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping”. Priya is also a courtesy faculty at the Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University. Priya studies the interactive impacts of multiple stressors on bees, for example poor nutrition, pesticides and climate change. She uses a wide array of multidisciplinary techniques across fields such as physiology, toxicology, functional biology, multiomics-based approaches and neuroethology to address her research questions. She is currently serving as the Secretary/Treasurer of the American Association of Professional Apiculturists and is also the Chair of the Early Career Professionals Committee of the Entomological Society of America. In addition to the research community, Priya enjoys working with stakeholders, policymakers and the general community in protecting bee pollinators and raising pollinator awareness. In fact, her desire for outreach and bee awareness has resulted in writing a children’s book on honey bees published by McMillan publishers. More information about her lab’s research can be found at: https://priyadarshinichakrabarti.com

LACBA Speaker for May 1, 2023 - Nathalie Steinhauer

Honey Bee Losses or Decline?

No one will disagree that honey bees are not in the best of health; but their population is actually not declining in the US, contrary to general belief. In this talk, we will differentiate the notions of population declines, CCD, mortality rates and poor health. We will clarify the health status of honey bees, in the US and in the world, identify the major drivers of poor bee health, the concerns and possible consequences of a status quo, and what can be done to improve the situation.

As the Bee Informed Partnership’s Science Coordinator, Nathalie is based out of the University of Maryland’s Entomology Department where she completed her PhD working under Dennis vanEngelsdorp in 2017. She previously obtained a Master in Biology from Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and a Master Research in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation from Imperial College London (UK). Skilled in experimental design, data analysis, and modelling, her research interests range from fundamental population dynamics and animal behavior to applied work in epidemiology. Self-described R-enthusiast, and beekeeper since 2009.

https://beeinformed.org/bip_team/nathalie-steinhauer/

LACBA Speaker for April 3, 2023 - Mea McNeil

Honey Fraud: A Cat and Mouse Games

M.E.A. McNeil is a Master Beekeeper, journalist and organic farmer. She is a nonfiction and fiction writer whose two decades of articles on bees are available at https://meamcneil.com and novel, Bee Club, will be out later this year.

LACBA Speaker for March 6, 2023 - Dr. Elina Niño

Will share an overview of what's happening in her lab at UC Davis

Dr. Elina Niño will be our speaker in March. She will provide an overview of what's happening in their lab at UC Davis and in labs in general across California. Time permitting, she will also tell us about the California Master Beekeeper Program through UC Davis and its various satellites.

My research interests are fluid and designed to address immediate needs of various agriculture stakeholder groups. Projects encompass bot basic and applied approaches to understanding and improving honey bee health and particularly honey bee queen health. Ongoing research projects include understanding queen mating and reproductive processes, discovery and evaluation of novel biopesticides for efficacy against varroa mites, and evaluating orchard management practices with a goal of improving honey bee health. Some of our more fun projects revolve around precision beekeeping and investigate the use of cutting edge technologies to make beekeeping more efficient and sustainable.

My primary responsibilities are in providing professional support and education to California's beekeepers, growers, pesticide applicators, and other stakeholder groups. I teach numerous beginner, intermediate and advanced beekeeping workshops, the culmination of which has resulted in the establishment of the first ever California Master Beekeeper Program serving beekeepers of California and neighboring states. Our team has recently completed the development of an on-line apiculture course for veterinarians in collaboration with the Oregon State University Honey Bee Lab and Western Institute of Food Safety and Security (WIFFS). In addition to teaching formal workshops I serve on various commodity boards as a research liaison and adviser allowing me to directly impact California Agriculture.  

I greatly enjoy working with the community and especially with children. To ensure that our future researchers, agriculture leaders and innovators and future voters understand the importance of honey bees and other pollinators to our agroecosystems. Our Pollinator Education Program at the Häagen Dazs Honey Bee Haven garden currently works with the Farms of Amador County to serve third grade students and we are expanding. Our team recently partnered with Irvine Valley College to develop an apiary program providing career technical education. 

LACBA Speaker for February 6, 2023

Hive configurations and honey bee observed behaviors

Frederick Dunn of "The Way To Bee" has been keeping honey bees in the northeastern United States on his rural property since 2006 with his wife, Annette.

