Resources

The Apiculture Program at NC State has three core missions: Extension—providing information, advice, and other outreach services to help beekeepers at all levels; Research—using the scientific method to test hypotheses about honey bee biology and ways to help improve bee management; and Instruction—teaching and disseminating knowledge about honey bees and apiculture through formal classes and academic training. These regular newsletters review ongoing initiatives in each of these areas.

Extension articles written by members of the NC State Apiculture Program about honey bee biology, bee management, and the beekeeping community. These are available as electronic publications but can also be downloaded as PDFs through the NC State Extension Publications system.

This is an exciting online system for training beekeepers at all levels. There are three ascending levels (Beginner, Advanced, and Ambassador) with topics spanning three different areas (honey bee biology, management, and industry). The entire system is based on the Moodle instruction platform, so all video lectures, content, and quizzes can be taken directly online asynchronously and on your own schedule!

We offer an assortment of molecular tests to measure queen and colony health. For queens (and drones), we can measure reproductive quality, sperm count and sperm viability, diseases such as Nosema and virus prevalence, and Africanization. For colonies, we can measure virus profiles of the entire colony and colony-level genetic diversity. With beekeepers increasingly concerned about queen and colony productivity, this exciting resource will be invaluable for queen producers and beekeepers alike. Our pricing is highly competitive, and our high-throughput processing facilitates a quick turn-around time. This affords you to make rapid management decisions based on empirical results, taking some avoidable guesswork out of beekeeping.

We have a YouTube channel of past webinars and presentations. These occasional webinars are run through Zoom, brought to you free of charge through the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and DELTA. Anyone is able to participate either as an individual or as a group. These webinars have been useful in lieu of in-state visits to local beekeeper groups, such that multiple county chapters can participate live and at the same time!

Contacts

• NC State Apiculture Program - honey bee research, extension, and instruction
• David R. Tarpy - Professor and Extension Apiculturist
• Brad Metz - Research Scholar and Coordinator of the Queen & Disease Clinic
• Kim Guillemette - Apiculture Technician
• Jennifer Keller - Extension & Outreach Coordinator

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