Project Type: Partnership
Funds awarded in 2024: $50,000.00
Projected End Date: 03/31/2026
Grant Recipient:
Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of Michigan
Region: North Central
State: Michigan
Project Coordinator:
James Lee
Northern Queen Initiative (NQI)
Description:
Healthy Hives Through Strategic Selection - Spring” is an SBGMI/Northern Queen Initiative educational guide that helps beekeepers begin selecting for mite-resistant honey bee stock in the spring. It explains key resistance concepts, including MNR, SMR, LVG, and VSH, and provides practical guidance on colony assessment, treatment status, the seven-week rule, and appropriate use of tools such as UBeeO™, Harbo Assays, mite washes, sticky boards, and later-season confirmation testing. The guide encourages beekeepers to use data-driven selection, plan breeding decisions ahead of time, and begin building local mite-resistant stock from either their own bees, vetted stock, or both.
This material is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the North Central Region SARE program under project number ONC24-153.
This material is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the North Central Region SARE program under project number ONC24-153.
Type:
Manual/Guide
File:
Download file (PDF)
Target audiences:
Farmers/Ranchers; Educators; Researchers
This product is associated with the project "The Northern Queen Initiative: Improving Value, Availability, and Production of Mite-Resistant Honey Bee Queens in Northern Climates"
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.