See the program and directions here:
http://www.mdbeekeepers.org/downloads/MSBA_Program_130216.pdf
MSBA Winter 2013 Meeting to Feature Leading Local Queen Breeder, New Beltsville Researcher
Adam Finkelstein has owned and operated VP Queen Bees with his wife for the last six years. VP Queen Bees produces artificially inseminated breeder queen bees for the beekeeping industry: customers range in size from 5 to over 25 thousand hives. VP's production and breeding population is untreated and has been so for the last 14 years. Using VSH expressing traits and breeding techniques, these breeder queens provide a means to control bee and hive pests reducing or even eliminating hive treatments. Adam works with the USDA Bee Breeding Lab, and several commercial queen rearing outfits around the USA to continue to select for hardy and productive queen stock. His background in Biology and Agriculture provides him with an appreciation for the setting all beekeepers work in and stimulates him to share knowledge and information with others.
Dr. Steven Cook has moved his research work to Beltsville from the now-closed Weslaco Lab, and looks forward to sharing the preliminary results from the programs begun there, as well as planned research to be launched in Maryland in 2013. His research focuses on factors that weakening hive vigor and foraging efficiency, and the work seeks to provide economically sound integrated pest management (IPM) approaches to lessen the effects of these factors. Research hopes to improve IPM tacticsand strategies for control of key pests of honey bees, including Varroa mites, and the small hive beetle, while lessening pesticide/antibiotic use in managed honey bee colonies, and identifying sustainable agricultural practices.