Apiculture Extension at Penn State

June is National Pollinator Month! 🐝🦋
This month, we’re celebrating the tiny but mighty creatures that help keep our gardens, farms, and ecosystems blooming.

Pollinators come in many forms: bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds, and more. They visit flowers of every shape, size, and color, moving pollen from bloom to bloom and making so much of life possible. 🌸

One of the best ways to support them is to plant with abundance and diversity. A garden filled with many colors, flower shapes, bloom times, and native plants creates a welcoming space for a wider variety of pollinators throughout the season.

This June, let your garden be a celebration of color, connection, and life.

🌼 Plant something that blooms.
🍂 Leave some stems and leaves for habitat.
🚫 Skip unnecessary pesticides.
🌱 Add native plants whenever you can.
👀 And take a moment to notice who shows up.

Happy National Pollinator Month from the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners!

Photo: Lisa Walton, Penn State Extension Master Gardener

Did you know that we have a discounted rate at the Ramada State College for this event? 071826PEN

Summer Picnic and Bee Extravaganza Join us for a hands-on beekeeping weekend with workshops, demonstrations, and activities for all experience levels, including hive skills, bee products, and more. Lunch provided.

I’m learning so much and having a blast at the Heartland Apicultural Society conference in Eat Lansing Michigan!

Dear Beekeepers,

Our friend (a veterinarian & beekeeper) Katie Krebs is conducting a brief research survey to better understand beekeepers’ experiences and perspectives regarding veterinary involvement in honeybee health and management. You are invited to participate.

The survey is anonymous, takes approximately 5–10 minutes to complete, and does not collect any personally identifying information. Participation is entirely voluntary. Your responses will help us better understand beekeeper needs, attitudes, and potential opportunities to support honeybee health.

https://redcap.link/beekeepers_survey

If you have any questions about the study, please feel free to contact Dr. Redding ([email protected]) or Dr. Krebs ([email protected]).

Thank you for considering participation and for your continued contributions to beekeeping and honeybee health!

Assessing bee keepers' perceptions of veterinarians' involvement in apiary health You are being invited to participate in a research study about beekeeping practices and perspectives on veterinary involvement in honeybee health. If you agree, you will be asked to complete a brief, anonymous survey about your beekeeping experiences and opinions regarding veterinary services. This....

The At Home Beekeeping Webinar is back this Tuesday at 6.30 pm Central with Dr. Alex McMenamin from the USDA Baton Rouge Bee Lab.

Hear about the biology and management of viruses via Zoom or Facebook Live by going to: https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/bees-pollinators/at-home-beekeeping-series/

Losing this research lab will be bad for the beekeeping industry.

Researchers say closing a top USDA research lab will slow responses to honeybee deaths When beekeepers saw honeybee die-offs last year, experts at a USDA research center stepped in to help. The Trump administration plans to close the facility, and beekeepers and scientists are worried.

COLOSS North America Honey Bee Meeting June 6-12, 2026 "Save the Date"

On behalf of the Organizing Committee of the “Nutrition, Landscape Change and Honey Bee Health: A Transatlantic Dialogue” Conference we would like to invite you to participate and present at the first upcoming North America COLOSS (Prevention of Honey Bee Colony Losses) Meeting on June 6-12, 2026. COLOSS is an international non-profit association with over 2,395 honey bee researchers from 127 countries.

This will be the first time we are meeting in North America jointly organized by the Nutrition Taskforce and the BeeScholars Taskforce and supported by Working Group 3 and Working Group 6 of the BeSafeBeeHoney – COST Action CA22105, a European research network dedicated to safeguarding bee health and sustainable beekeeping across member states.

The meeting is open to all researchers (faculty, graduate students and postdocs), beekeepers, veterinarians, industry personnel, crop consultants and anyone interested in knowing about honey bee health and current research.

For more information and to register, please visit: https://secure.touchnet.net/C20607_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=110&FROMQRCODE=true

As Tropilaelaps Mites Move West, Researchers Lean on Lessons Learned From Varroa Decades of hard-won lessons from managing Varroa mites may help scientists and beekeepers detect, track, and control the Tropilaelaps mercedesae mite before its spreads and losses escalate.

It’s swarm season for sure.

How Can You Tell If Honeybees Are Going To Swarm? Swarming is a natural process for honeybees and is part of the process of existing hives multiplying through producing new queens. We learn from bee expert D...

Why Do Bees Swarm? Have you ever wondered why honey bees swarm? They swarm primarily to reproduce at the colony level, splitting one colony into two or more to ensure survival....