Honey Bee Obscura Podcast

Dr. James E. Tew is an Emeritus Faculty member at The Ohio State University. Jim is also retired from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. During his forty-eight years of bee work, Jim has taught classes, provided extension services, and conducted research on honey bees and honey bee behavior.

He contributes monthly articles to national beekeeping publications and has written: Beekeeping Principles, Wisdom for Beekeepers, The Beekeeper’s Problem Solver, and Backyard Beekeeping. He has a chapter in The Hive and the Honey Bee and was a co-author of ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture. He is a frequent speaker at state and national meetings and has traveled internationally to observe beekeeping techniques.

Jim produces a YouTube beekeeping channel, started Honey Bee Obscura podcast with Kim Flottum, and keeps the grass down in his bee yards at home.

Cohost 2021 - 2023

Kim Flottum attended the University Of Wisconsin, Madison, receiving a BS in Horticulture Production. While an undergrad he worked for the UW Entomology Department, researching insect control in green houses and gardens, and writing Extension Bulletins about those pests.

After graduation, he worked for the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Madison for four years, studying crop pollination, pesticide problems with honey bees and using honey plants in the home landscape. When the lab closed, he moved to Connecticut where he was a farm manager, producing row crop vegetables and managing an apple orchard. While there he joined the CT Beekeepers Association, became President and then CT Director to EAS. John Root was also on the EAS Board at the time, and after a year offered the job of Publications Manager and Editor of Gleanings In Bee Culture, A.I. Root’s monthly beekeeping magazine.

During his tenure at A. I. Root, he created a new magazine, BEEKeeping, Your First Three Years, and also published several books, by authors such as Clarence Collison, Mark Winston, Roger Morse, Bill Mares, Paul Jackson, Richard Taylor, Dewey Caron and Steve Tabor, along with editing three editions of The ABC and XYZ Of Bee Culture, with Roger Morse, H. Shiminuki, and Keith Delaplane. He designed the first of Root’s beekeeping web pages, and started the daily email blast CATCH THE BUZZ.

Working with The Ohio State Beekeepers Association he became President, then EAS Director. After two stints as Director, he was elected Chairman Of The Board, and was the annual President twice for meetings in Ohio, with Jim Tew as Program Chair, and in New York, with Bob Brachman. Kim also worked with the local Medina County Beekeepers Association, serving as President for several years, and teaching their Beginner’s Class. Traveling extensively, He has given lectures in 48 states and six countries.

During his 33 years as Bee Culture Editor, he produced five books of his own, including four editions of The Backyard Beekeeper, plus In Business With Bees, The Honey Handbook, First Time Beekeeping, and with Marina Marchese, The Honey Connoisseur, and to be released in 2021, Common Sense Natural Beekeeping, with Stephanie Bruneau.

He officially retired in 2019, to focus on Honey Bee Obscura and Beekeeping Today Podcast, keep a few bees, his gardens, chickens and ducks.

Kim lost his valiant battle against cancer, December 10, 2023.