Message from the President
October 8, 2019
Dear breeders,
I am excited to report another successful year with the HHBBC! We inseminated thirty-five queens from various sources with the desirable traits associated with overall colony health and survival to the seven states involved. This year we dialed it up a bit due to breeders experiencing difficulties introducing their IIQ’s. We made sure each queen was already laying eggs- Dwight Wells of Western Ohio and Dorthey Morgan of KY, spent over week of their time in the apiary (June 16-27) at Purdue. They monitored and fed every queen daily!
June 17-21 Larry Young of Kentucky was the apiary manager with Illinois Ed Scott and Scott Stanley from Pennsylvania along with Neil Hunt and Tony Coleman of KY volunteering their time, they helped with collecting drones from the research colonies. These folks make a big impact for HHBBC with the skills and proper attention to details required to accomplish this: Every year in June we come together to accomplish our goals and hope to achieve greater success, I would like to thank each one of you involved to make this year a great success. THANK YOU!
I would like to take the time to introduce our new V.P. Jason Bragg of New River Honey Bees, WV. He is a very talented and ambitious, Jason will certainly help move the HHBBC forward in 2020 and beyond. I would also like introduce you to our new secretary Edward Scott from IL, he has extensive beekeeping/queen rearing knowledge as well as the organizational skills required to keep everything moving smoothly.
Recently, we launched our new HHBBC website where folks can go and see what we are trying to accomplish in our endeavor to help our beloved insect the honey bee. We need to show the world that together we can improve honey bee health through breeding but we can only accomplish this by working together. We will be adding a Facebook page soon also to create more opportunities to spread the word in addition to informative protocols and videos.
Moving forward in 2020 we will only be offering pre-excepted inseminated queens to everyone, this will insure greater success without the hassle of introduction and the challenges it presents. If successful, this will resolve a fundamental challenge experienced in the past.
As I write this letter we are reminded of the past achievements the HHBBC has made in disseminating manageable mite-resistant stocks of honey bees in addition valuable information to help future breeders’ success. I am also excited about the future of the honey bee as we collectively work-on-solutions to help insure a healthier honey bee through our micro-breeding efforts. Few activities can infuse the glory of nature that honey bees do for us all.
All the best and ever onward!
Krispn Given
President
