Monthly Archives: August 2013

MSU Queen Rearing Course

MSU Queen Rearing Course

Drs. Zachary Huang and Meghan Milbrath

Click here to register

Tentative Program

Saturday, Aug 17th,2013

08:30-9:00 am Meet at the visitor parking lot near the intersection of Psychology road and Farm Lane. MAPs are here.

Morning classes will be in 244 Natural Science Building.

09:00-9:10:   Pre-test

9:15 – 9:50 How a queen is born (Zachary)

10:00- 10:45:  Different methods for queen rearing (Meghan)

11:00-11:45:  Basic steps of queen rearing (Zachary)

12:00 -1:30 lunch break (visit the bee bee tree if enough interest)

Presentations are at Field Lab in the afternoon.

1:30-3:00:  Inspecting Zachary’s grafting (done Aug 14),
Move to finisher. Grafting practice (2 persons per group).

3:15-4:00: Creating a starter colony (practice).

4:00-5:00: Questions/Discussion.

5:00 class over.

Sunday, August 18th, 2013

9:30 am Meet at the visitor parking lot near the intersection of Psychology road and Farm Lane. MAPs are here.

Morning classes will be in 244 Natural Science Building.

9:30 – 10:20 Mating biology (Meghan)

10:20-10:45:  Control of mating (Zachary)

11:00-11:45:  Stock selection, and Michigan Survivor Project (Meghan)

11:50-12:00  post-test

12:00-1:30 lunch break.

1:30-4:00: Inspection of yesterday’s grafting, 2nd grafting into missed cells (or discard first graft, wet graft again).

4:00-5:00: Questions/Discussion.

5:00 class over.

Instructor Bio:

As an associate professor at MSU, Dr. Zachary Huang has been keeping bees since 1982. He studies honey bee behavior, physiology and how pests and disease impact these aspects of bees. He has been to over 20 countries teaching and researching honey bees.

Dr. Meghan Milbrath has kept bees as a hobby for many years and is now working as a postdoctoral fellow at MSU studying how Nosema affects honey bee behavior and physiology.  She is the coordinator for the Michigan Survivor Project.

Prerequisite:

At least one year experience with beekeeping is recommended to take advantage of all information. Please bring your own bee veil/suite.