The Northern Queen Initiative: Improving Value, Availability, and Production of Mite-Resistant Honey Bee Queens in Northern Climates

During the project, two queen-rearing classes were conducted in June of 2024. Two locations in Michigan were selected to conduct hands-on honey bee queen rearing courses. A prerequisite video course was mandated to permit attendance to the hands-on field day portion.

Class one was conducted in conjunction with 7 Ponds Beekeeper Club, Dryden, MI. 6.8.2024 with 19 participants.
Class two was conducted in conjunction with Berrien/Cass Beekeepers Club, Niles, MI. 6.22.2024 with 12 participants.

Participants were provided with a survey to ascertain ratings in ten categories, with eight of them soliciting closed ended scale responses: Overall satisfaction, instructor effectiveness, course content, clarity of information, hands-on experience, class materials, interaction and engagement, recommendation, suggestions for improvement, and additional comments.

Scale based responses included five options in descending order from high to low. High responses were in the affirmative with the lowest response indicating the negative.

Of the 31 participant responses, all fell within the first and second affirmative categories, expressing high levels of satisfaction, good effectiveness, thoroughness of content covered, clear information, helpful activities increasing understand queen rearing techniques, useful class materials, highly interactive and engaging presentation, and likelihood to recommend class too other beekeepers.

Pre and Post tests were given to measure and assess prior knowledge and retention of class materials.

Participants demonstrated improvement in understanding of queen-rearing principles and techniques in all 10 questions posed during pre and post test submissions. These areas of knowledge, attitude, and skill included:

What is the primary purpose of queen rearing in beekeeping?
What are the main methods used for queen rearing?
Describe the difference between grafting and the use of queen cups in queen rearing.
At what stage in the development of a queen bee is she typically transferred to mating nucs or hives?
What factors should be considered when selecting larvae for grafting in queen rearing?
What is royal jelly, and why is it important in queen rearing?
What is the ideal age of larvae for grafting in queen rearing?
What are the signs that a queen cell is ready to be placed in a mating nuc or hive?
What is supersedure, and how does it differ from swarm cells in the context of queen rearing?
How can beekeepers ensure the success of newly mated queens after they are introduced into mating nucs or hives?
Have you tried grafting before and do you plan to use these techniques in the future?

Farmers and beekeeper participants reported or demonstrated changes in knowledge, attitude, skills, and awareness in several key areas. These changes were observed through participation in project activities, online course enrollment, presentations, direct consultation, queen-production work, and hands-on breeding events rather than through formal 2025 or 2026 survey data.

Key areas of change included increased awareness that genetic selection can be used as a practical tool to reduce long-term dependence on acaricides; improved understanding of the shortage of locally adapted, mite-resistant northern queen stock; increased knowledge of Harbo Assays, mite washes, survival evaluation, and pin-killed brood testing as selection tools; improved practical skills in queen rearing, grafting, cell-building, incubation, banking, caging, and distribution; increased exposure to instrumental insemination and breeder queen development; and greater awareness of the value of cooperative regional breeding networks.

Participants also demonstrated increased understanding that selected queens and drones can influence local mating areas over time, helping improve regional access to better-adapted honey bee stock. These changes support the project’s original goals of improving beekeeper awareness, increasing adoption of mite-resistant queen genetics, and empowering beekeepers to measure and select for improved stock in their own operations.

Participants demonstrated increased awareness of how shared web infrastructure can improve both customer access and producer access in a regional queen-production network. The SBGMI/NQI queen portal served as a central clearinghouse for participating producers, allowing beekeepers to find available mite-resistant queens, review producer stock descriptions, receive availability notifications, and connect with producers. This especially benefited small or developing queen producers who lacked an established web presence or market reach. As the project matured, the portal also supported a transition toward producer-managed ordering and fulfillment while still allowing producers to benefit from the broader visibility and credibility of SBGMI/NQI. The success of this has demonstrated that cooperative models replicated in other regions can be accomplished with a forward thinking and technologically augmented delivery system.

Participants also demonstrated increased skills and awareness related to instrumental insemination and breeder queen development. The proposal promised an annual breeding event where beekeepers and participants could receive instrumental insemination of selected stocks, and also promised to identify, train, or equip cooperative participants capable of providing insemination of breeder queens for the network. Project activities advanced this promise through instrumental insemination training, acquisition of insemination equipment, and development of multiple insemination stations in Michigan.

Participants demonstrated increased awareness of the value of a cooperative regional breeding model. The proposal promised growth from four network participants toward eight and the establishment of queen producers using prescribed methods of genetic assessment and selection. The current project model reflects this shift by emphasizing breeders, producers, pickup hubs, shipping locations, standardized selection protocols, training pipelines, and local lineages. These changes show increased understanding that regional queen production is not only about producing individual queens, but about building a durable infrastructure for selection, access, local adaptation, and long-term genetic influence in Michigan and the broader NC-SARE region.

Network breeders demonstrated a successful transition toward treatment-reduced and, in some cases, treatment-free breeding schemes. This was a central practical outcome of the project because it showed that the testing protocols were not merely educational exercises, but tools that could be used to identify and propagate queens from colonies capable of overwintering without routine treatment dependence. These queens were then used within the network and distributed to other beekeepers, supporting both the project’s sustainability goals and its promise to increase access to mite-resistant, northern-selected honey bee queen stock.

The project also advanced its breeding and distribution goals through a USDA material transfer agreement with USDA-ARS in Baton Rouge to integrate USDA Pol-Line mite-resistant breeder stock into the NQI network. Through this agreement, the project received selected breeder queens to serve as grafting sources for producing mite-resistant queens within the cooperative production system. This strengthens the project’s original goals of improving access to mite-resistant queen genetics, expanding queen producer capacity, and reducing dependence on non-selected commercial queen sources. The Pol-Line material does not replace the project’s emphasis on local adaptation, but adds a recognized source of selected mite-resistant breeder stock that can be evaluated under northern conditions and incorporated into reduced-treatment or treatment-free breeding schemes.