As a Cornell University Certified Master Beekeeper, his mission is to offer honey bee education to beekeepers at all levels, with an emphasis on backyard small-scale beekeeping.

Fred performs practical testing and evaluates beekeeping-related equipment and hive configurations that suit the keeper and the honey bees.

“The largest room in the world is the room for improvement!”

Fred's YouTube Channel is Frederick Dunn, where he shares information weekly regarding backyard beekeeping, honey bee biology, and behavior.
https://www.youtube.com/@FrederickDunn

LACBA Speaker for January 9, 2023

Level of Susceptibility to Diseases Throughout the year: or, Winter bees – they can be tough as heck

Prof. Adam G Dolezal
Adam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He teaches courses in physiology, genes and behavior in the School of Integrative Biology. He studies how pollinators, mostly focusing on honey bees, respond to the different stresses they encounter in their environment. These studies have centered heavily around the impacts of virus infection and the nutritional and chemical stresses associated with Midwestern row-crop agricultural systems. Adam received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University, where he studied the behavioral physiology of harvester ants and honey bees; he then did postdoctoral work at Iowa State University.

The Dolezal lab studies how bee physiology and behavior is affected by the stressors they encounter in their environment, namely pathogens, pesticides, and nutritional deprivation. By taking an integrative approach, we can study how these factors interact with each other at the landscape, colony, and individual scale. We mostly focus on honey bees, but also are interested in studying how these factors affect other pollinators.

https://publish.illinois.edu/dolezalbeelab/

LACBA Speaker for November 7, 2022

Drone Health

Brad Metz is a researcher under Dr. David Tarpy of the NC State Apiculture Program. He is the lead scientist in charge of the Honey Bee Queen & Disease Clinic, an extension effort bringing lab-quality disease and reproductive assessments to industry and government partners. He also runs a small research program concerning honey bee male reproduction and quality. He earned his PhD from Texas A&M in 2009 where he studied honey bee chemical communication between adults and larvae. Brad is married with two children, both of whom think working with stinging insects is crazy, despite his best efforts to convince his own larvae otherwise.

Website/Contact
https://entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/apiculture/queen-disease-clinic/
bnmetz@ncsu.edu

LACBA Speaker for October 3, 2022

Deformed Wing Virus resistance

Danny Weaver from Bee Weaver Apiaries, Inc. in Texas is a fourth-generation beekeeper with a PhD in molecular biology from Berkeley as well as a JD from the University of Texas. He was recently awarded a small business research grant from the USDA in conjunction with USDA Baton Rouge and USDA Beltsville that will deal with selecting and producing virus-resistant honey bees, which is directly related to his presentation for us.

Danny is no stranger to volunteerism:
Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium, Co-coordinator
Honey Bee Genome Advisory Committee, Founding member
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, Steering Committee, 2009-2012
Pollinator Partnership, Honey Bee Health Task Force, Co-Chair, 2008-2012
American Beekeeping Federation, Inc., President, Vice-President and Executive Committee, 1995-2010
The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees, Past Director and Chairman
Various USDA Advisory Boards
Task Force on Colony Collapse Disorder, original member
Texas Beekeepers Association, past-President, Vice-President and Executive Committee
National Honey Board Nominations Committee, Chairman
Texas Africanized Honey Bee Advisory Council, Member

He has also consulted for various government agencies such as the Dept. of Defense and the USDA as well as for both non-profit and profit organizations such as the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.

He has numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals.

His presentation is about developing DWV (Deformed Wing Virus) resistance in the Bee Weaver population of honey bees, and exploring how the invasion of Africanized bees to the US in the early to late 1990s may have contributed to that effort. He may share some preliminary data with us if it is available. Perhaps by enhancing DWV resistance in Weaver bees, the efforts could lend themselves to other honey bee populations.

LACBA Speaker for September 12, 2022

Control of small hive beetles.

Atreya Manaswi is a 9th grade student and was awarded the 1st place national winner for the Science Division in the Broadcom Masters Science Fair competition. Atreya performed research on the control of small hive beetles under the guidance of Dr. James Ellis and Dr. Charles Stuhi from the University of Florida.

