Sharing Purdue Mite-biting Behavior Genetics July 29 2015

On June 27, 2015 beekeepers from Pennsylvania and Ohio met at Slippery Rock to exchange queens, as part of the USDA SARE outreach.

Instead of exchanging fully mated queens, we exchanged queen cells that are only 48 hours old.  The beekeepers then go back to their bee yards and finish raising the queen, and then she open mates with locally adapted drone stock.  This is a quick and inexpensive way to distribute advanced Purdue MBB genetics.