Rob and Ron have been working together in the West Australian bee industry for many years. Together they run a breeding program using instrumental insemination which Ron learnt from Gretchen Wheen and Sue Cobey. In this episode we discuss bee breeding, the Rottnest program, Joe Horner’s drone rearing and the story of the Karri tree, which Rob is writing a book about.
1:30 When Rob and Ron started working together
3:14 Rottnest breeding program
5:14 Gretchen Wheen and Mathilde 'Tilly' Kühnert
7:14 When Ron Learnt Instrumental insemination
7:52 Sue Cobey visits Australia in 2009
9:33 Challenges of Instrumental insemination
12:00 Joe Horner’s drone rearing system
14:02 Drone drift
15:37 Queens you can get from Rob and Ron
19:20 Rob’s book on the Karri forest in Western Australia
22:29 Baiting
Comment or leave feedback on the episode post in the Facebook group for this podcast
https://www.facebook.com/groups/breedingthehoneybee
Record a soundbite about your queen rearing here
https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/pages/podcast
This podcast is proudly brought to you by Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees in Ballarat Australia. Email Brent at brent@nixonqueenbees.com.au