Stoney Creek Hotel 3060 S Kinney Coulee Road, Onalaska, WI (La Crosse area)
Book your room for the WI Honey Producers Association Convention HERE or call 608-781-3060
- PLEASE NOTE: The WHPA Room Block rate ends on September 30. When booking, use the group code 1124HONEY
2024 WHPA Fall Convention Paper registration form
WHPA Online Convention Registration HERE
2024 WHPA Convention Schedule, Speakers, & Activities
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Liz Walsh
“Dr. Liz Walsh is a Research Scientist with the USDA-ARS laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Steve Pernal, of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, at the Beaverlodge Research Farm in Alberta. Liz’s postdoc was spent exploring the links between honey bee health challenges and honey bee biomarkers as a part of the national BeeCSI project, but she also did work with AFB and chalkbrood exploring stock variation, asymptomatic vs. symptomatic infections, and more. This was all very different than her dissertation work, which was done at Texas A&M University with Dr. Juliana Rangel where Liz explored the impact of miticide exposure in immature queens.
Liz is pleased to be well into her “teenage” years as a beekeeper, since she began keeping bees as a young high school student in her home state of Wisconsin, and is proud to serve the beekeeping industry through research initiatives. Liz is currently working on various projects which include examining: aggression in various honey bee stocks, drone reproductive health and biology, queen reproductive health after stressor exposure, and honey bee variation in responses to pathogens (particularly chalkbrood and Nosema).”
Additional Speakers:
- USDA- Eric Ressel, Honeybee plantings: USDA programs designed to assist beekeepers in establishing honeybee habitat. Eric is a USDA conservationist with extensive conservation planning experience related to native prairie establishment, TSI, & soil health.
- Adrian Quiney, A 2020 Vision-Dispute between the bees and beekeepers as a humorous metaphor. An overview of the problems of keeping bees alive. Adrian Quiney, author of “The Cavity Compromise” is a sideline beekeeper and an RN who lives in Hudson, Wisconsin. He overwinters 60-80 colonies in the area around Hudson WI – a Wisconsin border town about 30 miles east of Minneapolis, MN. Adrian has been giving talks about his methods and professing the value of nucs since 2012.
- James Hillemeyer, The Evolution of Large Scale Nuc Production. Alongside his brother Jon Hillemyer, James is co-owner of LB Werks, a Wisconsin commercial beekeeping operation that run 3,500 hives with locations in Texas and California. James previously served as a Director for the WHPA and chairs the WHPA Bear Committee.
- Doug Koltermann, A Wisconsin trial of VarroxSan. Following a rewarding 25-year career as a business owner in industrial mechanical services, Doug turned his passion for beekeeping into a fulfilling second act on his hobby farm and started Koltermann Farms Honey in Mukwonago, WI. Currently serving as the President of the Walworth County Beekeepers Association and on the Board of Managers of the WHPA, Doug finds joy in mentoring both the young and the young at heart.
- Dr. Hannah Gaines Day, Overview of honeybee research at UW Madison and our new findings. A research scientist at the Gratton Lab in the Dept. of Entomology at UW-Madison, Dr. Gaines Day focuses in how local and landscape characteristics influence beneficial insect communities in agroecosystems. She studies how farm management practices and habitat availability influence pollinators and pollination. She also is a key partner in developing a Short Course in Beekeeping at UW Madison for emerging beekeeping entrepreneurs and veterinarians seeking educational credits in beekeeping.
- Charlie Koenen – Milwaukee native, Charlie “CharBee” Koenen, has been tending to bees for more than 20 years. He heads up an organization called BeeVangelists which “Preaches the Gospel of Abundance According to Bees” through advocacy, Education, Products and Practice. He is President of the Milwaukee Waukesha Beekeepers Association, SE Wisconsin District Chair of WHPA, Former State Bee Inspector, Inventor of Beepods— a specialized beekeeping system, and bee slinger for Heritage Honeybees, one of the nation’s largest bee distributors just east of Madison, Wisconsin.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS with Charlie Koenen, Trevor Bawden, Mitchel Wayne, and Stephanie Slater!
- Trevor Bawden, owner of Lloyd Street Bees, researcher / lab manager of the Cook Honey Bee Lab at Marquette University. His current operation includes hives spread across five apiaries in southeastern Wisconsin focusing on nucleus colony production and queen breeding.
- Mitchel Wayne, WHPA Northwest District Chair and owner/operator of Wayne Honey Farm LLC. He started his beekeeping journey in 2010 with 3 hives; over time, his operation has had as many as 200 active hives in the River Falls area.
- Stephanie Slater is the owner of Jam Session Honey and Preserves and has been keeping honey bees in Walworth County, Wisconsin for eight years. She serves on the boards of the Walworth County Beekeepers Association, the Wisconsin Honey Producers Association, and the American Beekeeping Federation. She is the 2022 Wisconsin Beekeeper of the Year, the 2023 American Honey Show Best of Show winner and an American Honey Show Training Council Certified Honey Judge.
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Stephanie Slater
James Hillemeyer
Mitchel Wayne
Trevor Bawden
Adrian Quiney
Eric Ressel
Charlie Koenen
Doug Koltermann
Dr. Hannah Gaines-Day
