Beekeeping Education and the University of Florida Honey Bee Lab with Amy Vu (395)

Beekeeping Education and the University of Florida Honey Bee Lab with Amy Vu (395)

 

Dave Mathers

Hi, I'm Dave Mathers and I'm with the Bedford Beekeepers in southern Indiana. Welcome to Beekeeping Today. Welcome to Beekeeping Today podcast presented by Betterbee, your source for beekeeping news, information and entertainment. I'm Jeff Ott.

Becky Masterman

And I'm Becky Masterman.

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Jeff Ott

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Thank you, Dave Mathers, for that wonderful opening. Becky, Dave was in the North American Honey Bee Expo, if you remember. That's for beekeepers in southern Indiana.

Becky Masterman

Oh, fantastic. We should talk more about that soon.

Jeff Ott

Yes. I would like to do that. They do great work and we've always been very supportive of the work of the various veteran beekeeper groups.

Becky Masterman

Yeah, I love that. It was a trend, but now it's not a trend. It's just a bunch of institutions that are doing a lot of great work.

Jeff Ott

That's right. Becky, we're in high time in the summer. How are your bees doing?

Becky Masterman

They're making lots of honey, which is kind of fun. I caught a colony last night. I wasn't fast enough on space, even though my last visit was nine days ago.

And they were definitely thinking of swarming. So my niece Stacy and I dug through that colony, looked at almost every frame, and on the very last frame we found the queen and I took her out and put her in a nuc and I'm going to let them raise a new queen, but not swarm. That's my plan because they're just making lots of honey, which is fantastic, but it's hard to keep up.

Jeff Ott

It is, depending on where you are in the country, but this is very much honey flow time and we're approaching the end of our blackberry which will be the end of our honey flow. So just kind of pins and needles and then they're gonna pull the supers and get all the fall and winter prep going.

Becky Masterman

Are you watching your scales?

Jeff Ott

Yes, I am and it's really funny 'cause I was whining and crying. They were just doing nothing, doing nothing, doing nothing, and then the blackberry came on and then they shot up. So that's kinda like go girls, go girls.

Becky Masterman

Year after year, even if we've been doing this for a very long time, it continues to amaze and surprise us and catch us off guard. I mean, that's the thing — they can draw out a deep, they can draw out a medium super so quickly and fill it with honey that I don't know, it's just a fun arms race. I don't know if it's an arms race, but it's fun to make sure you've got giving them enough room and then just to see them bursting and growing and healthy. I love this time of year.

Jeff Ott

Then you sit around and say, what am I gonna do with all this honey?

Becky Masterman

Yeah.

Jeff Ott

You still have some from last year, don't you? Let's not talk about that.

Becky Masterman

I am increasing my honey sales business slowly and surely, but I don't think I'm ever gonna actually, like, say, okay, I ought to hold honey till next year. I might not get there, but that's okay.

Jeff Ott

Speaking of problems, we do have a listener question that came in recently. Do you have it there in front of you, Becky?

Becky Masterman

I do. This is from John Frederick. John says, I have six hives. Should I test all six hives? And this is for Varroa, or test one, and if the count is high, treat all six hives. And then he says, thank you. This is just such great timing.

Jeff Ott

It is. And just in June, the Honey Bee Health Coalition released the ninth edition of the Varroa Management Guide, and we talked to Dewey, who was one of the authors of that document earlier this spring, and at the Coloss meeting I talked to Matt Molucca of the Honey Bee Health Coalition and they're excited about getting it out there. And not so surprisingly, the answer to John's question is in the honey bee management guide. Boy, this is just really challenging this morning.

Becky Masterman

The rule always was — and this is actually Katie Lee of the University of Minnesota extension, this was her masters project on Varroa testing — the rule has been to test eight hives or eight colonies in a yard. So if you have up to eight colonies, you're going to test all of them. And if you have more than eight colonies in a yard, you're going to do a sampling of eight colonies in the yard.

And I think that's stayed the same. And I think the difference in the Honey Bee Health Coalition's actual manual was that if you think your colonies have Varroa, then you should just go ahead and treat them. No, I'm kidding.

But it was detection. So the threshold has changed to detection. And that's kind of a big deal. Everybody should review that.

Jeff Ott

Review that. And the other big change, in addition to detection, it's also the percentage of mites based on the mite season. So whether they're growing or their mite population is going dormant.

