Arboreal Apiculture Salon

An Interactive Live Stream & Podcast

Exploring the science, beauty, and spiritual expression of Arboreal Apiculture & Apiology.

The Arboreal Apiculture Salon hopes to provide a forum for the emerging global arboreal apiculture community to connect, exchange ideas, and engage in symbiotic learning. It is part of a grassroots movement that explores new pathways of being and thinking in the Anthropocene. We believe in the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration and feature diverse speakers from various backgrounds, including entomologists, ecologists, activists, anthropologists, and conservationists.

We either have a live meeting with our guest speaker and audience or meet with the speaker in an interview-style setting. The audio recording is published afterward as a podcast. Listen to or chat with speakers from around the world and develop a deeper connection to Arboreal Apiculture & Apiology.

The Salon is a free event, serving communities around the globe. You can join a live Salon meeting by using this Zoom link. If you would like more info or have a suggestion for a topic/ speaker, please contact us.

Co-hosted by Cheyanna Bone, Jonathan Powell (Natural Beekeeping Trust), and Michael Joshin Thiele (Apis Arborea).

We created a Telegram Group as a forum to continue conversations beyond the live Salon events. It will provide a space to explore and share ideas and projects and will make it easier to organize locally. If you are interested, please feel free to use this link to join the Arboreal Apiculture Salon on Telegram.

Upcoming Salons

Events

Today

  • Arboreal Apiculture Salon #50

    Please join us for this live event

    In this Salon, we introduce the Wild Honeybee Atlas, Apis Arborea's global, participatory platform for the discovery, registration, and long-term monitoring...

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Listen To Previous Recordings