See his video:  (154) Atreya Manaswi | Florida SSEF Video Presentation | Junior Animal Sciences | Novel Second Year Study - YouTube

LACBA Speaker for September 12, 2022 (Second Speaker)

The use of seminal fluid metabolites as a novel medication for Nosema ceranae 

Dr. Jessica Webb is originally from Memphis, TN, where she obtained her Bachelor's degree in Biology at Jackson State University in Jackson, MS. She then went on to start her PhD in Entomology at the University of California Riverside with the Center for Integrative Bee Research where she currently studies the functioning of the honeybee immune system, particularly in regards to microsporidian Nosema ceranae, in hopes of creating a novel medication for the disease. 

LACBA Speaker for August 1, 2022

Passing It On: Educating Children About Honeybees

Presented by Kim Lehman
Children are natural learning sponges especially interested in the natural world, including honeybees. The curiosity is there. We just need to present the information in a way that is age appropriate, exciting, and accurate. Kim will share tips on setting up group visits, presentation ideas, activities, techniques, and resources. She will also discuss how to plan for different age groups from toddlers to teens.

Kim is a teacher, storyteller, musician, and author. She has presented hundreds of bee programs and workshops at schools, libraries, museums, nature centers and festivals. She founded the American Beekeeping Federation Kids and Bees Program and directed this educational service at annual conferences in fifteen states. She is author of the children’s’ column for Bee Culture Magazine and created the Bee Buddies Club which has members in every state. Kim is also a member of the Texas Touring Roster with the Texas Commission on the Arts and travels widely to share her stories.

Author
Beekeeper’s Lab: 52 Family Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring Life in the Hive

Links and websites:
Kim Lehman's Website - https://kimlehman.com
Beekeeper's Lab on Amazon - https://amazon.com/dp/1631592688

LACBA Speaker for July 11, 2022

Introduction to Evaluating Honey Using Sensory Analysis Techniques (Honey Tasting Protocol)

C. Marina Marchese is a beekeeper, author, and member of the Italian National Register of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey, where she received her formal training as a honey sensory expert. In 2011 Marina established The American Honey Tasting Society as the leading resource for honey sensory education in the United States. She is an avid international traveler and has had the unique opportunity to taste hundreds of new and old world honeys.  She maintains an impressive private library of honey samples.  She is a contributor to Bee Culture and American Bee Journal.  She also teaches a three session seminar for Gastro Obscura which includes a tasting kit.

Jason Wilson in the Washington Post writes that “…Marchese’s palate is so finely tuned that she can literally taste the beekeeper’s fear in a smear of honey.”

Author
The Honey Connoisseur: Selecting, Tasting and Pairing Honey with a Guide to More Than 30 Varietals (with Kim Flottum)
Honey for Dummies (with Howland Blackstone)
Honeybee Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper

Website:
   https://honeysommelier.com
https://www.redbee.com

LACBA Speaker for June 6, 2022

Honey Bee Health from a Veterinarian's Perspective

Dr. Britteny Kyle graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009.  Upon graduation she entered small animal practice in Toronto where she worked as an associate for several years, before switching her focus to honey bee medicine.  She was elected to the board of the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium in 2019 and served as President of the organization in 2020.  Her projects for the Consortium have included chairing the annual conference and developing a certification program for veterinarians interested in working with honey bees.  In the Fall of 2020, she returned to the Ontario Veterinary College to earn her Masters in Epidemiology with a focus on American foulbrood.  In 2021 she began her PhD in Epidemiology with a collaborative specialization in One Health to continue studying American foulbrood in honey bee populations.  When she is not studying bees, Britteny is busy maintaining her small zoo of three boys, two cats, one dog, and a handful of honey bee colonies

LACBA Speaker for May 2, 2022

“How Can We Help Bees Exposed to Pesticide”

Professor James C. Nieh was born in Taiwan, and grew up in Southern California. He received his B.A. at Harvard in 1991 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1997. He subsequently received a NSF-NATO Postdoctoral fellowship to study at the University of Würzburg in Germany. After this, he received the prestigious Harvard Junior Fellowship. In 2000, he joined the faculty in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California San Diego where he is a professor in the Section of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. He held the Heiligenberg Chair of Neuroethology, was chair of his department, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society in 2017. He is an Associate Dean in the Division of Biological Sciences.

