Heather began working with honey bees in 1987 at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia, Canada and completed a Master’s degree in bee research under Mark Winston. On completion she took on the position of SFU bee research coordinator, managing the university’s honey bee colonies and bee research lab, and mentoring students until the lab closed. In 2007, Heather began running a small queen rearing operation in Langley, British Columbia, Canada and continued in the bee community giving talks and teaching queen rearing and IPM workshops in the Fraser Valley while also working in Plant Health for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). In 2011, CFIA assigned her to work on the Bee IPM Project with University of British Columbia (UBC) and Agriculture Canada to improve honey bee mite and disease resistance through breeding and testing. After a short time back at CFIA, in 2015 Heather returned to bee research with UBC as the BC Field Manager for the Marker Selection and Beeomics projects, where she led a team sampling and testing colonies throughout BC as part of a five-province effort to develop new technological tools to enhance our breeding selection capabilities and improve the bee industry. In 2017 she was awarded the prestigious Fred Rathje Award by the Canadian Honey Council for her years of service to Canadian beekeepers. Heather is currently working for UBC on queen selection tools and other research projects in addition to rearing queens.
Listen in to learn more about how you can get started rearing your own queens, the many facets of it’s preparation, and Heather’s tips in getting started.
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“Basically you can rear queens with one queenright, a queen starter colony, and a few mating nucs, so it doesn’t have to be atrociously expensive.” – Heather Higo
Show Notes:
- What Beemasters is and who it’s for
- Why people go to the trouble of rearing their own queens
- Why the preparation of queen rearing is so crucial
- How to get past the daunting task of grafting
- Some of the specialized tools you need to start rearing your own queens
- The general timeline of queen rearing
- Why separating the different queens is so important
- What are typically the first days of life for a new queen
- What to do if you end up with extra queens
“A calendar is really important with queen rearing. You need to be organized, you need to have a calendar, and you need to know what’s happening on what day.” – Heather Higo
Links Mentioned:
- Learn more about the University of British Columbia Bee IPM program
- Check out the upcoming Apimondia 2019 in Montreal, Quebec
- Heather’s book recommendations:
- Heather’s favorite tool: the Yard Book
- Heather’s favorite pollinator: a newly emerged honey bee
- Connect with Heather Higo at LinkedIn