Pollinator Week Series: Pollinator Gardens & Bumble Bees with Dr. David Goulson and Kirsten Traynor (S3, E5)

As part of the pollinator week special, guest host Kirsten Traynor chats with Dr. Dave Goulson, an expert on pollinator health from the University of Sussex. Dave Goulson has been fascinated with insects since he was a boy and was able to turn this love of all things that fly, creep and crawl into a career. One of the bumble bees from his childhood became extinct in the 1980s, so he and his research team tried to reintroduce it to the UK, first from New Zealand and then from Sweden. Although they released countless queens over multiple years, it did not reestablish. However, the new habitat they created to help it thrive has been a boon for many other rare bumble bees.

We also chat about his efforts to restore the farmland around his summer home in France to a wildflower rich meadow and the insect diversity that has returned to this nectar rich habitat. And if he had to pick a pollinator avatar, Dave would be a hairy footed flower bee—Anthophora plumipes—even though he doesn’t have hairy feet.

Links and websites mentioned in this episode: 

• David's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbnBys2Hl1T26dzO_nbgbiw
• Goulson Lab, University of Sussex: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/goulsonlab/index
• 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"