Becky Masterman

They've also added some information about the new mite management and mitigation treatments we have, which is kind of exciting, so that everybody can get their eyes on those updates. So this was an important release for the Honey Bee Health Coalition.

Jeff Ott

Very important. So John, there's your answer. We actually answered it in an email earlier, but check the Honey Bee Health Coalition Management Guide. They recommend checking at least eight colonies in your yard and go ahead and treat if needed.

Becky Masterman

And also the reason — I'll just throw out there — because people are like, well, if the threshold is so low, why are we testing? And honestly it's a great skill to have. It's great to know so that you can retest after you use a treatment or some kind of control method so that you can see if you still have a problem and you can actually measure what that problem was and what it is. And then does John get a hive IQ hive tool?

Jeff Ott

And most importantly, thank you for your question, John. And you will be receiving a hive IQ hive tool shortly. And everybody else who's asked questions, their hive tool is in the mail and they should have them.

And hopefully, if you receive a hive tool, please post a picture of you and your hive tool on social media, tag us. At Beekeeping Today or Beekeeping Today podcast, we'd love to see you and your shiny hive IQ hive tool. Nice.

Coming up, we have a visit with Amy Vu of Two Bees in a Podcast. And she's going to be talking to us about the exciting programs they have at the University of Florida.

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Jeff Ott

Hey everybody, welcome back sitting around this great big virtual Beekeeping Today podcast table. Down in Gainesville, Florida, I believe, is Amy Vu, and Becky's in St. Paul, and I'm in Olympia. Welcome, Amy, to the Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Amy Vu

Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's kind of weird being on this side of the interview.

Becky Masterman

We'll let you know if you start taking over accidentally.

Amy Vu

Okay, yeah.

Becky Masterman

We're excited because I think we don't have enough time to talk to you because you have so much going on with your work. So this is exciting, Amy. Thanks for joining us.

Jeff Ott

For our listeners who may not know you from Two Bees in a Podcast, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background with bees.

Amy Vu

It's fun because I went to a talk the other day and I have regular listeners, I have regular people that come to some of my talks and they raise their hand and they're like, we know nothing about your background. Like, we don't know anything about — I'm like, yeah, I just showed up here out of nowhere and here we are. You landed.

Yeah, I just landed. No, so I'm originally from Kansas. I was born and raised in Kansas. I was very close to Kansas City and I was basically a city girl growing up. When I went to school, I went through a study abroad experience in Ecuador and I loved being out in rural areas. I loved being out seeing farmland. And I was like, wow.

And I really learned — I saw my first mango tree. Right. And I'm like, wow, like this is how mangoes grow. And so I switched my degree my sophomore year at Kansas State University to agronomy. I wanted to learn about food production and how food grew. I wanted everyone to know where their food came from. And so from there, I basically did my degree in soils and environmental science with a minor in international agriculture.

And went to Virginia Tech and started my master's degree at Virginia Tech and decided to do agriculture, education, and communications. And while I was in grad school, my friends and I would go and meet at a restaurant every week and have adult beverages and sit and talk about how we could contribute back to the world. You know, what are we gonna do?

And so someone brought up beekeeping. And in my mind, I had never even thought about becoming a beekeeper. And so this was 2013, 2014, we got together and started talking about — oh, there's actually a grant from the state of Virginia that pays for new beekeepers to have a hive or two.

And so, fast forward, basically we learned a lot of mistakes. We had a sting board — how many stings we would tally up. There were seven of us that came together, got this grant to buy new equipment. And so then, I'll fast forward a little bit, but I am a scuba diver and I cave dive and Florida is a cave diving mecca in the world. And so I was kind of traveling back and forth every other month from Virginia to Florida and decided when I finished my master's degree that I wanted to move down to Florida to be closer to the caves and everything else kind of fell together.

So with my background in food production, I became a county extension agent in the Orlando area. I was very passionate about teaching people how to grow their own food. Specifically, I specialize in vegetable gardening, so growing food. During that time, I started attending the local beekeeping associations. I met a couple of commercial beekeepers through that. They took me out to the yard and I started my own small beginner beekeeper workshop. And that was kind of how I was connected with Jamie Ellis and the lab at the University of Florida.

