It has been a world wind National Pollinator Week! I had the pleasure of honoring all pollinators, including your favorite and mine, the amazing honey bee!

My week began with a visit from Natalie Duddridge from CBS 2 NY. Ms. Duddridge came to visit me at my hives at Jakes Branch County Park. She suited up and accompanied me on a hive inspection. We were fortunate enough to find the queen on my first try. It was such an incredible opportunity to talk about and provide some insight into nature’s most important pollinator! 

The next day I organized a Honey Harvest at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Bee Yard in Cream Ridge for 4-H Teens. The day began with Ms. Olivia Glenn from the EPA presenting me with the President’s Environmental Youth Award. Eighteen teens, along with their parents, from six counties throughout NJ attended the harvest. The students accompanied Chelsea Abegg from Rutgers to the bee lab to learn about different Hymenopterans, as well as to the hives for a hive instruction and the day ended with students extracting honey. I was honored to discuss my science research on Varroa mites and thymol-based essential oils with Secretary of Agriculture, Doug Fisher, Assemblyman Alex Sauickie, and Paul Hlubik from the Department of Agriculture. Jeff Burd and my mentor, Angela Juffey, from NJBA and Dr. Brian Schilling from Rutgers also accompanied me on the day’s events. Our State Apiarist, Meghan McConnell, and Ashley Kerr from the Farm Bureau also stopped by. Ms. Abegg and I have planned another Honey Harvest for 4-H Teens on August 16^th, in honor of National Honey Bee Day! 

On Thursday, I had a live interview at NJ12 Studios with Lauren Due. It was exciting to talk to her about honey bees, the honey industry,  the NJ Honey Queen Program as well as my research. As the Pollinator Habitat Ambassador for National 4-H and Corteva Agriscience, we also discussed the importance of Native Plants and pollinator gardens.  

This weekend I will be headed off to Cambridge. I was selected to attend MIT's Research Science Institute and will be conducting honey bee research for six weeks at the MIT bee lab. I am looking forward to this remarkable opportunity! See you in August!