September Meet Up

Please join us for our September Meet-Up on the 26th, 6:30 at the Threadbare Cider.  

Our guest speaker for the evening will be Dr. Tracy Farone, Professor of Biology and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

Over the past three years, Dr. Farone has been researching beekeeping and bee medicine. In 2018, she was granted a sabbatical from Grove City College to allow additional time to pursue apicultural studies, and develop a small teaching and research apiary at the College. In the early Spring 2019, she visited France, where she worked with multiple experts in bee medicine and research at ONIRIS College in Nantes and the OIE in Paris. Additionally, she visited The University of Edinburgh and The Roslin Institute in Scotland, meeting with additional bee experts. In June, she traveled to Montana/Crow Reservation to work and study with a 10K hive, migratory, commercial beekeeping operation.

Once back in PA, Dr. Farone shadowed, interviewed and worked in the field with about a dozen different beekeepers, including backyard, sideline, and commercial operations. In the last eight months, she spent 1080 hours working on the project with 534 hours working in bee yards. These experiences provided Dr. Farone with a unique perspective on the development of relationships between veterinarians and beekeepers.

Dr. Farone has discovered that bee vet interest in Pennsylvania is buzzing and she has been asked to work with the PDA, the PA State Beekeepers, Penn State University, and Pennsylvania Veterinary Association to create educational content for PA vets and beekeepers. She has recently given lectures for Penn State, the annual Pennsylvania Veterinary conference, Michigan State University Veterinary School and has several more educational collaborations in the works.

Dr. Farone has distilled and logged her beekeeping research on the website PaBeeVet.com and we are excited to have her come to share her knowledge on disease and the spread of disease as well as what she found traveling to different countries and the relationship between vets and beekeepers.