Dr. Nieh’s interests focus on bee communication, cognition, and health. He studies many types of social bees, including honey bees, bumble bees, and stingless bees. His lab studies natural and man-made stressors of social bees. A major part of his work focuses on foraging and communication in honey bees and honey bee health. The research on honey bee health focuses on how pesticides alter honey bee behavior and learning, how a common pathogen, Nosema ceranae, infects bees and alters their behavior, how honey bee immunity can be boosted to fight Nosema infection, how the bee gut microbiome may help us find new ways to counter Nosema infection, and how a nutritionally balanced diet can help bees exposed to pesticides.

For more about the lab’s research, visit UC San Diego Nieh Lab
https://labs.biology.ucsd.edu/nieh/

YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAUbSdW6e9oLT2P2i8TQS4Q

Twitter: @jcnieh

Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/theteachingbee

"Healthy Bees for Southern California"

Boris Baer, born in 1969 studied Biology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. After fieldwork on primates in South America (French Guyana) he performed a PhD 1997-2000 at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH) in Zurich. He then moved as a Postdoctoral Fellow (2001-2004) to the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and was invited as a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (Germany) in 2005 and 2012. He received a Queen Elizabeth II fellowship and a Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, which allowed him to continue his research at the University of Western Australia in Perth. Since 2008, he is the head of the Center for Integrative Bee Research (CIBER) which was moved and reestablished at the University of California Riverside in 2018. The main scientific interest of Boris Baer is the study of reproduction and immunity in bees and ants, using biochemical methodologies such as proteomics and genomics as well as classical approaches of behavioral ecology. A main goal of his work is the development of novel tools to monitor and manage pollinator health through collaborative research with the beekeeping industry.

Contact Information:
Boris Baer
Professor for Pollinator Health
Center for Integrative Bee Research (CIBER)
Department of Entomology
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521

E-mail: boris.baer@ucr.edu
Website: https://ciber.ucr.edu
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Centre-for-Integrative-Bee-Research-CIBER/107607792730734
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ciber_bee

LACBA Speaker for March 7, 2022

Global Beekeeping
Apimondia 2022

Dr. Jeff Pettis is currently President of the Apimondia Federation, which will hold the 47th International Apicultural Congress, in Ufa, Russia, in September, 2022.

Dr. Jeff Pettis is a biologist and entomologist known for his extensive research on honeybee behavior, pesticides and host-parasite relationships. His research has led to significant breakthroughs in understanding and managing Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a primary cause of North American bee population decline. He was the former research leader at the US Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville Bee Laboratory (BBL).

Dr. Pettis is currently President of the Apimondia Federation. This is “The Olympics for Beekeepers”. It is an international congress with the mission to facilitate the exchange of information and discussion among beekeepers, scientists, honey-traders, agents for development, technicians and legislators from around the world. The next congress will be the 47th International Apicultural Congress, in Ufa, Russia, in September, 2022.

A recent podcast by Dr. Pettis can be found here:
https://www.apimondia.org/latest/whats-the-buzz-podcasts-about-bees-and-beekeeping

He is an author of numerous publications.
https://apimondia2021.com/?p=federation
https://www.ars.usda.gov/

LACBA Speaker for February 7, 2022

"Reading the Comb"

Randy Oliver is a world renowned speaker, educator, bee biologist, leading researcher, commercial beekeeper, and regular contributor to the American Beekeeping Journal. He is one of the premier beekeeping speakers in the U.S. and the owner/author of http://scientificbeekeeping.com.

Online beekeeping classes:

• https://girlnextdoorhoney.com/online-classes/

Her books

• https://girlnextdoorhoney.com/product/the-little-book-of-bees-an-illustrated-guide-to-the-extraordinary-lives-of-bees/

• https://girlnextdoorhoney.com/product/queenspotting-book/

Her social links:

• Instagram @girlnextdoorhoney https://www.instagram.com/girlnextdoorhoney/

• Twitter @GNDhoney https://twitter.com/GNDHoney/

• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GirlNextDoorHoney

• Website http://girlnextdoorhoney.com/