Ep169 Deep Dive on Dr. Scott Debnam's presentation on Overwintering

This week I had the pleasure of listening and making notes on the presentation: "Honey Bee Overwintering Thermodynamics" by Dr. Scott Debnam, University of Montana. It's available to watch on YouTube and I highly recommend: https://youtu.be/uVWfC8IAmb8?si=WkdC6icEq1xPaeTr

I talk you through some of the main points of his talk that I found interesting. It's part of how I'm starting to study to attempt the EAS master beekeeper certification in upcoming years so you may be hearing more episodes on that process on the pod.

This is the summary of the talk on YouTube and it was a presentation from 2025 to the Western Apiculture Society:

Presentation: "Honey Bee Overwintering Thermodynamics" by Dr. Scott Debnam, University of Montana Summary: How naturally nesting bees design their cavity and utilize the three products, heat, CO2 & H2O, they produce over the winter. How can we emulate their cavity design in our managed hives to take advantage of these products. Bio: The University of Montana's Organismal Biology, Ecology, & Evolution program awarded Dr. Scott Debnam his Master's degree in Pollination Ecology in 2016 and his Doctorate in Insect Physiology in 2022. Scott is an expert on honey bee problems and pests and specializes in nest thermoregulation and the economics associated with nest thermoregulation. For the past 10 years, he has co-instructed the University of Montana's Online Master Beekeeping program, which received the 2019 UPCEA award for outstanding online education. He has taught over 2000 students from 22 different countries. As well as being an instructor at Amherst College, he is a co-instructor of the new Commercial Beekeeping program at UM Online.

 

Wishing you all a wonderful week! It's such a joy to have bee friends. Leigh

 

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Beekeeping at Five Apple — talk, tips, and how-to on sustainable beekeeping from the Blue Ridge mountains of Southern Appalachia.

Host Leigh has spent the last 16 years keeping a self-sustaining hobby apiary. She enjoys helping fellow beekeepers get off the purchased-package treadmill by introducing backyard queen-rearing via specialty splits and alternatives to non-stop chemical treatments. After a decade and a half of maintaining fully treatment-free hives, Leigh now practices a hybrid approach that blends Varroa-resistant genetics with organic tools for thriving bees and minimal use of treatments. She enjoys sharing strategies with bee clubs across the country via zoom, speaking on specialty splits (so you never have to buy a package again), simple frame-based queen rearing, requeening approaches and ways to increase VSH genetics in your own backyard. Leigh’s podcast Beekeeping at Five Apple Farm—with over 300K downloads— makes these and other topics available free, anytime.