Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 6:00PM – 8:00PM (EST)
This is a free event with donations optional. All proceeds go toward beekeeper education, future speaker events, and further development and outreach efforts of the SBGMI.
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The Bawden Assay: A Better Method for VSH Breeding Selection and Varroa Sampling
Trevor Bawden, Lloyd Street Bees, will be presenting on a new Varroa sampling and VSH assay called the Bawden assay. The assay was developed by Trevor and provides an extremely quick, cost effective and easy method for accurate Varroa and mite resistance sampling that requires very little training. This novel assay utilizes the Varroa infestation in capped brood as a key detection tool for Varroa resistant queen breeders. The assay was field trialed alongside the traditional mite wash, the Harbo VSH assay and the uncap/recap assay. He will show how the assay stacks up against the competition with the field data Trevor and his team collected. Key points of the talk will be explaining the protocol of the assay, a data review from Trevor’s upcoming research publication on the assay and also going into detail about the importance of collaboration between academic researchers and beekeepers in the field to produce quality applied science.
Trevor Bawden is a former university honey bee researcher, now conducting private research, and the owner/operator of Lloyd Street Bees. The focus of his business is nucleus colony production and queen breeding. This operation helps educate and provide sustainable beekeeping for Wisconsin. He has spent almost a decade focusing the efforts of his operation on Northern VSH queen breeding. His goal of elevating the quality of the queens produced across the country is channeled through the breeding program at Lloyd Street Bees. Part of this breeding process is the selection and production of artificially inseminated queens in WI via Lloyd Street Bees.