Speaker Information

Lawrence (Larry) Connor, Ph.D, With the ever-increasing need for more regional self-reliance for producing queens, Larry Connor has started raising queens at the Connor Farm in Galesburg with an eye toward mite resistance and local fitness (honey production, vigor and wintering). Michigan native Lawrence John Connor departed Michigan State University upon completion of his Ph. D. dissertation on strawberry pollination, and assumed the position of extension apicultural entomologist at The Ohio State University – Columbus. There his program attracted the attention of investors interested in moving the Dadant Starline and Midnite Hybrid queen program to Florida to establish the world’s first mass production facility for instrumentally inseminated queen honey bees. Afterwards he moved to Connecticut where he established the Beekeeping Educational Service, offering educational programs for beekeepers. Later he purchased Wicwas Press from Dr. Roger and Mary Lou Morse. He returned to Kalamazoo after an absence of 44 years. He has written four books, three on beekeeping: Increase Essentials, Bee Sex Essentials and Queen Rearing Essentials. He has also published over a dozen titles by other authors dealing with bees, beekeeping, queen rearing and pollination. Check out www.wicwas.com.

Ted Jones, President, Connecticut Beekeepers Association and Semi-professional beekeeper.

Dave Miksa was born in Greenville, Pennsylvania, served in WWII and is the oldest of ten children.
Dave's father, Andrew Miksa (McShaw), was a Commercial beekeeper who kept bees in PA, WV, SC, FL & WI for honey production and pollination.
David worked for Dr. R A Morse in 1961 learning for the first time grafting and queen rearing for queen production in pheromone & queen mating studies. Making life time friends at Cornell opened doors for the rest of the 1960's to become an insect research helper at USDA Madison, Wisconsin Bee Management Lab. Primarily doing grafting, rearing cells, inseminating queens, managing inbred lines and helping with honey production in out apiaries. But bored with the long cold winters. At the same time building a small beekeeping operation.
In 1971 Dave married Linda, starting a family and increasing our beekeeping operation along the way. Dave worked part time for other beekeepers, earning groceries, but later realized that more importantly he learned their skills too.
Over the years the Miksas have done commercial pollination in many crops in many states, honey production in Wisconsin and made an annual migrant movement to Florida to winter bees.
Every year since 1961 David has grafted queen cells and sold queens - selling out every year. As the demand for queens grew, the honey production and pollination became a side line.
From 2000 to now - in 2010 - Dave, his wife, 6 children, and 9 grandchildren are doing full time queen rearing in Groveland, Florida of both queen cells and mated queens from February to November.
David has been in two documentary movies, interviewed by TV news crews several times, and in several newspaper articles. He also belongs to four beekeepers associations and has received several beekeepers awards. At the present time is a board member of Project Apis M.

Medhat Nasr Alberta Provincial Apiculturist, Agriculture Research Division, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His responsibilities include regulatory, extension and research. The research program is focused on honey bee health management. Research projects included breeding bees for tracheal mites and hygienic, development of alternative treatments for mite control, and integrated pest management. He earned his doctoral degree at University of California, Davis, CA, USA. He established the Tech-Transfer in Ontario. He was Assistant Extension Professor at Rutgers University, NJ, USA and now he is back to Alberta, Canada. Alberta currently, has over 250,000 and recovered all their losses in two years. It is witness for running a successful program for bee health management.