Webinar Date: July 14, 2026
Speakers: Dr. Jamie Ellis, Professor of Entomology, University of Georgia (host of Two Bees in a Podcast); Bethany O’Rear, Alabama Cooperative Extension System — Alabama State Coordinator, Great Southeast Pollinator Census
Duration: 1:16:58
Series: Great Southeast Pollinator Course
Credit at a Glance
| Educator PLU | 1 PLU for educators who attended the live session. |
| Applicator CEU | None. This session carries no Georgia pesticide applicator CEU categories. |
| Archive viewing | The recording is for education and census preparation. PLU credit was tied to live attendance and does not transfer to asynchronous viewing. |
This is a Great Southeast Pollinator Course session for home gardeners, school and community gardens, growers, county agents, and census volunteers — not a licensed-applicator program. Frame it accordingly when you share it.
Who This Is For
Use this session with anyone preparing for the Great Southeast Pollinator Census (August 21–22, 2026) who wants to count honey bees with confidence, and with anyone planting or managing a bee garden. Ellis’s biology half works as a standalone primer on how a honey bee colony lives through the year; O’Rear’s garden half is a practical seasonal forage-and-protection guide for the smallest yard. Master Gardener groups, school garden coordinators, beginning-beekeeper interest groups, and county pollinator volunteers are the natural audiences.
What the Session Covers
Dr. Jamie Ellis (UGA), six weeks into his move back from the University of Florida, takes the first half on colony biology, built around one idea: a honey bee colony is a superorganism that wants only to survive and reproduce. He tracks colony reproduction — swarming — from the queen slimming to flying weight through scout bees choosing a cavity and the swarm moving in, then explains why bees dehydrate 80%-water nectar into 80%-sugar honey (fermentation and storage volume), describes the three-dimensional nest, and walks the colony through the year: summer heat and rising Varroa, fall fattening and drone eviction, and a winter cluster that keeps rearing brood as the red maples bloom. He closes on threats to bees and a short Q&A.
Bethany O’Rear (Alabama Cooperative Extension) takes the home-garden half for census volunteers. She gives the field marks that separate a honey bee from a bumble or carpenter bee — smaller, narrow head, alternating stripes, fuzzy golden-brown abdomen, with worker, drone, and queen sizes — then covers what bees forage for and where to add it across the seasons: cover crops like canola and crimson clover, redbud and tulip poplar, native (not tropical) milkweed, sourwood, and fall goldenrod. Natives run about four times more attractive than non-natives; nativars are “it depends.” She finishes on shallow water dishes and an IPM approach that keeps pesticides a last resort.
Viewing Notes for Asynchronous Use
- Total runtime is 1:16:58. The natural split is the presenter handoff at 36:45 — Ellis’s colony-biology half before, O’Rear’s home-garden half after.
- For colony biology, Ellis’s block from 5:20 (survive and reproduce) through 26:57 (winter: the pregnant colony) is a self-contained tour of how a honey bee colony lives across the year.
- For census prep, O’Rear’s identification segment at 38:19 gives the field marks and caste sizes volunteers need to fill the honey bee box.
- For a home-gardener / habitat audience, O’Rear’s forage block from 43:47 (what bees look for in a flower) through 1:00:48 (IPM and pesticides) is a self-contained seasonal planting-and-protection guide.
- The Q&A runs in two parts — Ellis’s at 30:33 and the joint Q&A from 1:06:21 to the end — and holds high-value practical exchanges: foraging range, how a split colony makes a queen, honey bees at hummingbird feeders, and the invasive yellow-legged hornet. The full chapter list is in the website archive version for this session.
Pull These for Discussion
- The colony as a superorganism: the whole colony, not the single bee, is the unit that survives and reproduces — the frame that makes swarming, honey storage, and the winter cluster make sense. A strong hook for a general audience.
- Swarming is birth, not attack: the old queen leaves with half the workers and scout bees choose the new home by dancing hardest for the best cavity. Reassures gardeners who panic at a swarm cluster.
- Honey bee vs. bumble vs. carpenter for the census: honey bees are the smaller bee — narrow head, alternating stripes, fuzzy golden-brown abdomen. The single most practical identification takeaway for volunteers.
- Plant natives, and know what a nativar is: natives are about four times more attractive than non-natives; a nativar may or may not help depending on how it was bred. Counters “any flower will do.”
- If you must spray, spray at dusk — and skip dusts and systemics: dusts cling to bee hairs and ride back to the colony; systemics move into the blooms; organic isn’t automatically bee-safe. Concrete guidance gardeners can act on.
- The yellow-legged hornet is here: an invasive bee predator found near Savannah in 2023, now in South Carolina, with a discouraging 20-year track record in Europe. Worth flagging so volunteers know to report sightings.
Resources to Share
- Great Southeast Pollinator Census — August 21–22, 2026.
- Two Bees in a Podcast — Dr. Jamie Ellis’s honey bee podcast; a link is being shared with attendees.
- EPA bee-advisory box — the pesticide-label icon flagging products with restrictions to protect bees.
- Seasonal bee forage — native (not tropical) milkweed for summer, goldenrod and asters for fall, redbud and tulip poplar for spring, among O’Rear’s recommendations.
- Speaker contacts — Dr. Jamie Ellis (UGA) and Bethany O’Rear (Alabama Cooperative Extension) shared contact information on their closing slides for follow-up questions.
Processed for UGA Center for Urban Agriculture / Great Southeast Pollinator Course Archives
Source: Stage 2 Archive Package — GTBOP_Archive_Summary_2026-07-14_HoneyBees.md