And so I had worked with them in a different capacity. As a county extension agent, using resources that they taught me, that they provided me, I took the Master Beekeeper program through the University of Florida and I shared that information with my stakeholders. And so through that, my predecessor, Mary Bammer, she was leaving her position and reached out to me and said, hey, you should really apply for this position as the extension coordinator here at the lab. And of course, that's my dream job because I have my dream job. It's just the best job in the world. And so I applied for it. And here we are, eight years later, at the Honey Bee Lab as a state specialized extension agent in apiculture.

Becky Masterman

What you've done in less than ten years — or a little bit more than ten years — since you first touched the bees. That's amazing, Amy. What a great story.

Jeff Ott

I would love to talk to you about diving 'cause I used to dive a lot too. My dad and I one time in college — dad picked me up at the beginning of spring break and we drove down from West Virginia down to Florida. We hit all the springs. Didn't do any cave diving per se, but hit all the springs and then went out to the Keys. Anyways, diving's a lot of fun. We did a lot of diving in Lake Erie. I encourage you to do that. But instead of talking about that, you have your degree in soil. My niece is a PhD in soil technology. We call her a dirt doctor. She doesn't like that.

Becky Masterman

She doesn't like that too much. No, she doesn't.

Jeff Ott

No. Hey, it's a family of boys.

Becky Masterman

Fair enough. But let's go back to Kansas. That's like, if you're going to study agronomy, that's a place to study agronomy and you got into a big program that was really well established, right?

Amy Vu

You know, I was such a soils nerd back then. I think I had a poster of the different types of soils and soil classification in my bedroom, which is so strange to say now because here in Florida we just have sand, right? So, you know, I want to kind of think of it as the beekeeping industry and the beekeeping world and beekeeping extension has brought me back to that food production side, just in a way that I would have never thought about. Right. And so at the time I wouldn't have ever considered that I would be in the role that I am today.

But it is really cool to see this side of food production. Right, the pollination piece of it, the beekeepers working with different growers, understanding that whole process — the time of year that things are grown and that things are flowering, and that's when the bees come and pollinate and then they move on to another crop. And so I really think that they all kind of came together pretty well as far as the experience that I had in Kansas and in Virginia and now here in Florida.

Becky Masterman

Soil and honey production and honey flavor — have you at all looked into that? Because that's a thing, right?

Amy Vu

It is a thing. It's actually been a while since I've been in the soil science world. So I would probably have to work with a soil fertility person or a soil chemist or a soil microbiologist for stuff like that at this point.

Becky Masterman

So maybe after all the mite issues that we have and all the work you're doing with managing pests and parasites and pathogens, maybe then you can have the fun exploration of soil and honey flavors.

Amy Vu

Yes. We'll get to that point someday.

Becky Masterman

Yes, fingers crossed.

Jeff Ott

Amy, you do a lot of work with local beekeepers or beekeepers in the state of Florida. What's that like?

Amy Vu

Yeah, so my role as the state extension agent — my job is to take information from researchers, not just in Florida but throughout the world, and to be able to share that with stakeholders. So my stakeholders are beekeepers, people who are interested in bees, and other different stakeholders as well, like mosquito control, veterinarians, pest control operators.

So my job is very free in the sense that I can be very creative with how I conduct education. You know, something that I know — if you listen to Two Bees in a Podcast, something that we focus on a lot is pests and diseases. And so I actually just came back a couple of weeks ago from a trip to Thailand.

And so we did an international workshop where I brought 13 beekeepers from around the country. We had people from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Utah, Nebraska, and of course Florida beekeepers who came with us on this trip. And really our goal was to go and learn about different Apis species — for them to be exposed to Apis species. The other piece of it was to learn about the pests and diseases that we have here in the United States that originated from Southeast Asia.

You know, a big topic that we talk about — of course everybody knows Varroa. We talk about Varroa, but a new mite that everyone is interested in these days — the mite's not new, but you know, as far as hot topics go, Tropilaelaps is another mite that people are starting to hear more about. And so that originated in that area and so the beekeepers were really able to dive in, learn about these Apis species, where these pests and diseases came from.

Working with honey hunters. We were just out trekking in the forest in the jungle, watching honey hunters take their shoes off and climb trees barefoot to collect samples for us and be able to see Tropilaelaps in real life. So to kind of just expose all of that together. And of course, we focused a little bit on biosecurity as well. So just best management practices of staying out of your apiary for a certain number of days before going over, making sure you do laundry before you go over to decrease the risk of these pests and diseases because we don't want to be the ones bringing this over.

