January 7th marked the ribbon cutting ceremony for the newest USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Davis, California. Drs. Arathi Seshadri, the lab’s Research Leader and Julia Fine are the initial staff, looking at colony health and stress factors.

Dr. Fine joins the this episode to talk about her new role and the mission of the lab. Dr. Fine is more the lab person looking at the effects of nutrition stress on reproduction. The lab is just getting set up, so they are looking for grad students, post docs and people with beekeeping skills to help set up the lab’s soon-to-be apiary. We plan on having Dr. Fine back after the almond bloom to get her take on this event, and see what’s going on after some of the dust settles. Stay tuned for that discussion early this summer! 

Website and links mention in this episode include:

• USDA-ARS Lab Opening News Release: https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=39183
• PostDoc Researcher Job Listing: https://www.projectapism.org/uploads/1/0/5/7/105706229/fine_ars_postdoc_2019.pdf

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This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! 

We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a new quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum.

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected]

Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com

Thank you for listening! 

Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"