  • Salon No. 48 – Michael Thiele and Benjamin Rutschmann
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust & Apis Arborea
    Five Years of Listening: What the Bees at Galbreath Are Teaching Us In this podcast we are delighted share the results of five years of ecological monitoring at Galbreath Wildlands Preserve, one of the most sustained observations of honeybee colonies living as part of a wild landscape anywhere in the US. Michael Thiele, founder of Apis Arborea, is joined by Dr. Benjamin Rutschmann, visiting from Germany, to walk us through what this long-term work has revealed. Among the findings: colony lifespans and survival rates that challenge prevailing assumptions about what honeybees are capable of when they live on their own […]
  • Salon No. 47 with Steve Rogenstein and Arrigo Moro
    by Jonathan Powell, Michael Joshin Thiele, Cheyanna Bone
    A major development has recently emerged in pollinator conservation. Wild honeybees in parts of Europe have now been classified as Endangered on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. What does this designation mean for honeybees, ecosystems, and the future of pollination? In this Arboreal Apiculture Salon, we explore the scientific, ecological, and conservation implications of this landmark recognition. The conversation examines the status of free-living honeybee populations in Europe, the drivers behind their decline, and how this moment may reshape the way honeybees are understood within conservation science and agricultural systems.   We are honored […]
  • Salon No 46. with Constanza Prieto Figelist and Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    It was an honor to welcome Constanza Prieto Figelist, Latin American Legal Director at the Earth Law Center, and Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, a leading voice in the global movement to protect wild pollinators and the Amazon, as our guests for Salon #46. They share their advocacy for the recognition of the rights of stingless bees in the Amazon and the broader legal frameworks emerging to protect them.
  • Salon No. 45 with Laura Pustarfi, Ph.D.
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    We are honored to welcome Laura Pustarfi, Ph.D. to the Salon. Laura is Director of the Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research Certificate Program and a lecturer in Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her work bridges plant studies, integral ecology, environmental philosophy, and psychedelic scholarship. She is co-editor of The Wisdom of Trees: Thinking Through Arboreality and serves on the board of The Plant Initiative, with ongoing contributions to the Plant Perspectives journal. Laura brings a rare blend of rigorous scholarship, ecological insight, and artistic sensibility to her work and teaching.
  • Salon No. 44 with Dr. Robert Mutisi
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    It was an honor to have Dr. Robert Mutisi from Zimbabwe as our guests at the Salon. Robert is a professional forester who specialises in commercial and social forestry plantation development. A passionate beekeeper and trainer who contributes to improved African beekeeping systems that addresses sustainable issues related to poverty, hunger, and the environment. Robert has pioneered a Nature-based Beekeeping approach in Zimbabwe where communities in marginal areas have realised their potential. The use of low-cost hives made from local material, bee ecology and native species, inclusivity, non-hive centric, scalability and sustainability have been key issues around Nature-based Beekeeping. He […]
  • Salon No. 43 With Bas Blaasse
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust, Apis Arborea, Cheyanna Bone
    It was an honor to have Bas Blaasse as our guest at the Salon. He is a writer, researcher, and filmmaker based in Brussels. His work explores the intersections of art, visual culture, philosophy, and ecology-often tracing connections between aesthetic practices and the conceptual or material realities they engage with. Together with artist Aladin Borioli, he published the book "Bannkörbe", an anthology of ceremonial use of masks in historical beekeeping. His current research focuses on collective practices in the arts and the historical development of the notion of landscape. He is also working on a documentary about nature management in […]
  • Salon No. 42 with Dr Keith Delaplane
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust & Apis Arborea
    It's an honor to have Dr. Keith S. Delaplane as our guest. Keith is Professor Emeritus of Entomology at the University of Georgia where he served as Director of the honey bee program there between 1990-2024. Research by Keith, his students, and coworkers resulted in hundreds of publications including over 70 refereed research papers, 7 books, and 5 book chapters ranging across basic honey bee (and termite) biology, health management, pollination, and social evolution, garnering over 6300 citations by peers around the world. His latest book, Honey Bee Social Evolution was published in October 2024. In 2014 he was inducted […]
  • Salon No. 41 with Jovana Bila Dubaić – Citizen Science and the Belgrade bee
    by Natural Beekeeping Trus, Apis Aborea
    Jovana Bila Dubaić is a  Doctor of Environmental Sciences at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade. Her scientific field covers biodiversity protection and invasive species ecology.  Her PhD thesis topic covered "Diversity of the Wild Bees in Belgrade: faunistic overview, patterns of distribution and status assessment of the chosen group population". More about the research she does at the Faculty read here https://srbee.bio.bg.ac.rs/srbee and her instagram page can be found at: belgrade.bees.ecology In this Podcast we talk with Jovana discussing her work with free-living bees and in particualr her use of citzen science and direct engagement with the public.
  • Salon No.40 With Maggie Shanahan, PhD & Héctor Morales Urbina MSc
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    We were honoured to welcome Héctor Morales Urbina and Maggie Shanahan as our guests to Salon #40. They both are beekeepers and bee researchers from Chiapas, Mexico and the United States, respectively. Maggie shares some broad context around beekeeping in Chiapas and compare and contrast beekeeping systems in the U.S. and Mexico.  Héctor talks about how beekeepers in Chiapas and their use traditional ecological knowledge to better care for their bees and discusses the ways that the Chiapa culture shapes beekeepers' relationships with their bees. Together, Maggie and Héctor discuss beekeeper-led strategies to build resilience in the face of industrialisation, […]
  • Salon No. 39 With Kaylin Kleckner – Bee-lining in the Bush
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Aborea
    Kaylin Kleckner is a PhD Candidate at the University of Florida Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory. Through collaboration with Rhodes University, Kaylin conducts field research with wild and unmanaged honey bees in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. She used beelining techniques to locate 130 nest sites to study nesting ecology, population structure, and disease dynamics. Long term, she aims to inform local land management decisions and pollinator conservation initiatives in Africa.
  • Salon No. 36.5 (Brasil Português) Com Felipe Mendes – Colmeias de toras no Brasil e São Tomé e Príncipe
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    Neste podcast, conversamos com Felipe Mendes, do Brasil. Felipe é um apicultor e consultor arbóreo e biodinâmico, pioneiro em abordagens inovadoras de manejo animal por meio do uso de TreeNests (colmeias em toras). Ele trabalha com híbridos de Apis mellifera scutellata (abelhas africanizadas) e colaborou com o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) no Brasil, um movimento social que ocupa terras agrícolas não utilizadas para promover a agricultura sustentável e a autossuficiência econômica.
  • Salon No. 38 With Susan Murphy – How Zen Koans can help us approach Apiculture
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    In this Salon we are joined by  Dr Susan Murphy Roshi from Australia. Susan is a distinguished Zen teacher with a profound interest in the intersection of Zen practice and indigenous Australian concepts of 'care for country'. For 25 years, she co-led walks in Country with the late, highly respected indigenous Elder, Dulumunmun, Uncle Max Harrison, exploring the deep connections between these traditions. Susan's work emphasizes the transformative power of Zen koans in addressing life's challenges, particularly our duty of care for the Earth. Her latest book, "A Fire Runs Through All Things: Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis," […]
  • Salon No. 37 With Dylan Ryals – Where Wild Things Are
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    Dylan Ryals is a life-long beekeeper with experience working on commercial pollination and queen-rearing apiaries. He is currently a PhD student under Dr. Brock Harpur at Purdue University where he studies honey bee genetics and breeding. He will speak on his ongoing research uncovering bee ancestry, genetic diversity, and population structure across the United States with special attention to feral and non-commercial populations. 
  • Salon No. 36 With Felipe Mendes – Log hives in Brazil and São Tomé and Príncipe
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    In this podcast, we spoke with Felipe Mendes from Brazil. Felipe is an arboreal and biodynamic beekeeper and consultant, pioneering innovative approaches to animal stewardship through the use of TreeNests (log hives). He works with Apis mellifera scutellata hybrids (Africanized bees) and has collaborated with the Landless Workers' Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST) in Brazil, a social movement that occupies unused farmland to promote sustainable agriculture and economic self-sufficiency.  
  • Salon No. 35 With Dr. Jamie Ellis – Do Bee Colonies work together as Super Colonies?
    by Natural Beekeeping Trust and Apis Arborea
    Dr. Ellis is the Gahan Endowed Professor of Entomology in the Entomology and Nematology Department at the University of Florida. At the University of Florida, Dr. Ellis has responsibilities in extension, instruction and research related to honey bees. Regarding his extension work, Dr. Ellis created the UF/IFAS Bee Colleges and the UF/IFAS Master Beekeeper Program. As an instructor, Dr. Ellis supervises Ph.D. and masters students. Dr. Ellis and his team conduct research projects in the fields of honey bee husbandry, biology, conservation, and ecology.
View all past recordings