Mid-70s is just too younger to go over to the opposite aspect. However that was the destiny for Kim Flottum, 76, who handed away Sunday, December 10, 2023, after a brief battle with most cancers. The intense and adventurous bee grasp, editor, and writer was primarily based in Medina, Ohio. Kim was the editor of Bee Tradition journal for 33 years, retiring in 2019. He was initially from central Wisconsin. It adopted simply that he would earn his bachelor’s diploma in horticulture from the College of Wisconsin. Following commencement, he labored as a researcher on the USDA Honey Bee Analysis Lab in Madison. His work targeted on pesticide points, crop pollination, and nectar-producing crops, particularly for the house gardener.

Most of us knew him as editor of Bee Tradition journal – a job that saved him engaged and educated about bees and beekeepers. However earlier, his profession took him to Connecticut the place he was elected president of the Connecticut Beekeepers’ Affiliation. Later, as Publications Supervisor for Bee Tradition, he created a brand new journal, Beekeeping: Your First Three Years. This new journal helped Kim educate new beekeepers on the time that beekeeping was quickly increasing as a passion. Through the years, Kim served because the Chairman of the Japanese Apicultural Society, president of the Ohio State Beekeepers’ Affiliation and president of the Medina County Beekeepers Affiliation. Kim retired in 2019 however continued conserving yard bee colonies, writing beekeeping books and articles, and co-hosting podcasts.

I first met Kim in Eire at Apimondia-2005 the place I gave him my deep thanks for the type accolades that he gave my Dangerous Beekeeping ebook. He mentioned that I’d written a basic (and he repeated that declare in Bee Tradition journal – feedback that touched me, contemplating the supply) – but it surely was he who was the grasp of writing. I personal a number of of the books that Kim Flottum wrote or co-wrote, together with The Yard Beekeeper; In Enterprise with Bees; The Yard Beekeeper’s Honey Handbook; First Time Beekeeping; Higher Beekeeping: The Final Information to Conserving Stronger Colonies and More healthy; Extra Productive Bees; Honey Connoisseur (written with Marina Marchese); Beekeeping for Dummies (by Howland Blackiston with the Foreword by Kim Flottum); Widespread Sense Pure Beekeeping (with Stéphanie Bruneau); The New Beginning Proper With Bees (with Kathy Summers); and, Honey Bee Pests, Predators, and Illnesses (with Roger A. Morse). I like to recommend all of those books pretty much as good, informative reads and treats.

My final assembly with Kim was in August 2023 when he and Jeff Ott interviewed Etienne Tardiff and me for the Beekeeping Immediately Podcast. I had no concept that he was in poor health. I don’t assume anybody would have guessed that he’d be gone in just a few months. Jeff has posted a heart-felt tribute to Kim and Kim’s affiliation with Jeff and the podcast – you may learn it right here.