Today we talk with Dr. Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman. Gloria is the Research Leader at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona.

Gloria and the researchers there are involved in several projects, but today we talked to her about just two that are both new and promising for beekeepers and their bees.

Modeling honey bee nutrition requirements on a seasonal basis is an area that has not received much attention to date, as they have been for many other animals. It turns out that the pollens that bees collect satisfy those requirements on a seasonal basis. High energy in spring with large amounts of amines and fatty acids for brood rearing, less so in summer and more towards storage use in the fall for overwintering. This may affect pollen feeding, and pollen substitute formulas to optimize their diets at the right time.

But there are both seasonal and regional differences in pollen quality, and what is being noted is that with climate change affecting the phenology of blooming dates, bees may not be able to get the food they need when they need it.

Another project being studied is overwintering colonies in climate-controlled buildings. They are looking at how much food will a colony need to do this, what the population should be when they enter a building, and when should they come out of storage so that they are ready to build fast for early pollination work, or later for honey flows. In addition, they are researching the best time for a season’s mite controls to be placed for optimum control and honey bee health.

Along with this they looked at cost efficiencies relative to winter losses, feed costs, colony strength and labor and made some interesting finds relative to these costs.

Listen in to hear more about this exciting research!

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:

• Carl Hayden Bee Research Lab - https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/tucson-az/carl-hayden-bee-research-center/
• Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! 

We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com

Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com

We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum.

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Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott

Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC