Beekeeping at FiveApple

This week I had the pleasure of listening and making notes on the presentation: "Honey Bee Overwintering Thermodynamics" by Dr. Scott Debnam, University of Montana. It's available to watch on YouTube and I highly recommend: https://youtu.be/uVWfC8IAmb8?si=WkdC6icEq1xPaeTr

I talk you through some of the main points of his talk that I found interesting. It's part of how I'm starting to study to attempt the EAS master beekeeper certification in upcoming years so you may be hearing more episodes on that process on the pod.

This is the summary of the talk on YouTube and it was a presentation from 2025 to the Western Apiculture Society:

Presentation: "Honey Bee Overwintering Thermodynamics" by Dr. Scott Debnam, University of Montana Summary: How naturally nesting bees design their cavity and utilize the three products, heat, CO2 & H2O, they produce over the winter. How can we emulate their cavity design in our managed hives to take advantage of these products. Bio: The University of Montana's Organismal Biology, Ecology, & Evolution program awarded Dr. Scott Debnam his Master's degree in Pollination Ecology in 2016 and his Doctorate in Insect Physiology in 2022. Scott is an expert on honey bee problems and pests and specializes in nest thermoregulation and the economics associated with nest thermoregulation. For the past 10 years, he has co-instructed the University of Montana's Online Master Beekeeping program, which received the 2019 UPCEA award for outstanding online education. He has taught over 2000 students from 22 different countries. As well as being an instructor at Amherst College, he is a co-instructor of the new Commercial Beekeeping program at UM Online.

 

Wishing you all a wonderful week! It's such a joy to have bee friends. Leigh

 

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• Detailed show notes with links, tips, comments. • Access to Patreon blog posts including tips and videos • Occasional bonus podcasts and early access episodes • DMs so I can answer your questions • Input on the podcast topics • Shout-outs on the show because I appreciate you keeping the show going and advert-free! 

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Beekeeping at Five Apple — talk, tips, and how-to on sustainable beekeeping from the Blue Ridge mountains of Southern Appalachia.

Host Leigh has spent the last 16 years keeping a self-sustaining hobby apiary. She enjoys helping fellow beekeepers get off the purchased-package treadmill by introducing backyard queen-rearing via specialty splits and alternatives to non-stop chemical treatments. After a decade and a half of maintaining fully treatment-free hives, Leigh now practices a hybrid approach that blends Varroa-resistant genetics with organic tools for thriving bees and minimal use of treatments. She enjoys sharing strategies with bee clubs across the country via zoom, speaking on specialty splits (so you never have to buy a package again), simple frame-based queen rearing, requeening approaches and ways to increase VSH genetics in your own backyard. Leigh’s podcast Beekeeping at Five Apple Farm—with over 300K downloads— makes these and other topics available free, anytime.

Did you know honey bees are able to detect lung cancer by smell? Today I share that amazing study as well as more about the scents our bees use to communicate vital info: food! danger! home! here it is! Plus updates on the bee yards, black jar honey contest, new requeening presentation, Bee Expo 2027 and more.

Links mentioned in this episode:

MSU researchers discover honeybees can detect lung cancer https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2024/06/msu-researchers-discover-honeybees-can-detect-lung-cancer

Smells - by Kevin Cheatham-McFadden in Bee Culture https://beeculture.com/smells-2/

Not a subscriber to Bee Culture yet? https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/bee-culture

North American Honey Bee Expo, Louisville KY Jan 7-9, 2027 https://www.nahbexpo.com/

Speaker Info: https://www.nahbexpo.com/speakers

wishing you all a wonderful October! Leigh

 

Not a patron yet? You are warmly invited to become a Friend of Five Apple on Patreon and join the folks who make the podcasts possible, who keep the archives available and who keep it all advertising-free.

https://www.patreon.com/fiveapple

In addition to huge gratitude, you get:

• Detailed show notes with links, tips, comments. • Access to Patreon blog posts including tips and videos • Occasional bonus podcasts and early access episodes • DMs so I can answer your questions • Input on the podcast topics • Shout-outs on the show because I appreciate you keeping the show going and advert-free! 

If you can support the show  please sign up today: https://www.patreon.com/fiveapple

Beekeeping at Five Apple — talk, tips, and how-to on sustainable beekeeping from the Blue Ridge mountains of Southern Appalachia.

Host Leigh has spent the last 16 years keeping a self-sustaining hobby apiary. She enjoys helping fellow beekeepers get off the purchased-package treadmill by introducing backyard queen-rearing via specialty splits and alternatives to non-stop chemical treatments. After a decade and a half of maintaining fully treatment-free hives, Leigh now practices a hybrid approach that blends Varroa-resistant genetics with organic tools for thriving bees and minimal use of treatments. She enjoys sharing strategies with bee clubs across the country via zoom, speaking on specialty splits (so you never have to buy a package again), simple frame-based queen rearing, requeening approaches and ways to increase VSH genetics in your own backyard. Leigh’s podcast Beekeeping at Five Apple Farm—with over 300K downloads— makes these and other topics available free, anytime.

The light and the leaves are both saying Autumn has started. Our winter bees are already emerging and there are things we can do to give them their best chance. In today's episode I'm talking about the things I'm getting done to get ready for the bees journey through Winter.

kind regards to you all in every kind of weather,

Leigh

 

Also: for my past episode on Condensing Hives vs Ventilating Hives see Ep 122

*Ep 122: New Insulation Setup and The "Condensing Hive"*

A deeper dive into the why and how of the insulation setup I started using several years ago, the condensing-hive concept. For the patrons, find the links to everything mentioned in the show, and the video I made for you.

Bill Hesbach's website, with links to his articles etc

https://www.wingdancehoney.com/about

 

Not a patron yet? You are warmly invited to become a Friend of Five Apple on Patreon and join the folks who make the podcasts possible, who keep the archives available and who keep it all advertising-free.

https://www.patreon.com/fiveapple

In addition to huge gratitude, you get:

Detailed show notes with links, tips, comments

Access to Patreon blog posts including tips and videos

Occasional bonus podcasts and early access episodes

Commenting on posts (and DMs) allows me to answer questions

Input on the podcast topics

Shout-outs on the show because I appreciate you! 

If you can support the show  please sign up today: https://www.patreon.com/fiveapple

Beekeeping at Five Apple — talk, tips, and how-to on sustainable beekeeping from the Blue Ridge mountains of Southern Appalachia.

Host Leigh has spent the last 16 years keeping a self-sustaining hobby apiary. She enjoys helping fellow beekeepers get off the purchased-package treadmill by introducing backyard queen-rearing via specialty splits and alternatives to non-stop chemical treatments. After sixteen years maintaining fully treatment-free hives, Leigh now practices a hybrid approach that blends Varroa-resistant genetics with organic tools for thriving bees and minimal use of treatments. She enjoys sharing strategies with bee clubs across the country via zoom, speaking on specialty splits (so you never have to buy a package again), simple frame-based queen rearing, requeening approaches and ways to increase VSH genetics in your own backyard. Leigh’s podcast Beekeeping at Five Apple—with over 300K downloads— makes these and other topics available free, anytime.

Found a research article that was food for thought on how warmer autumns may be having effects on our bees that aren't so good: creating smaller late-winter clusters by increased wear and tear on the precious winter bees who should not be as active as the temps drive them to be. But also, it goes into novel solutions (well, not novel in Canada but novel in more Southern climes) to help. Do backyard beekeepers have any options to help? I do some thinking aloud about all that and pondering on an unexpected potential benefit of insulation perhaps?

Here is the original study if you take those straight-up-no-chaser (looking at you Susan S! ;-) : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-55327-8

For a reader friendly overview that will help you then dive into the research paper: https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2024/03/25/honey-bees-at-risk-for-colony-collapse-from-longer-warmer-fall-seasons/

Also: for my past episode on Condensing Hives vs Ventilating Hives see Ep 122

*Ep 122: New Insulation Setup and The "Condensing Hive"*

A deeper dive into the why and how of the insulation setup I started using several years ago, the condensing-hive concept. For the patrons, find the links to everything mentioned in the show, and the video I made for .

