Course

Instrumental Insemination of Queen Bees - April 2022 (In-person)

Ended Apr 24, 2022

Sorry! The enrollment period is currently closed. Please check back soon.

Full course description

Start:

April 23-24, 2022

Duration:

2 Days

Location:

Polytechnic Campus

Price:

$500


 

What you'll learn:

The most important member in a honey bee colony is the queen. A colony needs a good quality queen to be strong and productive. In Arizona conditions queens can live up to two years, however, due to the climate, she begins to lay fewer fertilized eggs after one year. Colonies can rear their own replacement queens, but this may result in a colony becoming Africanized as these colony-reared queens may mate with feral drones. In this course beekeepers will get hands-on experience learning instrumental insemination techniques. Knowledge of instrumental insemination will equip beekeepers to select the exact queen and drones to establish a healthier, productive and more stable colony. Mastery of instrumental insemination will also allow a beekeeper to rear quality queens and drones from select breeder colonies whenever needed.


Course Objectives

  • An introduction to the tools and process of instrumental insemination
  • Understanding the importance of honey bee queens and how to raise them
  • The importance of drones and how to raise them.
  • How to collect semen from drones
  • How to inseminate queens
  • How to evaluate insemination success and the quality of the inseminated queen

This course is designed for:

  • This class is designed for experienced hobby and commercial beekeepers, and bee researchers.
  • The participants need to bring their own bee suits and gloves.
  • The virgin queens and drones will be provided
  • Coffee, appetizers and easy lunch will be provided.

Prerequisite:

Instrumental insemination equipment is required for this course. Limited sets of instrumental insemination equipment will be available for rent. To reserve a set of insemination equipment please contact the instructor Cahit.Ozturk@asu.edu

Please note class may be postponed or canceled if less than 3 students enroll.

About the instructor


Cahit Ozturk, Ph.D.

Dr. Ozturk received his Bachelor’s degree in animal science in 1993 and completed his Masters and Ph.D. in apiculture at the University of Cukurova, Adana, Turkey. His journey working with bees started in 1989 as an undergraduate. He has since taught many courses on beekeeping, queen rearing, and honey bee products. He has also taught advanced beekeeping courses such as queen bee rearing, bee breeding and instrumental insemination as a lecturer for 7 years at the beekeeping departments of two different universities. He worked in a government research institute in Turkey as an apiculturist and researcher in the beekeeping department for 13 years where he further developed expertise in queen rearing, instrumental insemination, in vitro rearing and hygienic behavior. His work also included hygienic honey bee breeding projects. Dr. Ozturk joined ASU in 2014 where he works as the Research Technologist and manager of the honeybee research laboratory. As a master beekeeper with over 30 years of experience Dr. Ozturk shares his knowledge and expertise in his ASU beekeeping courses.

Meeting Details

Saturday, April 23, 2022 - Sunday, April 24, 2022
9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Location

Honey Bee Research Lab
ASU Polytechnic Campus
6858 E Old Pecos Road
Mesa, AZ 85212

Location is at West & South corner of the ASU Polytechnic campus. If you have difficulty to find the course location communicate with instructor by email Cahit.Ozturk@asu.edu.