Mountain State Queens and Purdue’s CARE Grant trained and promoted new Queen Breeders in their second training event for 2018. At a time when poor queen quality has been a top concern nationwide, training of new breeders to improve honey bee genetics may be key to survival of future colonies of honey bees.
Having already jump started the season in March with an Advanced Class, the need became apparent for a second training for new queen producers wanting to learn the techniques.
The Dan O’Hanlon School of Instrumental Insemination hosted nine (9) new queen breeders for a class on June 25-27, 2018 at the Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley, West Virginia. The students enrolled came from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Hiawaii, Alabama, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The Cedar Lakes campus not only provided a rural setting for the students and honey bees, but lodging at the same building, Holt Lodge, where the training occurred.
Instructors for the class were Dorothey Morgan of Kentucky and Zelma Boggess of West Virginia. After days spent in intense training, they inseminated queens and received certification. Judge Dan O’Hanlon, the founding President of the West Virginia Queen Producers Cooperative, founding member of the Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Cooperative and Honey Bee Queen Breeder presented each graduating class members with a Certificate, and Dorothey Morgan presented them with Certification Cards. The students took home their inseminated breeder stock and all of the necessary supplies to continue their progress during this season.
Photos attached include those taken during the class and at the closing ceremony for certification.
