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| What have we been up to? | |
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This is the busiest and most exciting time of the year, as well as in our program in general. First, construction on our new research facility is wrapping up! While initially scheduled to move in mid-April, a few unexpected hiccups have pushed that back to the end of May or June. Nonetheless, we are really excited for this new era of our program and to start using the new building right away! Second, everyone's projects are up and running; Molly is doing a cage experiment looking at behavioral interactions after different pheromone exposures, Claudia is doing both field and cage trials on laying workers, Joe is testing the thermal tolerances of drones, Jen is testing queen attractiveness in banking colonies, and Brad is overseeing numerous projects on drone reproduction and pollinator habitat. Third, Kim has been staying on top of our colonies, growing our population, and raising numerous rounds of queens for our management and research projects. |
| Lab spotlight | |
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Joe Guillemette recently joined our team to conduct a series of different projects, both within our program but also in collaboration with the IPPM lab on pollinator protection. He worked with Brad Metz as an undergraduate student here at NC State, so he will continue working as a postbaccalaureate researcher for the rest of this season. A budding ecologist and a citizen of the Lumbee Nation, Joseph hopes to use his love for his community and ecology to foster healthy relationships between people and their environment. |
| What you should be doing in your apiary this month (May 2026) | |
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Swarm season is in full swing but should be slowing down shortly. Many colonies have already swarmed, or ideally, they were split by the beekeeper to prevent swarming... Read full article |
| New publications and grant awards | |
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Former students of the program, undergraduate Ren Rooney (now an MS student at Northern Michigan) and Hannah Levenson (now a Research Scholar in DEPP), recently published a study in the journal Ethology, Ecology, & Evolution. The research is the first to describe the foraging behavior (handling time) of different bee species foraging in the same complex floral habitat. Here's a link to the paper. |
| ...and sadly missed! | |
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Mary Anna Amos was part of our lab this past academic year as our very first Library Science Intern. While taking AEC 203 last fall, she answered the call to help work with us on a project that is attempting to quantify the effect of Colony Collapse Disorder influenced the rates of publications on honey bee and overall pollinator research. Upon graduation, she is going to UNCG in an MS program in Library Science, so we hope to continue our collaboration. Thanks so much, Mary Anna! |
| Teacher's corner | |
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Fall registration opened in the last month, and AEC 203, "An Introduction to the Honey Bee and Beekeeping," filled to capacity in record time! With a cap of 165 students and a waiting list of 25, more than 87% of those enrolled were upperclassmen (juniors and seniors), which is an all-time high. Just shows the popularity of the course and that fulfilling the Interdisciplinary Perspectives requirement has made it even more so! |
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