Final report for LNC21-448

Summary:

Small-scale hobby beekeepers and large-scale commercial beekeepers struggle to keep their honey bee colonies healthy. High colony losses mean that beekeepers need to purchase replacement colonies; low losses allow beekeepers to sustain or grow their apiaries, leading to more fiscal freedom and less stress, improving quality of life.

Pathogens can spread between colonies, so one beekeeper’s colony health can impact other beekeepers even a mile away. A unified strategy is therefore critical to the health of managed honey bees. In our project titled “Addressing honey bee health challenges in Minnesota through providing colony assessment tools and education for beekeepers,” we will develop unique support-systems: for hobby beekeepers the focus will be on developing a hands-on colony assessment and mentorship program; for commercial beekeepers, the focus will be on varroa mite diagnostics training.

With hobby beekeeper Advisory Board input, we will develop a colony assessment service and management guides to provide crucial honey bee health standards for hobby beekeepers. Our program will encourage hobbyists to participate in a community-focused beekeeping model; i.e., understanding how their bees affect the health of their neighbor’s bees, and together raising regional standards for bee health and longevity. Outcomes will include more beekeepers with increased knowledge and confidence in performing colony diagnostics, and adoption of these practices.

With commercial beekeeper Advisory Board input, we will empower commercial beekeepers to perform their own monitoring and through the development and use of a varroa mite monitoring kit. Operation-specific plans will be developed based on a beekeeper’s schedule and resource availability. On-farm, bilingual trainings will lead to increased knowledge and skills in varroa mite monitoring and confidence in implementing varroa mite control. Outcomes will include increased knowledge and use of timely mite monitoring in commercial operations, allowing for the detection of varroa issues before economic damage and resulting in more profitable businesses.

We will develop the programs in Minnesota and build a template for both small and large-scale beekeeper trainings that can be used in other regions with similar needs.

Project Objectives:

We are developing unique support-systems for different beekeepers: for small-scale hobby beekeepers the focus is on developing a hands-on colony assessment and mentorship program; for large-scale commercial beekeepers, the focus is on mite diagnostics training. Learning outcomes for hobby beekeepers will include more beekeepers with knowledge and confidence in performing colony diagnostics and monitoring for pests and diseases; action outcomes will be adoption of these practices into colony management. Learning outcomes for commercial beekeepers will be increased crew knowledge of mite monitoring; action outcomes will be timely implementation of mite monitoring into the operation.

Our five aims are:

For small-scale beekeepers:

1. Develop and provide a colony-assessment service
2. Collaboratively develop inspection and management guides with a seasonal componet
3. Design a scalable template of our assessment service model for other regions

For large-scale beekeepers:

4. Develop a mite monitoring kit that facilitates efficient disease and pest control
5. Create bilingual training guides, provide educational field days, and scale training protocols to other states within the North-Central region

Introduction:

Honey bees provide approximately $12 billion worth of pollination services in the US (Calderone 2012), making them essential to Minnesota and national agriculture. In addition, approximately 47% of US honey is produced in the North-Central region (USDA-NASS 2020). Beekeeping is also a popular hobby, side business or profession. Beekeepers are classified based on the number of colonies they manage: the hobby beekeeper group (fewer than 20 colonies), and the professional (called commercial or sideliner) beekeeper group (20 to 40,000 colonies). Nationally, all beekeepers struggle to keep their colonies healthy due to pests, pathogens, pesticides, and lack of forage. For commercial beekeepers keeping honey bees as their livelihood, high rates of colony mortality are not economically viable. For hobby beekeepers, colony loss is also a financial burden. Beyond economics, parasites and viruses from sick colonies can spread to neighboring colonies. With current knowledge about how pests and viruses can spread between honey bee colonies (Peck & Seeley 2019), and even between species of bees (Spivak & Cariveau 2020) there is an urgency for beekeepers to get a handle on their colonies’ health. While hobby and commercial beekeepers function very differently, beekeepers share a common need for research-based diagnostic services and best management practices to keep honey bees healthier.

