Wolfpack’s Waggle Newsletter
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What have we been up to? |
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April is the busiest season of the year for us, as is true for all beekeepers in our region. We have several different extension initiatives going on (queen rearing BEES Academies, online beekeeping courses, and field days), but we are also gearing up for a lot of different research projects. Brad has been busy with some early submissions to the Queen & Disease Clinic, but also in mentoring several undergraduate research projects on everything from how antibiotics spread throughout a colony (using fluorescent dyes as a proxy), how miticides might affect queen egg laying, and how drone reproductive variability might be associated with the size of their brains. Kim is trying to squeeze 60 hours into every day staying ahead of the bees to keep them from swarming, and kudos to her for keeping our losses to about 12% (national colony losses this year have been over 50%). Jennifer and Catherine have been busy with extension trainings and many other projects. |
Lab spotlight |
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As the self-described jack-of-all-trades in the NC State Apiculture Program, Brad Metz is a newly promoted Research Scholar in the lab. Currently his research interests involve male life history patterns in the social and solitary bees, namely relationships among fitness parameters, reproductive and behavioral ontogeny, mating behaviors, and environmental stressors, nutrition, disease, and pesticides. Additionally, he spearheads the Honey Bee Queen & Disease Clinic, our client-driven, fee-based research and analytical service that partners with extension agencies, master beekeeper programs, honey bee breeders and beekeepers, and research labs throughout the country. Brad has become an indispensable member of the program and a true team player, and we look forward to working with him for the long term. |
What you should be doing in your apiary this month (Apr 2025) |
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The last two months was the beginning of the beekeeping season, whereas April is the heart of beekeeping in North Carolina….. |
New publications and grant awards |
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Check out Yosef’s publication on how hygienic behavior is associated with changes in the beneficial microbiome in the guts of honey bees. Tola, Y. H., K. Wagoner, M. Strand, O. Rueppell, and D. R. Tarpy. (2025). Hygiene performance increases abundance of honey bee gut microbiota. Insectes Sociaux, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-025-01029-x. [LINK] |
Welcome to the lab! |
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Melissa Benson is an undergrad at NC State who recently joined the group to conduct a study on carpenter bees, studying their nesting habits and potentially determining means to deter them from nesting in certain structures, which would have significant benefits for homeowners and others who have them nesting where they are not wanted. |
Teacher’s corner |
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Last fall, we wrapped up another successful offering of AEC 203. Aimed at non-science majors, the course is designed to fulfill the General Education Requirement (GER) for most University majors. As such, we not only cover the interesting aspects of honey bee biology and beekeeping, we also delve into honey bees in art and literature, mythology and religion, even politics and warfare! |
