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 after completing his Ph.D. dissertation on strawberry pollination, and assumed the position of extension apicultural entomologist at the Ohio State University. 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.
Later, he moved to Connecticut where he established the Beekeeping Educational Service, offering educational programs for beekeepers. Later he purchased Wicwas Press from 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. He is a monthly contributor to both the “American Bee Journal” and Bee Culture Magazine. Every January he coordinates the annual Serious Sideliner Symposium at the meeting of the American Beekeeping Federation.
The public is invited to attend. Donations will be accepted to help cover Connor’s expenses
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