So some of the other practices that we did — basically what we did was we brought new veils with us. We went over, we made sure we were doing laundry in between visits. We did laundry before coming back to the United States, did laundry as soon as we got back to the United States, and then avoided going into the apiary for at least seven to ten days. And so every person did that. They were committed to doing that.

And then we also — the equipment that we brought over, the veils that we brought over — we took brand new ones, bought them brand new. They were in the bag, weren't anywhere near an apiary, brought them over and then left them in Thailand. So we wanted to minimize the risk of any sort of transmission of pests and diseases as best as possible.

Jeff Ott

The biosecurity part is a very important part of that. I mean, we talk about biosecurity in between yards, especially if you have any disease, but especially if you go to Thailand or a different country, that'd be very important, wouldn't it?

Amy Vu

So Jeff Williams and I at Auburn — he does a lot of work in Thailand and he does a lot of work in South Korea. And so he and I are kind of working on a protocol and what that looks like as far as decreasing the risk of pests and diseases. And before we do that, we just need a lot more research to understand Tropilaelaps and its life cycle.

Jeff Ott

When you do those trips like that, are you working with a local university or college there, or do you go and work with local beekeeping groups?

Amy Vu

That is a great question. We have the best international colleagues in Thailand. So we work with Burapha University, Dr. Guntamas Wongsiri, and Dr. Sanchai — those two individuals, they are very good friends with Jamie Ellis.

And so they've come to the University of Florida. They've done research in Gainesville at the University of Florida. And this trip — this is actually the third version of this trip. We do it every other year.

And we work with Dr. Guntamas and Dr. Sanchai — we call him Song. So we work with Gun and Song and they work with beekeepers. They're the ones helping us. They're with us the entire time. They're helping us find different beekeepers, contacting honey hunters. And so by the time we arrive to a location, those honey hunters are ready for us and they know exactly where Apis dorsata, the giant honey bee, is, or Apis florea, one of the dwarf honey bees. And so it's — we would not be able to do it without them. So I do want to give them a lot of credit because they're just amazing collaborators.

Jeff Ott

Sounds really exciting. How do you choose beekeepers to go with you? Just asking for a friend.

Becky Masterman

He's asking, how do we get on that list, Amy?

Amy Vu

Well, it was really a first come, first served type of thing. Some of the talks that I had locally were basically about my trip to Thailand. And so people were interested in it years before it happened because, as I mentioned, we do this every other year. And the first two were really study abroad courses. So they were focused on the students and receiving credit for the course.

And we had beekeepers that came with us and — I love students, but the beekeepers were like the real rock stars, you know? Like, we loved every second of it. They asked all the questions. They were at the front of the line. I remember the first time we had one of the beekeepers there and we went on this really intense trek. Like, we were in the jungle in the mountains.

And the beekeeper — she was probably in her early seventies and she was rocking it. Like the most — she was like, this is great. This is awesome for me. And so we decided, you know what, maybe we should make this a beekeeper only trip. And so that's what I did this past month.

So in 2026, we took thirteen beekeepers and everyone just had an amazing time. I think every single person — their lives changed just by going on this trip. Not just from the bee perspective, but just from the culture perspective. It was really, really great.

Becky Masterman

Okay, so logistically, they have to stay out of their apiary before and after the trip?

Amy Vu

That was something that Jeff and I have been talking about because there are pests and diseases that they didn't have or don't have that we do have here. And so we had just recommended that people not be in their apiary for a couple of days to a week before we left.

And then of course afterwards, because we did see Tropilaelaps there and we wanted to make sure that after we were done visiting bees, everyone did laundry there, came back home and then did laundry again and waited. Again, it's something that Jeff and I have been talking about, but we still need to know a lot more about Tropilaelaps.

Becky Masterman

If beekeepers are a secondary host, we're in big trouble.

Amy Vu

Right. Well, not the group from the University of Florida. Nope, not you.

Jeff Ott

Hey, let's take this opportunity to take a quick break and we'll be right back and talk to Amy Vu about the projects there at University of Florida.

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Becky Masterman

Welcome back, everybody. Amy, you mentioned the fact that one of the objectives of this trip was to look at other Apis species. Can you give our beginner beekeepers — or our beekeepers who are only aware of Apis mellifera — just a little bit of background about what that means and why it's important?

