Banking Queens with Dr. Brandon Hopkins (S5, E52)

On today’s episode, we welcome Dr Brandon Hopkins of Washington State University back to the podcast to talk about his recent research on the benefits of indoor banking of honey bee queens in temperature-controlled storage facilities. Traditionally, queens are banked in small nucs in yards throughout the summer.

Queen banking refers to the practice of preserving and storing surplus queen bees for use later in the season. This process allows queen breeders (both backyard and commercial) to maintain a constant supply of healthy and productive queens. By drawing on banked queens, beekeepers can address a range of challenges that may arise, such as replacing aging or underperforming queens, preventing the spread of diseases, or even expanding their operations as the season progresses.

Join us as we discuss the benefits of storing banked queens indoors as opposed to outdoors where they can be exposed to all the environmental variables, including extremes in heat, cold, and even smoke!  Should queen breeders and beekeepers purchasing queens may want to consider using queens banked indoors?

Also on today’s episode, Jeff talks with Chris Cripps, partner at Betterbee about how Betterbee started and their new sponsorship of BTP.

We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website.

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: 

• Brandon's Research Paper "Summer Indoor Queen Banking As An Alturenative To Outdoor Queen Banking Practices": https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KAJSICTJDMJYBDSEWZQN/full?target=10.1080/00218839.2023.2165747 
• Beekeeping Today Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@beekeepingtodaypodcast
• Kim's Climate Change Blog: https://www.growingplanetmedia.com/blog
• Honey Bee Obscura: https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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Betterbee is the presensting sponsor of Beekeeping Today Podcast. 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

This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global offers a variety of standard and custom patties. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! 

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 welcome Blue Sky Bee Supply as a sponsor of the podcast! Check out blueskybeesupply.com for the best selection of honey containers, caps, lids, and customized honey labels. Enter coupon code PODCAST and receive 10% off an order of honey containers, caps, lids, or customized honey labels. Offer ends December 31, 2023. Some exclusions apply.

Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their support. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry.

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected]

Thank you for listening! 

Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; A Fresh New Start by Pete Morse; Wedding Day by Boomer; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott

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

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