Helicopters, Varroa, Tech Transfer, and a Life with Bees

Season 9 Episode 9: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Helicopters, Varroa, Tech Transfer, and a Life with Bees

In today's episode, we interview Matthew Polinsky, Manitoba's Bee Technology Transfer lead. Matthew grew up around commercial beekeeping in Saskatchewan. His father kept bees, his brother keeps bees, and his grandfather Derek Alen was part of an earlier generation of Prairie beekeepers. But Matthew's own route through beekeeping has been anything but ordinary.

In this episode of About Bees, Culture, and Curiosity, we follow Matthew from the honey house in Saskatchewan to commercial bee operations in New Zealand and Western Australia—including the remarkable experience of moving honey bee colonies by helicopter.

Matthew later worked with the Saskatraz bee-breeding project, studied at Concordia University in Montréal, participated in bee research, and eventually became Program Lead for Manitoba's Knowledge and Research Transfer Program for Apiculture.

We talk about what "technology transfer" really means, new approaches to Varroa control, RNAi-based mite treatments, queen breeding, old feeding syrup (should you use it, fix it, or dump it?), Tropilaelaps, honey fraud, and why practical beekeeping knowledge and scientific research need each other.

We even travel to the Solomon Islands, where Matthew worked on a beekeeping development project.

It is a conversation about bees, science, family history—and the curious paths that turn a childhood summer job into a career.

Manitoba Knowledge and Research Transfer Program links:

KRTP Syrup Testing Service Explained: https://youtu.be/Vb_m8sEYIhI?si=in6eUKh6gzKH-_R0 KRTP YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@krtpmanitoba KRTP's RNAi Varroa Control Trial Results: https://youtu.be/VmoocGAvy3I?si=8bgAf0OpSIvq-4dj&t=2290 https://www.facebook.com/krtpmb Instagram: @krtpmb https://manitobabee.org/krtp/

This podcast was

Recorded August 2026 in Calgary.

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About Ron Miksha: https://about-bees.org/about-ron/

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