Amy Vu

So there are other Apis species out there that are not in the United States. And so we have Apis mellifera, which is a managed honey bee. Most of the people in the United States consider it a livestock ag product or commodity. And where they're native to, there are lots of other Apis species. So in Thailand, there are actually six Apis species, which makes it the best place to go and look at these different species.

So the ones that we were looking for, the ones that we saw, was Apis mellifera — which is the one here that we have, people call it the western honey bee. There is Apis cerana, which is known as the Asian honey bee. And then we have Apis dorsata, which is the giant honey bee. These — and I can talk a little bit about their living habits and their size in a bit — but we also have Apis laboriosa.

Apis laboriosa, we didn't see. However, it was just recently identified and confirmed that there was an Apis laboriosa specimen found in Thailand right across the border. And so they're still not even quite sure how to get to the nest because Apis laboriosa is the cliff-hanging honey bee. That's the one where, if you hear about mad honey or honey that has hallucinogenic properties from the rhododendron plant — that's from Apis laboriosa. So it is native to Nepal and typically only seen in Nepal, but it has spread here recently. And so that's a whole different topic to talk about. We didn't see it, but it is in Thailand — Apis laboriosa.

Jeff Ott

Are they all living together in the same area? Are they mixed based on latitude or altitude?

Amy Vu

They're all essentially just spread out everywhere. So in Thailand they have the mountains, they've got island life, little islands there as well, and you'll see the species in that area. Some of the species — there is one called Apis andreniformis, that one is primarily one of the dwarf honey bees, primarily in the national park areas, the more undisturbed areas in Thailand. And so we saw that two years ago. We did not see that this past time, but that's another Apis species that we see in Thailand.

The other two is Apis florea. So Apis florea is one of the dwarf honey bees. Maybe I'll just take a step back because I'm kind of bouncing back and forth. But we have cavity nesters and we have open nesters. And so that's how you can kind of identify the differences between the two.

Now Apis mellifera and Apis cerana are both cavity nesters. That means they live in holes in trees or they live in boxes — that's how we manage them. They live in a cavity. Then you have the open nesters, which is essentially just one big or small piece of comb, and it's open. And they have propolis on both sides of that comb. The propolis — there's a lot of research going on with the propolis — but the propolis kind of acts as a deterrent for ants to not be able to come and take over some of those colonies.

So you've got the open nesters and there are two giant ones in Thailand and two dwarf open nesters in Thailand. So the two giant ones are Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa. And then the two dwarf ones are Apis florea and Apis andreniformis. And so they're kind of identified just by whether they're in a cavity or they're open nesters.

Becky Masterman

Amy, you're brilliant. That was such a fun explanation. That was so cool. I'm wondering — I know in Bermuda I saw Apis mellifera kind of break—

Amy Vu

So they're not native to Thailand actually. The Apis mellifera colonies — that's the only Apis species I'm talking about here that's not native to Thailand. They're actually there also for management purposes. Just like we brought them here to the United States for management, same with Thailand. And what's interesting about it is I've asked — when you speak to beekeepers there, you kind of ask them, like, why would you not use the native species? Like, why would you not use Apis cerana versus Apis mellifera?

And the reason they do that is because they are there for production and Apis mellifera makes more honey. So from a production standpoint, Apis mellifera is their honey producing pollinator for various crops. And so that's the reason they'll have both. And they also say that Apis cerana is a little bit more difficult to manage. You can try to manage it, but they're kind of small clumps of colonies that you'll typically see.

Becky Masterman

Has mellifera kind of escaped captivity and do they have feral nests also?

Amy Vu

I'm sure they do.

Becky Masterman

But it's not talked about a lot.

Amy Vu

I don't know if it's talked about. Yeah, I don't know if people just — because so many are native, people probably wouldn't know the difference between the two. Right? The honey bee is a honey bee for them and every other species is there. And so that's a great question. Yeah, I'm not sure.

Becky Masterman

That's interesting, that's fascinating. That's such a different perspective than what's going on in the United States — to have all of those native honey bees. So cool. So thank you for sharing that.

Jeff Ott

Oh god, the effects of Tropilaelaps on all the bees. I guess it's native to dorsata and everything else. But how does that affect Apis mellifera, the western honey bee? And what did you learn? Anything that we can use to address that?

