Beescape Monthly Update for August

Over the past couple months, we have been encouraging folks to enroll in the Penn State free webinars on beekeeping, bee health, and bee conservation! Those have now concluded, however, they are posted online for your viewing pleasure! Just scroll over a webinar you wish to view, and click 'Watch Now'! Written summaries of these webinars can be viewed at the Penn State Center for Pollinator Research News page.

Additionally this month, we thought it would be interesting to share with all of you about our current Beescape user-base; Beescape is growing in popularity every month and we now have participants in 49 of 50 states (does anyone have beekeeping friends in Mississippi so we can get all 50 states...?)! Most of the Beescape 'apiaries' are located in Pennsylvania with Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York following (in that order). The Beescape site now has 991 users, 817 of whom have plotted 'apiaries' on our Beescape map! We are excited to see Beescape growing and look forward to serving the beekeeping community for many years to come!

Finally, please remember to fill out your Fall/Spring Beescape survival survey from 2019/2020 if you have not already done so! By contributing fall (and spring) survival data through Beescape, the Beescape Team can better predict the landscape factors (including weather and climate) associated with metrics of bee health like overwinter survival and the timing of nectar flows! We need BOTH Fall and Spring surveys for each apiary to make use of the data -- one without the other cannot be added to our models. We are excited to use your data to make better tools (like our new Bee Winter Wise tool) to predict honey bee health dynamics!

As always, feel free to contact us at beescapepsu@gmail.com with any questions, comments or concerns -- including assistance with filling out your Beescape surveys. We always love hearing from you.

Sincerely,

The Beescape Team