David Saleh, Research and Field Manager for the USDA National Honey Bee Disease and Pest Survey, visited Wetlands Apiary to perform the testing.
If interested, you need to have 8 or more hives in one location. A representative would visit your apiary in September or early October to collect virus, varroa and nosema samples from 8 hives.
The visit takes between 2 to 3 hours and samples will be taken from 8 random colonies.
It's an opportunity to get involved with a national monitoring project (while getting free info about your bees!).
If interested, email hwhitehead@umass.edu to find out more.