Beekeeping is a complex system of biology-based management that changes throughout the season and from year to year. Being a responsive beekeeper requires understanding the biology of the bees, understanding what the colony needs at a given time of year, and knowing when to intervene. One of the most complex and critical challenges beekeepers need to understand is the parasitic varroa mite (Varroa destructor) and viruses transmitted by the mite; a primary cause of colony mortality (Dainat et al. 2012). Despite awareness of the issue, beekeepers struggle to implement effective, timely testing and management strategies for varroa. Controlling varroa infestations requires advanced understanding of mite and bee biologies. Varroa populations increase in spring and summer when the honey bee population grows. In fall, the varroa population reaches its peak and can cause irreversible damage to the colony if not controlled. Timely varroa management can be the difference between colony survival and death. There are narrow windows of time across the season to effectively treat colonies for this mite. For example, if floral bloom and thus honey harvesting runs unseasonably late one summer, the window to manage mites before fall might be delayed, causing irreparable health damage to the colony. Because controlling varroa increases the probability a colony survives (Lee 2018), our goal is to help beekeepers of all levels learn the skills to manage varroa in a timely and effective manner, using key skills such as mite sampling, early-stage disease diagnostics, and seasonal planning.

Beyond understanding varroa, new hobby beekeepers need additional instruction. These beekeepers are often overwhelmed by the experience of keeping bees and lack the knowledge and confidence in performing basic colony management tasks. Discerning a colony’s health status requires training and practice in recognizing what healthy bees look like and identifying subtle and overt signs of multiple diseases. Sick colonies are often initially asymptomatic, making management decisions difficult for beekeepers. Beekeepers needs support in understanding colony dynamics, identifying common pests and diseases, and assessing if a colony is healthy or unhealthy.

In Minnesota there is no health oversight for managed honey bees. Some city ordinances require minimal beekeeping training before acquiring bees, but there is little oversight for how beekeepers manage these animals once they obtain their bees. Managers of other animals may utilize veterinary services, but beekeepers need to be able to diagnose and treat bees themselves. Our goal is to provide Minnesota beekeepers with the training and tools they need to effectively combat issues in their honey bees colonies, leading to better bee health and lower bee mortality. Our approach to reaching this goal has two prongs based on if the beekeeper keeps honey bees as a hobby or as a commercial beekeeper. While these groups share similar concerns when it comes to the parasites and pathogens that threaten bee health today, support and solutions need to be tailored to the differing needs of these groups, and the varying natures of their respective operations.

Click linked name(s) to expand/collapse or show everyone's info

Kristy Allen - Technical Advisor
Beez Kneez (Commercial (farm/ranch/business))
Susan Bornstein - Technical Advisor
Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association (Nonprofit / non-governmental organization)
Chris Schad - Technical Advisor
Bee Shed (Commercial (farm/ranch/business))
Kendra Schultz - Technical Advisor
Jeff Charnes - Technical Advisor
North East Minnesota Beekeepers Association (Nonprofit / non-governmental organization)
Mary Jane White - Technical Advisor
Megan Mahoney - Technical Advisor
MaHoney Bees and Queens LLC (Commercial (farm/ranch/business))
Felix Garcia - Technical Advisor
Daniel Whitney - Technical Advisor
Ryan Lamb - Technical Advisor
Willie Gabbard - Technical Advisor
beekeeperwillie@gmail.com

Involves research:

No

Participation Summary

Educational approach:

We designed colony assessment tools for and by small-scale and large-scale beekeepers. For small-scale beekeepers, we are developed a guidebook that builds beekeeping skills throughout the changing bee season, including note taking, reading the size and health of a colony, recognizing signs of health and problems, and making management decisions based on colony assessments. For large-scale beekeepers, we developed tools to support effective varroa mite monitoring with the outcome of more confident beekeepers that are able to more quickly respond to an issue that arises. Both programs worked directly with representatives of audiences that were the audience for the educational materials. Working with beekeepers always heals to ensure the developed materials are useful, relevant, and easy to use.

Creation of a hobby beekeeper Advisory Board

Creation of a commercial beekeeper Advisory Board

A Guide to Beekeeping in Northern Climates Workbook

curriculum

Proposed Farmers/Ranchers:

78

Actual Farmers/Ranchers:

131

Actual Ag Educators:

4

Proposed Completion Date:

October 1, 2024

Actual Completion Date:

August 11, 2025

Accomplishments:

2022 - Trial of an App

We first paired with an app designer to develop an interactive app to help beekeepers keep track of colony, have calendar reminders of management, and connect with community. Our initial pilot of the beekeeping app had 19 participants. While promising, the technology for the app wasn't quite able to incorporate all of the aspects of beekeeping that we (UMN Bee Lab, advisory board, and participants) were interested in providing to beekeepers. As such, we switched away from the app in 2023.

