Pollinator Week Series: Bee Friendly Farming with Ron Bitner (S3, E4)

Bee Friendly Farming has a good friend in Ron Bitner, Co-Chair of this Pollinator Partnership program. Ron runs Bitner Winery near Boise Idaho in Treasure Valley and for 40 some years was involved in non-apis bee management for pollination. Bee Friendly Farming has between 800 – 900 Bee Friendly Farmers, who practice reducing chemical use and use a whole row of holistic farming practices that improves the health of their soil and provides forage for bees. Ron’s goal is to double or even triple the number of BFFs so there’s even more out there for bees and pollinators. BFF are more or less self-regulated, but do have to report chemical use, acres covered, and the cover crops used to meet Bee Friendly Farming certification. Their newest adventure is working with almond growers to take advantage of the bare ground in orchards with a program called Qcify.

Tune in and find out why Bee Friendly Farming is the only way to go.

Links and websites mentioned in this episode:

• P2 Bee Friendly Farming: https://www.pollinator.org/bff
• P2 Qcify Program: https://www.pollinator.org/bff/qcify
• Bitner Vineyards: https://www.bitnervineyards.com
• The Pollinators Movie: https://www.thepollinators.net

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Pollinator Week episodes are brought to you by BetterBee. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. How do they do this? Because many of their employees are also beekeepers, so they know the needs, challenges and answers to your beekeeping questions. 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 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 want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new 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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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected]

Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com

Thank you for listening! 

Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"