All About Queens with Dr. David Peck

In this discussion, Dr. Peck begins with the biology of what makes a queen bee a queen bee. From that foundation, he explores topics related to managing your queen. How do the bees in a colony judge their queen? How should you? Can a good queen help you keep your colony free from disease? Can good disease management still sometimes render a colony queenless?  Discover some of what is known (and what still isn't known) about choosing, evaluating, and managing queen bees.

SPEAKER DETAILS:

Dr. David Peck

Dr. Peck is the Director of Research and Education at Betterbee in Greenwich, NY, where he assists in product development and research. He also teaches classes and develops scientifically-sound educational materials. His doctoral work in Cornell University's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior was supervised by Professor Tom Seeley. His dissertation research focused on the transmission of mites between bee colonies, as well as the mite-resistance traits of the untreated honeybees living in Cornell's Arnot Forest.

After earning his degree, he has continued to research varroa/bee interactions, including fieldwork in Newfoundland, Canada (where varroa still have not arrived) and Anosy Madagascar (where varroa arrived only in 2010 or 2011). He has served as a teaching postdoctoral fellow in Cornell's Department of Entomology, and is still affiliated with Cornell through the Honey Bee Health program in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Peck has kept bees for more than a decade, though his home apiary is often full of mite-riddled research colonies, so he doesn't usually produce much honey.