SouthWestern Ohio Beekeepers Association SWOBA
Sept 2021 Lecture
Sept 2021 Lecture
Speaker: Dr. Krispn Given
Time: 7:30 PM (EDT) (Eastern Daylight Time – Cincinnati Time)
Topic: " Hierarchical Selection for Behavioral Resistance to Varroa Destructor".
Fees: Free
Where: Online through Zoom (Click on the "TO REGISTER" link at the top of the page). You will receive an email the day of the event (or before that). If you did not receive an email, please check your spam folder.
This Talk: will be an overview of Hierarchical Selection for Behavioral Resistance to Varroa Destructor
BIO:
Krispn Given is recognized as one of the leading authorities in honey bee instrumental insemination and honey bee breeding. He is the Apiculture Specialist at Purdue University’s Department of Entomology in West Lafayette Indiana.
Mr. Given started breeding bees over 27 years ago, conducting research with 250 colonies looking for solutions to improve honey bee health. He currently manages Purdue’s honey bee breeding program, teaching annual queen rearing short courses in addition to managing honey bee laboratory and extension activities.
Krispn also teaches the instrumental insemination class each year at the university attracting researchers and bee breeders worldwide annually, he gives lectures to beekeepers and researchers at national and international conferences. His current research is focused on selecting for behavioral resistance mechanisms to Varroa destructors by selecting bees with desirable behavioral traits, grooming, and mite-biting.
He is also known for the “Indiana Mite-biter” bee strain, where they have demonstrated high-selected bees that chew 50% of the mites that are groomed off their bodies. The primary mechanism of defense is the ability to groom themselves free of varroa mites and bite them (collaboration with Dr. Greg Hunt). Krispn continues to breed bees to ameliorate colony health through constant selection, he hopes to develop a strain that is capable of tolerating deadly viruses like (DWV) better someday.
Krispn has been involved in several research projects for the last seventeen years at Purdue, he is an author and co-author of numerous publications, including books, scientific and trade journal articles. Krispn has received numerous honors and awards. He recently launched Apis Engineering, offering instrumental insemination services and instruments he and his business partner designed. Many international/national honey bee researchers and bee breeders are currently using it in their labs.