The Nectar Podcast

What happens when you stop guessing and start testing?In this episode of the Nectar Podcast, we sit down with Lee Genereux, a commercial beekeeper managing approximately 1,300 colonies in south-central Saskatchewan, to discuss how he's using data to make better decisions about varroa management, queen performance, and day-to-day operations.After encountering serious Amitraz resistance in his operation, Lee began taking a more systematic approach to varroa management—sampling every hive, isolating high-mite colonies, and running controlled experiments to find out which treatments actually worked.Using Nectar to collect and analyze his results, Lee has been able to challenge his assumptions, refine his treatment protocols, and identify opportunities to reduce losses and improve efficiency.In this conversation, we cover:

• How Amitraz resistance changed his approach to mite management.
• Why Lee decided to sample every hive—and what he discovered about the distribution of varroa across his operation
• What controlled experiments revealed about thymol treatments and oxalic acid vaporization.
• How historical data helps him evaluate treatment effectiveness and prepare for winter.
• Using queen tracking to identify poor-performing genetics and make better breeding decisions.
• Why better information can translate into measurable improvements in profitability.

Lee also shares his experience testing Meli, Nectar's audio diagnostics tool, and explains how he hopes to use long-term monitoring data to breed bees with greater resistance to varroa.Learn more about Nectar: https://nectar.buzz/#Beekeeping #VarroaManagement #CommercialBeekeeping #Nectar

Varroa management is changing, and with Amitraz resistance on the rise, commercial beekeepers are being forced to rethink how they monitor mites, choose treatments, and protect colony health.But according to Dr. Brandon Hopkins of Washington State University, the biggest challenge facing beekeepers today isn't necessarily a lack of effective treatments. It's knowing when to apply them, whether they're working, and how to make better decisions with the information available.In this episode of the Nectar Podcast, we sit down with Brandon to discuss the latest research on Varroa destructor, the growing problem of Amitraz resistance, and the practical strategies commercial beekeepers can use to improve their mite management programs.We also cover:

• The limitations of traditional alcohol washes and mite sampling
• How to rotate treatments effectively throughout the season
• Why treatment timing can matter more than the product itself
• The economics of mite control: balancing treatment costs, labor, and colony survival
• How better record-keeping can help beekeepers improve their Varroa programs

For more information about Nectar, learn more here: https://www.nectar.buzz

#Beekeeping #VarroaMites #CommercialBeekeeping #AmitrazResistance #BeeHealth

Chris Hiatt runs 19,000 hives with his family and is the past president of the American Honey Producers Association. He’s also not currently a Nectar customer.That made this conversation especially interesting -- as a snapshot of a beekeeper voicing their objections to technology like Nectar.We talk about why Chris has stuck with spreadsheets and a more traditional operating system, what would actually convince him that new beekeeping technology is worth the time and money, and where he sees real opportunities for better data to improve a commercial operation.We also cover:

• Why labor and data entry are major barriers to adopting new technology
• The difficulty of understanding why colonies die
• How his Varroa management has evolved over the years
• The economics of American honey and the pressure from imports
• What commercial beekeeping could look like 10 years from now

It’s a candid conversation about the gap between what technology promises and what a working commercial beekeeper actually needs.Learn more about Nectar: https://nectar.buzz/#Beekeeping #CommercialBeekeeping #HoneyBees #Varroa #AgTech

Tim Butcher runs Priority Seed Production and Priority Pollination in the desert Southwest, managing thousands of honey bee colonies.In this episode of the Nectar Podcast, Tim explains how better data is changing the way his team manages bees — from identifying varroa problems earlier to making more targeted treatment decisions.We talk about:• Why commercial beekeeping has lagged behind farming in technology adoption• Moving from operation-wide treatments toward yard- and hive-level decisions• The economics of maintaining a colony and what it takes to be profitable• Why “good enough” data can dramatically improve operational decisionsTim also explains why the stakes are so high: in farming and beekeeping, you often get only one opportunity each year to make the right decision — and mistakes can affect the rest of the season.Learn more about Nectar here: https://nectar.buzz/en/#Beekeeping #CommercialBeekeeping #Pollination #HoneyBees #Agriculture

