Pollinator Week Fundraising Campaign for MSU Honey Bees and Beekeeping Education

Jun 07, 2022

By Ana Heck and Meghan Milbrath

Pollinator Week is June 20-26, 2022. One way to celebrate is to contribute to Michigan Pollinator Initiative’s Beekeeping Education and Support Fund. Gifts will support Michigan State University Extension to partner with local beekeeping clubs, maintain educational apiaries, and deliver online education and programming.

Michigan is one of the most important states for bees and beekeeping. Michigan beekeepers not only produce delicious honey, but they also provide pollination for fruits and vegetables in the state. While much of the honey production and pollination is done by large-scale commercial beekeepers, small-scale beekeepers are an important and growing group. It is estimated that over 10,000 individuals in Michigan participate in small-scale beekeeping.

These small scale-beekeepers are essential to our state. They provide pollination services and produce to other small farmers, produce locally available honey, and small-scale beekeeping provides a pipeline to train beekeepers and to start new sideline and commercial beekeeping operations. Small-scale beekeeping is essential to Michigan agriculture, but it is a difficult time to be a beekeeper. High losses from diseases and other stressors continue to plague beekeepers, making up-to-date information and training essential to their success. Michigan State University Extension wants to increase and improve education and Extension to small-scale beekeepers.

Learn more and make a donation

Source : msu.edu

Video: Pandemic Risks in Swine - Dr. John Deen

I’m Phil Hord, and I’m excited to kick off my first episode as host on The Swine it Podcast Show. It’s a privilege to begin this journey with you. In this episode, Dr. John Deen, a retired Distinguished Global Professor Emeritus from the University of Minnesota, explains how pandemic threats continue to shape U.S. swine health and production. He discusses vulnerabilities in diagnostics, movement control, and national preparedness while drawing lessons from ASF, avian influenza, and field-level epidemiology. Listen now on all major platforms.

"Pandemic events in swine systems continue to generate significant challenges because early signals often resemble common conditions, creating delays that increase spread and economic disruption."