Selecting for Behavioral Resistance to Varroa Destructor in Honey Bees with Krispn Given

SPEAKER BIO:

Krispn Given is recognized as one of the leading international authorities in the fields of honey bee instrumental insemination and honey bee breeding. He is the Apiculture Specialist at Purdue University’s Department of Entomology in West Lafayette Indiana. Given started breeding bees 26 years ago, conducting research with 150-300 colonies looking for solutions to improve honey bee health. He oversees Purdue University’s honey bee breeding program, teaching annual queen rearing short courses and managing the honey bee laboratory research and extension activities.

Krispn also teaches instrumental insemination classes each year attracting researchers and bee breeders worldwide and annually gives lectures to beekeepers and researchers at national and international conferences. His current research is focused on selecting behavioral resistance to varroa destructor by selecting bees with desirable behavioral traits, grooming, and Mite-biting.

Krispn was instrumental in developing the internationally known “mite-biter” honey bee strain, where they have demonstrated high-selected bees that chew 50% of the mites that are groomed off their bodies. The primary defense mechanism is the ability to groom themselves free of varroa mites and bite them (collaboration with honey bee geneticist Greg Hunt). He continues to breed bees and conduct research at Purdue looking for solutions to improve honey bee health with selective behavioral trait selection