Bee Health at eXtension.org, a bee line from scientist to society

Rapid technological advancement in agriculture and communication, and the effects of globalization over the last half century has caused tremendous change in beekeeping. Effective apiculture extension not only communicates the discoveries in the lab to personnel in the apiary, but can also accelerate the reverse flow of information to benefit researchers working with practical applications. eXtension.org was born during a turning point in the cooperative extension service, when the internet became the primary means of finding information. Since its inception in 2008, the Bee Health community of practice has grown to include over 100 contributing members involved in University and USDA research and extension; who have contributed nearly 500 pages of content, which receive approximately 150,000 views annually.  Integrating this evidence based information with social media had led to over 1,000,000 video views on YouTube. As beekeepers wrestle with annual colony losses exceeding 40 percent and reliable information obscured by the democratization of knowledge, apiculture extension through emerging technologies is more essential than at any time before.