2023 - Pilot of a Workbook

We next developed the Beekeeping in Northern Climates Workbook is an in-apiary companion to the Beekeeping in Northern Climates manual. The Workbook was designed to support new-ish and intermediate hobby beekeepers. The manual provides in-depth information and how-to about beekeeping through the season, and the Workbook provides important reminders and tasks based on month and space for guided note taking. It includes equipment lists, instructions on pest identification and management, and a list of important honey producing plants the bees use for their "pantry." The Workbook can be used by a solo beekeeper or as a tool to communicate with a mentor about colony health and the development of beekeeping skills.

We piloted a workbook in 2023 with 113 beekeepers.We had different types of categories to pilot the workbook and mentoring options. This was done to look at the usefulness of the workbook itself and when it is paired with other support. Ideally, beekeepers can use a paired service as part of their business. These were the categories of participants:

1. Workbook only. Beekeepers received the workbook to use on their own. 19 participants.

2. Virtual Mentoring Service. Beekeepers received the workbook and virtual mentoring service (encouraged to submit online colony inspection reports for feedback from Bee Squad mentors). 43 participants

3. Hybrid Mentoring Service. Beekeepers received the workbook, virtual mentoring service, and three in-person visits from a Bee Squad mentor. 12 participants

4. Camp Beez Kneez. One advisory board member trialed the workbook with her beekeeping course mentees (see photo). 24 participants.

5. Beekeeping Club. Beekeepers revived information from the workbook as part of a club. Initially, beekeepers were read tasks from the workbook, but eventually the mentors simply printed the workbook sheets to hand out. 8 participants

6. Advisory Board. Our advisory board trialed the workbook on their own. 6 participants

At the end of the pilot, we collected evaluation data. These data were used to incorporate beekeeper feedback to improve the utility of the workbook. We collected feedback from the board via periodic meetings. We collected feedback from participants via an evaluation survey. 69% of participants responded to the survey. 84% indicated that they changed at least one management practice based on the workbook (a few noted that they did not change practices as it was their first year) and 100% indicated that they gained knowledge on at least on of the topics in the workbook.

With the feedback and the ideas of the advisory board, we developed a final, vetted version of the workbook.

2024 - Abbreviated Version of the Workbook

To bridge the gap between the first version and the update version of the workbook, we put together an abbreviated version of the first workbook that included the parts of the workbook that beekeepers reported finding most valuable, along with updated field datasheets that included more aspects of bee health.

2025 - A Guide to Beekeeping in Northern Climates

This is the third iteration of the workbook, which we decided was more aptly named a guidebook. The development of the Guide was through the small-scale beekeeper advisory board, the Bee Squad, and all of the beekeeper feedback from the first version of the workbook.

The Guide is designed to help beekeepers monitor colony health and manage their colonies throughout the seasons. It offers training on colony inspections and includes field sheets for note-taking, making it easier to track goals, observations, and seasonal progress. It can aid a beekeeper working alone or serve as an interface between a beekeeper and their mentor. Paired with a mentor, a mentee can report their observations and receive advice about their colony health and management, helping to build skills and confidence.

The Guide is available as a free PDF, free flipbook, or for purchase as a hard copy from the Bee Lab website (beelab.umn.edu/honeybeeguidebook). It is full-color and 98 pages long.

We released the final version of the Guide too close to the end of the grant to collect much feedback on it. We have a link to an evaluation survey in the Guide and on the Bee Lab website. So far, eight individuals have reported on the new version, and all have already been able to change part of their management based on the book.

Quote from a beekeeper: "As a U of M alumnus and MN beekeeper I'm proud of the outstanding work you and your team are doing in providing comprehensive, yet accessible beekeeper resources."

Mentoring programs

Scalable template for the assessment service model

Mite monitoring kit

Mite monitoring training

consultations

Proposed Farmers/Ranchers:

10

Actual Farmers/Ranchers:

28

Actual Ag Educators:

2

Proposed Completion Date:

September 15, 2024

Actual Completion Date:

August 16, 2024

Accomplishments:

We traveled to six beekeeper businesses and trained 28 beekeepers in the north central region to provide training field day on how to use the mite sampling kit we developed as part of this project. We worked with both English and Spanish speaking beekeeping crews. In an apiary setting, we first talked with the beekeepers about the importance of mite testing and management. We queried the beekeepers on if they currently use sampling and, if so, how. Then we provided a kit and demonstrated how to use the kit by first showing how, then doing it with them, then letting them sample. We provided the image-based instructions. In addition, we worked with the beekeepers to discuss mite monitoring and how they time it within their honey bee colonies. We provided contact information to the beekeepers for any follow up questions.

In the next summer, we asked the beekeeper operator if they are still sampling for mites. Five of the six operations were testing their own colonies, and the sixth hired someone to provide the service.