Amy Vu

Yeah, so Tropilaelaps is native to Apis dorsata, that giant honey bee that you were just saying, Jeff. Those nests are massive. I have a picture of a nest — I'm holding one and it's probably like three feet long and two feet wide. They're incredible — how big they are.

But so what we did when we went there — and I know that our colleagues at Burapha and many other Thai researchers are looking at Tropilaelaps in Apis dorsata — the honey hunters will actually go and they'll cut out a piece of brood for us, or they'll cut down the comb. And that's kind of step one: just going through and uncapping every single cell, looking for them and essentially doing a mite count.

Because Tropilaelaps is native to Apis dorsata, there's not really a lot of concern — not that there's no concern, but we just don't see the results of whether it's detrimental to dorsata or not, because they've always just kind of coexisted together.

Our colleagues at Burapha have Apis mellifera colonies. And so that's where they've been able to see Tropilaelaps on the comb. Their colonies are probably not as strong as what you would normally envision as far as looking at a nice solid brood production. So there's not a lot of information about how Tropilaelaps has affected other Apis species. I think they've probably jumped hosts to different Apis species, but the one we're primarily concerned about is Apis mellifera, just because that's what we manage here.

There's also another mite I wanted to bring up real quick. Because Amy — so we're gonna blame this one on you. Let me just tell you — this other mite has not been a problem for any other species of honey bee. It's called Euvarroa. It's E-U-V-A-R-R-O-A. It's kind of a triangular-shaped mite. And its native host is Apis florea, which is one of the dwarf honey bees — a red dwarf honey bee. And it has not been really known to jump species. And so we don't really think about it or look at it as far as it being a threat to our honey bees. But the participants were like, what? There's another mite? Like yeah, well, we really just don't talk about it because we don't see it really spreading anywhere.

Jeff Ott

Oh my gosh. That's such a crazy update. Yeah, I don't even want to go down that road. So let's switch gears. The Thailand trip sounds really cool. That would be a trip of a lifetime for a beekeeper — just to go and experience another culture and something completely different from our western approach to managed honey bees. But let's talk about managed honey bees and the projects you have going on at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Amy Vu

So many people have heard that Jamie Ellis has left.

Jeff Ott

Wait a minute, is this a break? Is that a scoop for our show?

Amy Vu

No, I don't think so. I think people have known about it for quite a while now. And so Jamie — but it was funny because when he had announced it or when it started getting announced, it was still a couple of months — or almost a year actually — before he left. So I did want to confirm that Jamie is — I'll give you all his personal cell phone number and his email address. You can send him messages.

Me and I — we still work on projects together and we're going to continue our podcast. So, things at the Honey Bee Lab specifically here in Gainesville — I am 100% extension, which means that everyone that I teach, that I communicate with, that I talk to are non-UF degree seeking students. So usually you'll hear about a faculty member teaching courses for universities. I'm a faculty member, but I don't teach any classes. That's what Cameron Jack does.

So Cameron is in charge of the instruction — the teaching and the research. And so he oversees a ton of grad students in our laboratory and they all have different projects, somewhat related to honey bee toxicology. And so he focuses a lot on — I think people know Cameron Jack as the oxalic acid person. He's done a lot of work with OA. He has students who are interested in working with OA. He also has students working with pesticides and wax. He has students working with pests and diseases like chalkbrood. He has so many students. Cameron is busier than me, I think. He has a lot of students, a lot of research projects going on, and on top of that, he's teaching students.

So any student at the University of Florida can sign up to take his class. And so that's a little bit about the teaching and research stuff. We're very sad that Jamie has left, but he's left us in a good place. He's trained us to be able to run all of our programs as is. And so the programs that kind of fall under my umbrella are Bee College — which is a two-day workshop event — we also have Two Bees in a Podcast. Jamie and I will continue that podcast as a co-multi-university collaboration. We have online courses that we do. We try to create YouTube channels, YouTube videos, podcasts — any way that we can get information out there to beekeepers is essentially what falls under that umbrella.

Jeff Ott

Does that also include the Master Beekeeper program for the University of Florida or for Florida?

Amy Vu

So I oversee the Master Beekeeper program, which is a little bit different from receiving a master's degree. So it's not the same, but I oversee the Master Beekeeper program and Cameron Jack oversees the master's students and PhD students. So yes, the Master Beekeeper program falls under my umbrella as well.

