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New North American Bee Care Center open

April 27, 2014  By Canadian Garden Centre & Nursery


Apr. 28, 2014, Research Triangle Park, NC — Bayer CropScience has opened a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to improving honey bee health through education and research and development.

The company, which has been investing in pollinator health for more than 25 years, celebrated the grand opening of the North American Bee Care Center on April 15. The $2.4 million centre in Research Triangle Park, N.C., bring together technological, scientific and academic resources, with goals of promoting improved honey bee health, product stewardship and sustainable agriculture.

“Honey bees are essential to modern agriculture production, and our North American Bee Care Center will help facilitate the research needed to help honey bees meet the increasing global demand for crop pollination,” said Jim Blome, president and CEO of Bayer CropScience LP. “Healthy honey bees mean a more substantial and nutritious food supply for us all, and we understand the many complex issues affecting honey bees’ ability to thrive, including disease, parasites such as Varroa mites, genetics and more.”

Committed to pollinator health

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The North American Bee Care Center, part of the company’s $12 million investment in bee health in 2014, brings together some of the brightest minds in agriculture and apiology to develop comprehensive solutions for bee health. This includes entomologists and apiarists, graduate researchers and more, all of whom are invested in the continuation of Bayer CropScience’s commitment to honey bee health excellence.

The 6,000 sq. ft. facility will complement the Eastern Bee Care
Technology Station in Clayton, N.C., and a Bee Care Center at the joint
global headquarters campus of Bayer CropScience and Bayer Animal Health
in Monheim, Germany.

The North American Bee Care Center team includes:

  • Becky Langer, Bee Care program manager;
  • Dick Rogers, M.Sc., bee health expert and manager, Bee Care Center Research Program;
  • Dr. Ana Cabrera, pollinator safety and varroa mite research scientist;
  • Sarah Myers, apiarist and event manager, Bee Care Center;
  • Kim Huntzinger, bee health laboratory diagnostic specialist;
  • Sadye Howald, field apiarist in Indiana; and
  • Jim Dempster, apiarist at Eastern Bee Care Center Technology Station in Clayton, N.C.

The North American Bee Care Center houses a full laboratory with: a teaching and research apiary, honey extraction and hive maintenance space; interactive learning centre; and meeting, training and presentation facilities for beekeepers, farmers and educators, as well as office space for a full staff and graduate students.

On-site honey bee colonies, pollinator-friendly gardens and a screened hive observation area serve to further education and collaboration that will foster improved honey bee health, stewardship measures and best management practices.

Striving for a sustainable future

The environmentally sustainable centre, which is targeting LEED Silver certification, will help Bayer CropScience reduce its carbon footprint in an effort to promote corporate environmental stewardship. Products and technology developed at the centre will control parasitic mites in honey bee hives, help manage a Healthy Bees program, assess the safety of crop protection products to bees, and much more. Other activities conducted on-site include a Sentinel Hive monitoring program, varroagate testing and development, Varroa resistance monitoring and varroacide screening.

“Bayer CropScience actively seeks to promote bee-responsible use of Bayer products through worldwide communication activities and education,” said Blome. “What we are developing here will serve not only to protect honey bees and their ability to effectively pollinate crops but will also help us leave a better world, one hive and one harvest at a time.”

For more information on the North American Bee Care Center, visit http://www.bayercropscience.us/our-commitment/bee-health.


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