What went well

People seemed receptive and excited.
Feedback that the kit and training provided the confidence that they could and would do mite testing on their own.
Understood need to be precise.
Liked the pamphlet.
Feedback that mite signs page was excellent.
Interest in improving the pamphlet by adding in other disease.
Good to have Spanish speaker for questions as there were many of questions in Spanish and it allowed for actual communication.
Interest in biology course Spanish speakers.
Good to meet beekeepers in their bee yards on their terms.

What to improve

Practice run with both instructors prior to the first field training.
Could have squeezed in more people in a day - we did not schedule everyone that was interested in participating because we predicted the training would take longer.
Feedback to include more information on how to interpret mite numbers in the pamphlet.
Want to work with additional crews that don’t do much sampling - a few of the operations already did extensive sampling. It was still useful as we were able to learn from them as well on what works best for their beekeepers.

6 Consultations

3 Curricula, factsheets or educational tools

8 On-farm demonstrations

8 Published press articles, newsletters

14 Webinars / talks / presentations

6 Workshop field days

1 Other educational activities: Beekeeping mentoring

Participation Summary:

222 Farmers participated

4 Ag professionals participated

Education/outreach description:

Mentoring

We trialed mentoring programs as described here: z.umn.edu/BeekeepingMentoringComparison

Essentially, we trialed different mentoring programs: workbook only, virtual + workbook, beekeepers attend field trainings + workbook, and individual mentoring sessions + workbook. The first version of the workbook did improve knowledge and led to management changes. Vitrutal mentoring would benefit from updated in communication and technology. Beekeepers prefer hands-on, in-colony sessions. Bringing beekeepers to a central location can work well and can reduce the time commitment for a mentor of multiple beekeepers.

Beekeeping Workbook/Guidebook

In 2022, we worked with an app development company to pilot an app-based beekeeping mentoring tool with 19 beekeepers, and moved to a non-app workbook in 2023. The app service that provided virtual mentoring guidance was also was paired with in-person beekeeping mentoring for 9 of the 19 beekeepers.

In 2023, we pivoted from the app to pilot a beekeeping workbook. The workbook was trialed by 113 participants, most of whom provided feedback at the conclusion of the beekeeping season. This feedback, along with feedback from the beekeeper advisory board, was used to develop the next version of the workbook.

In 2024, we developed a workbook that included trainings for the beekeepers paired with field datasheets for guided note taking. The workbook can be found on our website as a downloadable PDF. We gave a total of six presentations on the workbook to beekeeper groups, including at a Heroes to Hives conference for military Veterans that are also beekeepers. A summary of the workbook was also published in the 2023 Minnesota State Agency Pollinator Report by the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board.

In 2025, we produced a final workbook that includes explanations on how to inspect a colony for signs of health, instructions on making management decisions based on colony growth and health, and guided note taking. The final workbook is available online as a PDF and a flipbook, and as a printed booklet on our website: beelab.umn.edu/honeybeeguidebook

Outreach

2025 Guidebook Direct Distributions (email or tabling):

83 past participants in the program, board members, and sign ups online
223 students in the 2024 UMN online beekeeping course
212 students in the 2025 UMN online beekeeping course
1000+ in the MN Honey Producers beelines distributed at Farm Fest and the MN State Fair Honey Bee Booth
National SARE email listserv
NCR SARE email listserv
60 apiculture educators in the Apiculture Extension Educators Association (AEEA)
100+ CFANS table at the State Fair
2 copies given to a WI county beekeeping club

Newsletters

Bee Lab Newsletter
705 Bee Veterans Newsletter
U of MN Extension Women in Ag Network Newsletter
U of MN Extension Small Farms Newsletter
U of MN Extension Growers Network News
U of MN Extension Agriculture, Horticulture & Natural Resources Update
Included in an Iowa beekeeper club newsletter

Sales

18 via the UMN Bookstore
31 to northern MN beekeeping clubs

Downloads

2025: 691 “active users” on the website (number of unique users who had an engaged session on your site or app during a specific time frame), with 311 clicks on the guidebook pdf and 90 clicks on the inspection pages.
2024: 288 “active users” on the website (number of unique users who had an engaged session on your site or app during a specific time frame).

