BIP Field Specialist, Matt Hoepfinger, joined us at our June 2020 club meeting courtesy of Zoom.
Matt inspects thousands of colonies in commercial operations each year so he sees the best and worst of honey bees. In the first half of Matt's presentation, he gave us an overview of the Bee Informed Partnership followed by insights into the life of a BIP Field Specialist.
BIP doesn't just help commercial beekeepers. In the second half of Matt's presentation we hear about BIP's Sentinel Apiary Program which is intended for hobbyists and is a citizen science project. It can be used as an early warning system to alert beekeepers of potential problems due to increases in Varroa or Nosema in your area.
Matt mentioned a mite wash sieve (500 micrometer to catch mites, 4 millimeter to catch bees) - link courtesy Amazon.