Project Overview
FNE07-601
Project Type: Farmer
Funds awarded in 2007: $7,965.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2007
Region: Northeast
State: Pennsylvania
Project Leader:
Selecting better honeybees for the Northeast
Commodities
- Agronomic: canola, corn, rapeseed, sunflower, hay
- Fruits: apples, berries (brambles), cherries, peaches, pears, berries (strawberries)
- Additional Plants: herbs, ornamentals, trees
- Animals: bees, poultry, fish
Practices
- Animal Production: feed/forage
- Education and Training: technical assistance, demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, on-farm/ranch research, workshop
- Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns, value added
- Pest Management: disease vectors, field monitoring/scouting, genetic resistance, integrated pest management
- Sustainable Communities: sustainability measures
Proposal summary:
The strength, quality, and temperament of a honeybee hive is directly related to the queen, yet no system exists in the U.S. to determine the quality of the queen bees that breeders produce. This project will be a feasibility study to determine if a program that inspects hives for quality brood and tests queens for defensive behavior can identify higher quality queens that can then be used in a queen breeding program. Outreach will be through presentations and articles.