Presentations 2025

Polk County Beekeepers Association (22)
South East Minnesota Beekeepers Association (35)
MHPA (60)
North Central Beekeepers (40, Becky)

Presentations 2024

West Metro Bee Club (28)
Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association (70)
North Central Beekeepers Association (40)
Minnesota and Wisconsin Honey Producers Associations Summer Conference (50)
Heroes to Hives Conference (20)
Walworth County Beekeepers Association in WI (23)

Presentations 2023

Tri-State Beekeepers Conference. Fargo, ND. (75)
Thief River Falls, MN (11)
North Central Beekeepers Association. Brainerd, MN. (45)
South East Minnesota Beekeepers Association. Rochester, MN (65)

Publication

Lee K, Mendel B, Masterman R. (2024) Towards Better Honey Bee Health in Northern Climates. 2023 Minnesota State Agency Pollinator Report. Minnesota Environmental Quality Board. https://www.eqb.state.mn.us/programs/pollinators/pollinator-reports

Varroa Mite Testing Kit

In 2022-2023, we querried our professional beekeeper advisory board on mite sampling and preferences in testing methods and troubleshooted with them as we put together options. Based on feedback, we developed several different testing kit models and trialed them in the field with two beekeepers. From those trials, we developed a professional mite sampling kit designed for and by beekeepers. One of the beekeepers on the advisory board is Spanish speaking and helped to film the videos and develop the materials in Spanish.

In 2024, we developed a field kit for testing for varroa mites in honey bee colonies. The kit included all the supplies needed to test, along with instructions and videos in Spanish. We traveled to six beekeeper businesses to work with 28 beekeepers in the north central region to distribute and test the kits in the field with the beekeepers that will use it. In addition, we worked with the beekeeper managers to discuss mite monitoring and how they can time the testing to pair with management windows. We also discussed the importance of utilizing brood breaks and varroa-resistant stock to keep mite levels low throughout the year.

80 Farmers reported changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills and/or awareness as a result of their participation

Key areas taught:

66 beekeepers trialling the workbook: Performing a hive inspection (i.e., knowing what to look for at each visit); Looking for signs of disease in the colony; Rating the quality of the brood pattern; Assessing overall colony size (i.e., seams of bees); Taking notes; Colony handling techniques; Colony management; Timing for managing varroa mites
24 beekeepers trialling the varroa testing kit: Testing for varroa levels with a mite kit

54 Farmers changed or adopted a practice

Key practices changed:

Performing a hive inspection (i.e., knowing what to look for at each visit); Looking for signs of disease in the colony; Rating the quality of the brood pattern; Assessing overall colony size (i.e., seams of bees); Taking notes; Feeding sugar syrup; Feeding pollen patties; Varroa mite monitoring; Varroa mite management

2 New working collaborations

Success stories:

2022

Responses to the question "As a result of using the virtual mentoring service, have you implemented a new beekeeping technique or management strategy?":

“I have definitely become more confidence as a result of the mentoring service. I have become more familiar with the challenges and with the remarkable animal, the honey bee. I am also more familiar with mite management.”
“Standardized record keeping. More consistent record keeping (or realizing the need to do this :). Visualization of bee numbers in a colony.

2023

Select feedback received from the evaluation survey about the beekeeping workbook:

The workbook was really helpful during the divide. The "tasks" section kept me organized and reminded me to put a new, empty deep on the parent as I had forgotten! I really like how it lays out each section with a "to-do" and has made the divide process much more clear.
LOVE THIS PROGRAM and hope it’s going on next year. I definitely want to participate again
This workbook = AMAZING! It's SO informative and easy to use, along with the help to visit the actual book pages and color coding months. If you publish for sale a workbook every year, I'm a buyer! Honestly this book is fantastic!
Again I want to thank you. Your program has dramatically changed the way I work with and think about my bees.
I’m really enjoying the workbook so far. This is exactly what I was looking for to help guide me through my first year. I know I’ll continue to use it as a guide in the years to come.
Loving the workbook. Keeps me on track and let’s me spend more mental energy observing rather than worrying about what I need to observe.
This workbook is amazing. It constantly teaching and reminding me of all task and how to do it. Between the workbook and manual, I am becoming a better bee keeper. Thank you!
I follow a few bee groups on facebook and have realized just how valuable this workbook really is. The questions that are being asked are addressed in this book and I don't have to guess or wonder about many of the things that need to take place for proper beekeeping. Thanks so much for all of the time and energy that has gone into the making of this book!
I liked the layout and the colors (different months) and the white space and the graphics. The writing was clear and to the point and the overall tone was friendly and encouraging.The workbook was VERY useful. The journey through the season was informative and inspiring.

Beekeeping in Northern Climates Workbook

Addressing honey bee health challenges in Minnesota through providing colony assessment tools and education for beekeepers

Project Information

Cooperators

Research

Education

Project Activities

Educational & Outreach Activities

Participation Summary:

Learning Outcomes

Project Outcomes

Information Products