Text Transcript with Description of Visuals
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| [Music] | Title “Pollen trapping Tutorial for citizen scientist beekeepers” over many pollen grains in petri dish. WSU Bee Program and PCB Lab logos. Text on screen: This training is designed to teach citizen scientist beekeepers how to collect, handle, store, and ship pollen samples for the National Phenology Wheel. |
| Planting pollinators share a mutual beneficial relationship. The majority of the flowers rely on pollinators for reproduction. And flowers, in return, provide pollen and nectar to the bees, which are fuel for the colony growth. Pollen and nectar are the source of essential micro and macronutrients for pollinators like honey bees. | Honey bee pollinating pink flowers Honey bee pollinating purple flowers Honey bee pollinating white flowers Honey bees flying into hive entrance Honey bees crawling on hive frame with comb cells containing pollen |
| Phenology is the study of seasonal events in nature, such as when plants begin to bloom. | Field of wild flowers waving back and forth from gentle breeze |
| Phenology will are visual calendars that describe where and when specific plants are blooming in each month of the year. This will provide insight to reason-specific details of abundance and diversity of floral resources. Understanding phenology will help beekeepers to identify forest availability and potential gaps in nutrition. This information helps improve colony management and support healthy bee population. | Pie chart with 12 slices and a cartoon flower in the middle |
| Within this work, we have four major goals. We first want to understand what is in bloom and when. We will then define the basic nutritional profile of available forests to better understand the nutrients which pollinators are receiving. We want to track seasonal change in bloom timing and pollen diversity, and then build national pollen database where beekeepers can find reason-specific details of forage availabilities. | Four boxes showing goals of National Phenology Wheel, speaker describes goals. |
| Honey bees collect pollen from flowers and packed it into their hind legs in a structure called pollen basket. They carry these pollen pellets back to the hive and enter through the hive entrance. Pollen collected by honey bees help us understand bee forest landscapes and how they vary by reason, season, and under different environmental conditions. | Honey bee pollinating orange flower then flies away Honey bee with pollen basket on legs crawls into hive entrance Person runs finger across pollen grains collected in a yellow rectangular basket |
| Now let’s go over how sample collection will work. Before installing the trap, make sure you have all the materials you need ready and available. For trap-based sampling, we ask that one hive be sampled per apiary. The trap should be installed on a bright, sunny day and left in place for 48 hours. After the collection period, the pollen should be transferred into a labeled Ziploc bag. This process will be repeated every four weeks for 12 months. It is important to note that if you are collecting in the first week of the month for your first month sampling, you should always collect during the first week of the month. | Bulleted list appears, speaker reads off slide. Image of pollen grains in a ziploc bag |
| Pollen traps will be provided only to participating beekeepers who need them. Participants who already have a pollen trap may use their own. If you have not yet received a pollen trap from us, please reach out. | Two beekeepers walking toward colonies |
| As a reminder, please do not collect pollen on rainy days or when conditions are very wet. Moisture can affect sample quality, so it’s very important that samples remain as dry and clean as possible. Keeping the pollen dry helps preserve the samples and improves the quality for later processing. | Rain drops running down glass surface |
| Now we will go over pollen trap installation. You will first cover the holes on the sides of your pollen trap. We recommend doing so with duct tape. This will prevent bees from bypassing the trap. You will then set the pollen trap flush with your hive equipment and attach the trap with screws. This can be done with a screwdriver or a drill. Just be sure not to attach the screws too tightly to avoid cracking the plastic. | Person pointing to hole on side of pollen trap, then taping closed Person putting pollen trap on hive Person tightening a screw with a screw driver |
| After setting the pollen trap, you will leave it on the colony for 48 hours and then collect the contents from the collection basket. You want to be sure that when you’re not actively using the trap during these 48 hours, you either remove it or disengage the trap using something like a binder clip. You’ll just pin the trap open. | Clock icon. Text on screen is read by speaker |
| Be sure to label each sample clearly with the date of collection. Be sure to include the month, day, and year, the collector’s first and last name, and the location that the pollen was collected from. | Picture of pollen grains in a ziploc bag. Speaker reads text on screen and emphasizes how to label sample clearly. |
| After a collection, it’s important to place the sample in a sealed bag in a freezer as soon as possible to preserve quality until shipping or drop-off. | Picture of bag of pollen grains being placed into freezer |
| If you are shipping your samples, they can be stored for several months and shipped in batches to reduce shipping costs. Be sure to contact us before you ship samples so that we can give you more detailed directions. But the big picture is that you’ll need to obtain a Styrofoam box in dry ice. the samples will go into the box with dry ice, and then they will be shipped overnight. | Person placing bag of pollen grains into sytrofoam box containing ice |
| If you’re dropping the samples off in person, you can do so in either Centralia, Washington or Pullman, Washington. But again, be sure to contact us to arrange drop-offs. | Image of a person handing off a box to another person |
| Once we obtain your samples, they may be analyzed using nutritional analysis, metabarcoding, acetolysis, and imaging to better understand the nutritional availability within this pollen as well as the species of pollen that you’ve collected. | Text on screen is read by speaker. Images show 5 petri dishes with pollen grains sorted by color, two people in lab coats, and a microscope plugged into a laptop |
| Then, data about pollen color, flower origin, structure, protein and lipid content, and region collected is compiled into a database. This database will become publicly accessible through an open access web platform. | Image of hexagonal shapes with color labels and different colors of yellows, oranges, greens, and browns next to a screenshot of a web page titled Phenology Wheel |
| Participants who are not beekeepers can still support this project through hand collection of pollen. Training for this will be in a separate video. | Person twisting a blueberry flower in between two fingers, pollen is falling out of flower |
| Thank you so much to all of the volunteer beekeepers and participants assisting within this project. Your contribution is a crucial part of this project, and we truly appreciate your support. [Music] | Honey bee pollinating pink flower. Thank you message is read by speaker. |
| Not a citizen scientist currently, but interested in this project? Be sure to scan this QR code or navigate to this link to sign up. The link is also available in the video description. | Text on screen read by speaker, a QR code is provided |