The NC State Apiculture Program is pleased to announce a new state-wide training initiative. We have recently secured a grant through the Golden LEAF Foundation to hold numerous workshops on queen rearing and clinics on bee breeding.
Most beekeepers acquire new stock by purchasing newly mated queen bees from large commercial queen producers, mostly located in the Southeast (GA and FL) or the west coast (CA), and then introducing them to their hives. This large-scale, national queen production strategy has several inherent problems, most notably an unreliable supply of queens, difficulties in obtaining queens when they’re needed, and a lack of local genetic adaptation. We believe that local, small-scale queen producers located across NC is a viable alternative model for obtaining queens, which will enable individual beekeepers to control the genetic destiny in their own hives. In doing so, we hope to elicit every beekeeper in North Carolina to implement their own queen-rearing program if they so choose.
We will hold numerous queen-rearing workshops during the spring of 2010 in various locations all across the state. The purpose of the workshops will be to educate a large number of beekeepers in basic queen-rearing techniques (e.g., creating cell-builder colonies, grafting, establishing mating nucleus hives, etc…). Each workshop will be open to all beekeepers and the general public, capped at a maximum enrollment (roughly 50 participants, depending on the venue) on a first-come first-serve basis (concurrent sessions will be considered if demand warrants). In doing so, we will conduct separate workshops in each of the major geographic areas across the state to take advantage of the appropriate seasonality: roughly March for Eastern NC, April for Central NC, and May for Western NC. At each event, we will conduct hands-on training exercises that participants can implement immediately, and we will incorporate evaluations and surveys to collect information on each participant for subsequent follow up. These trainings are geared towards all beekeepers at all levels and aimed at helping to provide the tools and know-how in raising your own queens.
We are currently coordinating the logistics of these workshops and clinics, and we will announce the dates and locations as they become available. As more details emerge, we will post them on our web site at:
http://entomology.ncsu.edu/apiculture/BornAndBred.html
If you are interested in participating in any of these exciting opportunities, please fill out the contact information form and send it in to the NC Apiculture Program. We will contact you as offerings become available. Of course, information will be strictly confidential and used only for direct mailings and not further disseminated.
We are very pleased to be given this opportunity to offer trainings in queen rearing and bee breeding, and we look forward to working with the beekeepers in North Carolina on this initiative.