Jeff Ott

Well yes, very big umbrella. But that's a big program — the Master Beekeeper program at the University of Florida, or in Florida.

Amy Vu

Yes, absolutely. So our Master Beekeeper program is available to anyone in the world actually. So it's a fully online program. We have people from all over the world — from New Zealand, from Israel, from Korea. It's a lot of fun because for a while we were doing a kind of extension connections type of thing. We met quarterly. And I had a program coordinator that helped me with this, but we met quarterly and there were people who would wake up in the middle of the night because they were across the world and they just wanted to meet other beekeepers that were part of the program. So we've been able to kind of bring all of that together, which has been great.

Jeff Ott

Is that Master Beekeeper program — University of Florida or Florida Master Beekeeper program — would that be good for anybody throughout the country?

Amy Vu

Yeah, definitely. So we tried to keep it general enough to where you could take pieces of it and implement it into your own beekeeping operation. So it is not Florida specific. There may be some things as far as products and registration that all applies to the United States, but we try our best. Jamie and Cameron narrated a lot of those presentations. I'll be the person updating them when different things start happening, if we have different controls that are coming out. So essentially the program is for anyone throughout the United States. Now there may be some information that is specific to either the United States or Florida, but we let them know on the program — this is specific here to the United States. And so they'll be able to use that.

But the other piece of it — it's really interesting. There are so many Master Beekeeping programs out there, and they work completely differently. Part of what's in our program is that you have that one year of practical experience where you have to make your own decisions in the apiary. And I hear this all the time — it's like, you can't learn everything you need to know on the internet. I agree. I 1000% agree with that. This is one tool in the toolbox. So we've got one tool in that toolbox, and the people that have gone through the program will go out to their own bee yards and say, oh my gosh, I just learned about this and I was able to identify what this issue was because I had just heard it. And so it's really to complement your time out in the apiary and not necessarily the end all be all — this is how you have to keep bees. And so we usually take that into consideration, and that's how our program works.

Jeff Ott

It's not regionally specific. It's base information that you use and build on and grow on and manage your own bees no matter where you are — like you said, from around the world. That's really cool.

Becky Masterman

Are you in charge of the Master Beekeeper program that you actually attended when you moved to Florida?

Amy Vu

Yes, I am.

Becky Masterman

Was that your plan all along?

Amy Vu

I mean, I wish I could say yes. But here's the other thing about the program — I was already a beekeeper when I had taken the program. And from my perspective as an educator, what I learned how to do was take what Jamie and Cameron were saying in the program and use their method of teaching in my own programs. Because there are sometimes really difficult skills or difficult things in an apiary that you don't fully know how to teach. I think the waggle dance is probably one of the most difficult things to teach, right? And so to be able to hear that from someone else who can make it make sense for me — I try my best to take that information and try to make the most sense for others around me. So not only was it for the knowledge of bees and beekeeping, but it was also from a teaching and education perspective — for me to be able to go through that program and teach others the way that resonated with me, in whatever topic it was at the time.

Becky Masterman

I want to make sure we have time for you to talk a little bit about your project regarding upscaling beekeepers. Could you share that program with us?

Amy Vu

Yeah, absolutely. So I received funding — it was about $625,000 from the USDA. It was a beginner farmer and rancher development program, and the funds were used to work with a cohort of people, a group of beekeepers in Florida, to teach them — the title is Leveling Up. Leveling Up Beekeepers — providing resources so that we could essentially take someone from either a backyard to a sideliner. Whether you're a hobbyist, you want to start selling at farmers markets — what does that look like?

And so the objectives of the program focused primarily on business planning. Every single person came out with a really solid business plan. And I think that's one of the struggles that we have sometimes in beekeeping. It's like, okay, well, all thirty of you are sitting in this room right now and you're all planning on selling honey. So how are you going to market yourself? What is your business plan to make yourself different from others? And so we had the business planning piece of it, we had the marketing piece — where we had them do new labels — and then we also taught them how to create different value-added products so they could start diversifying what they were able to sell to others.

And so those were the three core components of this grant: business planning, marketing, and value-added products. At the end, we focused a little bit on apiary safety and — when these people get to the point where they need help, where they want to hire someone — what does that process look like? What are the rules and regulations that you need to be able to hire someone? And how do you keep that person safe? Basically, how are we going to do everything legally and correctly?