 

Wishing you all a wonderful week and let me know if there are topics about bees you have been wondering about and it's a great excuse for me to do a geek deep dive into research on it! —kind regards, Leigh
 

Not a patron yet? You are warmly invited to become a Friend of Five Apple on Patreon and join the folks who make the podcasts possible, who keep the archives available and who keep it all advertising-free.

https://www.patreon.com/fiveapple

In addition to huge gratitude, you get:

Detailed show notes with links, tips, comments

Access to Patreon blog posts including tips and videos

Occasional bonus podcasts and early access episodes

Commenting on posts (and DMs) allows me to answer questions

Input on the podcast topics

Shout-outs on the show because I appreciate you! 

If you can support the show  please sign up today: https://www.patreon.com/fiveapple

Beekeeping at Five Apple — talk, tips, and how-to on sustainable beekeeping from the Blue Ridge mountains of Southern Appalachia.

Host Leigh Wilkerson brings sixteen years of hands-on experience from her self-sustaining apiary since 2010. The podcast explores colony health, natural bee biology, and organic to chemical-free methods. Episodes go deep on seasonal management, swarm control, queen rearing, hive biology, nutrition, and sustainable genetics. Designed for beekeepers ready to go beyond the basics, with episodes for newer beekeepers too.

Leigh is a popular Zoom presenter for bee clubs and associations. Topics include specialty splits so you never buy a package again; requeening approaches; simple frame-based queen rearing; building VSH genetics in your yard; and topics by request.

Ep165: Bee Radio Reader "Reflections on the Past Seasons" by Richard Wahl (Off the Wahl Beekeeping Column, Nov 2025. Read by permission of Bee Culture magazine. )

Today it's a radio reader episode on learning to reflect on the past in a way that makes it useful for the future. As well as a bit of clarification on the last episode.

Link to the article: https://beeculture.com/off-the-wahl-beekeeping-46/

Link to another good on in the same issue: https://beeculture.com/minding-your-bees-and-cues-50/ Becky Masterman & Bridget Mendel on the fascinating Nasonov gland in "Come Hither."

Both full articles are available free online. And while you are there you can get access to the whole archive with a digital subscription for as low as $24. https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/bee-culture

Wishing you all a wonderful week and sure hope I'll get to meet a lot of you at the 2027 North American Honey Bee Expo (Louisville, Kentucky Jan 7-9) where I'm delighted to be a speaker for one of their smaller venue "Community Series" talks. I'll likely be talking about specialty splits (but of course!) ;-)

kind regards, Leigh

 

Not a patron yet? You are warmly invited to become a Friend of Five Apple on Patreon and join the folks who make the podcasts possible, who keep the archives available and who keep it all advertising-free.

https://www.patreon.com/fiveapple

In addition to huge gratitude, you get:

Detailed show notes with links, tips, comments

Access to Patreon blog posts including tips and videos

Occasional bonus podcasts and early access episodes

Commenting on posts (and DMs) allows me to answer questions

Input on the podcast topics

Shout-outs on the show because I appreciate you! 

If you can support the show  please sign up today: https://www.patreon.com/fiveapple

Beekeeping at Five Apple — talk, tips, and how-to on sustainable beekeeping from the Blue Ridge mountains of Southern Appalachia.

Host Leigh Wilkerson brings sixteen years of hands-on experience from her self-sustaining apiary since 2010. The podcast explores colony health, natural bee biology, and organic to chemical-free methods. Episodes go deep on seasonal management, swarm control, queen rearing, hive biology, nutrition, and sustainable genetics. Designed for beekeepers ready to go beyond the basics, with episodes for newer beekeepers too.

Leigh is a popular Zoom presenter for bee clubs and associations. Topics include specialty splits so you never buy a package again; requeening approaches; simple frame-based queen rearing; building VSH genetics in your yard; and topics by request.