Queen breeding and rearing are two areas that many members have shown a keen interest in and further to our talk earlier in the year from Kevin Thorn on the native bee reserve at Abberton Resevoir, we have invited two of our members with experience in this area to talk about the projects that they have been involved in.
Paul Walton has organised a local bee breeding group with the aims of demonstrating the methods used by COLOSS to evaluate bees and encouraging it’s members to follow these in order to find objective data with which to improve their breeding stock. He will be reporting back on the successes of the group.
The presentation is here.
Dave Corbett has run a number of sessions to demystify the ‘dark art’ of queen rearing, and enable beekeepers of all levels to have a go at raising their own queens, with a number of members having attended practical sessions in the apiary. He aims to encourage bee improvement by equipping members with the skills and and understanding of how they can raise their own queens and the impact that selection has across their surrounding area.
The presentation is here.