SCBA October General Meeting

Date: Monday, November 14, 2022

Time: 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Location: 

Our November general meeting will be in person and zoom hybrid. (location and zoom information below)

We are excited to have Michael Thiele join us as our presenter for our November general meeting. Michael is a member of SCBA and is the founder of Apis Arborea.

Apis Arborea (www.apisarborea.org) is a non-profit organization in Sonoma County and was founded to preserve the life and resiliency of honeybees through ‘wilding’ and the use of a holistic framework of apian ecologies for conservation and apiculture. 

Michael will speak about their 7-year research study of wild, unmanaged honeybees in a Wildlands Preserve in Mendocino County that is owned by Sonoma State University. They started the project in 2021 and will conclude around 2028. They envision a multidisciplinary project that allows for multiple stakeholders to collaborate. Currently, they are working with Texas A&M and also UC Riverside. They use beelining as a tool to track bees and locate BeeTrees. He will share some of the new revelations of beelining, including tips and challenges. After an initial assessment phase (locating Beetrees), monitoring, sampling, and other activities will take the lead. So far, they can document 100% winter survival (with a small initial data set).

How can we integrate the qualities and conditions that allow honeybees in the wild to thrive into our backyards and beekeeping? One approach they have taken is that they are exploring ways to incorporate the biomimicry of natural nest conditions and developed TreeNests as a novel tool for conservation. Honeybees as novel wildlife in the Americas is a rich and pioneering field of research. Environmental challenges such as climate emergency and the 6th mass extinctions are new emerging compass points for apian conservation (and that of all species) that invite us with utmost urgency into the development of truly sustainable systems.

In Person Location:

Druids Hall

1011 College Ave

Santa Rosa

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86514254718?pwd=cHZqcERVdG5HZlR1eXFsMDNaQkRGUT09

Meeting ID: 865 1425 4718

Passcode: 768368