I struggled with that previously because — side note — I opened my own business during COVID. It was a plant business, not related to bees at all. But I kind of struggled with some of those things. And so I used my personal experience — I was like, if I have these questions, other people might have these questions too. And so that's what we did with the funding — we worked with these individuals to get them to level up. And many of them started out just doing things where they were bartering or they would sell to their friends or whatever it was.

And by the end of the program — we worked with them for two and a half years straight — many of them were in local hotels, local restaurants, selling large scale. And it was really cool to see in just a matter of two to three years — that was the funding period — I think maybe twenty-eight or twenty-nine of them out of the thirty people all came out with something that helped enhance their business, which was incredible.

Jeff Ott

That's great that you're providing that program. And I think it's a wonderful program that should be available to all beekeepers everywhere. And we have a program, a series of programs on building your business. When I got started in marketing and selling bees, I took a local community college course at a local school and sat there — none of it pertained really directly to beekeeping. But I had to sit there next to someone selling Tupperware or something and try to translate that into selling honey. And I really applaud you for providing this for beekeepers as a course to take. It's fantastic.

Amy Vu

So part of it was creating online courses — that was the first year of the grant, pulling that together. We haven't put it on our website yet, but pretty soon we will have a lot of those courses online that were available to those participants to be available for anybody else who wants to take them. And again, some of the things that we had were Florida specific because we were working with Florida beekeepers. But things regarding the business plan and marketing — those are all pretty general and can probably be used for anyone who's interested in starting their business.

Jeff Ott

Well, we'd be happy to have you back to talk about that when those are available.

Becky Masterman

Amy, it is great to hear that the Florida program is strong and continuing and is going to make sure that they keep servicing the beekeepers and you are there for them. Is that what I'm hearing as far as our final wrap up?

Amy Vu

Yes, yes. I think one of our — our lab manager was at ABF this past year and he said, oh, I'm from the University of Florida, and the person he was talking to said, oh, I heard you guys were dispersing here soon. And he said, I don't think so. So I wanted — Cameron and I are running the laboratory. Jamie is irreplaceable, but hopefully we'll have a good candidate come into that position for Florida. But the lab is still going, we're still running. People were worried about the podcast — the podcast will still be going — so I just wanted to kind of confirm and squash some of those rumors so that people knew that we're still here and still available to you.

Jeff Ott

Well, quit spreading the rumor that the podcast is ending. Just kidding, just kidding.

Becky Masterman

Just kidding. That's excellent. And honestly, it's kind of more growth for the program because you still get Jamie. You still have that relationship with Jamie. He'll still be a part of the podcast and a part of other programs. And then you're going to get somebody else. So pretty cool. Yeah, we're excited for growth.

Jeff Ott

Amy, it's been a great pleasure having you back on the podcast. Look forward to you coming back and joining us again down the road and letting us know what's going on.

Becky Masterman

Amy, we really greatly appreciate your time and knowledge. Thank you so much for joining us.

Amy Vu

Thank you, Becky. Thank you, Jeff.

Jeff Ott

It was fun to have Amy back on the podcast. She is about the only person I've met who's busier than you, Becky.

Becky Masterman

I can give you a list of people I know who are busier than me in the bee world, but yeah, that was a fun story. Because you know people and you know they're doing great work, but then hearing their whole story — it's just so exciting. And then she can go to bed every night knowing that she's helped beekeepers. She is definitely such a huge contributor to the beekeeping industry and she's making a difference and doing it with such great energy.

Jeff Ott

That was special. The University of Florida honey bee program is in good hands and they're doing a great job.

Becky Masterman

We didn't even talk a lot about Bee College or — there's just so much going on there. So I hope people go and check it out and yes, it's in good hands and it's going to be just fine.

Jeff Ott

And that about wraps it up for this episode of Beekeeping Today. Before we go, be sure to follow us and leave us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you stream the show. Even better, write a quick review to help other beekeepers discover what you enjoy. You can get there directly from our website by clicking on the reviews tab on the top of any page. We want to thank Betterbee, our presenting sponsor, for their ongoing support of the podcast. We also appreciate our longtime sponsors, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and Northern Bee Books for their support in bringing you each week's episode. And most importantly, thank you for listening and spending time with us. If you have any questions or feedback, just head over to our website and drop us a note. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks again, everybody.