What does it actually take to run a profitable beekeeping operation in 2026?In this episode of the Nectar Podcast, Sam sits down with Jake Moore — a second-generation commercial beekeeper running 3,000+ hives in Texas — to talk about his unique approach to beekeeping: specifically, using regular data sampling to make disciplined decisions.Instead of the industry-standard “spray and pray” approach, Jake samples 10–20% of his hives on nearly every visit — using that information to prioritize yard visits, and decide what kinds of inputs yards need.The result: lower input costs, higher survival rates, and a fundamentally different way of thinking about the operation.This conversation covers:

• Why most beekeepers are over-treating (and wasting money)
• How sampling creates “checks and balances” for instincts
• How Jake identified hidden mortality trends across regions
• Why the future of beekeeping is moving from operation → yard → hive-level decisions
• How tools like Nectar (and Meli) could make full-hive sampling possible

At a time when input costs are rising and honey prices are stagnant, this isn’t just about better beekeeping — it’s about survival.

Beekeepers collect an enormous amount of information from their hives — but turning that information into real insight is much harder than it seems.In this episode of the Nectar Podcast, we sit down with Nico Coallier, CTO of Nectar Technologies, to talk about how better data — and better sampling — can change the way beekeepers understand their colonies.Nico is a researcher and technologist who has spent years studying colony monitoring, sampling methods, and digital tools for commercial beekeeping. In this conversation, he explains why sampling strategy is one of the most important (and most overlooked) aspects of hive management, and how the way you choose which hives to inspect can dramatically affect the conclusions you draw about your operation.We also explore Meli, Nectar’s AI diagnostics tool, that analyzes hive sound to provide new signals about colony health and activity. Along the way, Nico discusses his research into colony movement, and how new tools are helping beekeepers better understand what’s happening inside the hive between inspections.Finally, we talk about Cubee, a mushroom-based hive supplement, and how Nectar is thinking about the broader ecosystem of products that support stronger colonies.Whether you manage thousands of colonies or just want to think more deeply about how hive data works, this episode explores how biology, technology, and field experience are shaping the future of beekeeping.

Marc and Max meet with Nectar marketing specialist Sam Venis to discuss what's happening at Nectar & the future of digital beekeeping.

What does it really mean to build a crew that takes ownership?In this episode of the Nectar Podcast, Max sits down with Scott Barnes of St. Joe Valley Apiaries to talk about leadership, trust, and what it takes to scale an operation to over 10,000 hives when you can’t be everywhere at once.Scott shares how, one year into his Nectar integration, the most meaningful feedback didn’t come from dashboards or reports—but from his crew. From bringing his top employees to industry conferences to giving his team real responsibility in the field, Scott believes that strong operations are built by people who feel invested in the outcome.

Max breaks down the ins and outs of Yard Pass-Through Mortality Rate—a new ready-made report that shows the percentage of hives that have died after passing through each of your yard locations. Not just where they died, but where they traveled before they died. Traditionally, beekeepers could only link mortality to the yard where losses were discovered. This new report makes it possible to isolate the impact of a specific yard, even if that yard wasn’t where the hives ultimately failed. We believe this must become a key performance indicator for every beekeeper running a commercial operation.

You can use this insight to:

• Identify yards that are quietly hurting your hives — even if you don’t see it right away.

• Start productive conversations with your growers, shifting from blame to problem-solving.

• Develop a baseline by crop type or region, then quickly flag outliers when things go wrong.

• Decide where to place your strongest colonies, splits, or queens based on historical performance.

• Build a defensible case in situations like pesticide drift, grower disputes, or insurance claims.

“There’s a big difference between I think this is what happened and I know this is what happened.” That's a quote from Jason Miller on the importance of making decisions with data.

On the latest episode of the Nectar podcast, Jason goes deep on:

🐝 The mechanics of “low-touch beekeeping”—his strategy for minimizing hive movements

🏭 The logistics behind his cutting-edge indoor wintering facility

📱 And how his years as an engineer at Apple shaped the way he thinks about systems design in beekeeping