Bayer CropScience breaks ground on Bee Care Center

Bayer CropScience has announced that it has broken ground on a North American Bee Care Center as part of its continued commitment to honey bee health.

The new 6,000-square-foot facility in Research Triangle Park, N.C., will complement an existing Bee Care Center the company established last year at its global headquarters in Monheim, Germany.

The North American Bee Care Center will feature a laboratory and teaching apiary; honey extraction and workshop space; interactive learning center; meeting, training and presentation facilities for beekeepers, farmers and educators; and office space for graduate students. It will be a highly sustainable facility, which will help Bayer CropScience reduce its carbon footprint.

Although the North American Bee Care Center will have its own honey bee colonies for teaching and demonstration purposes, other research apiaries located near the Research Triangle Park area will offer support as it coordinates and extends research projects directed toward bee health.

The Bee Care Center is designed to promote worldwide bee health initiatives. It will support scientific research and help educate the public about the important role honey bees play in agriculture (bees pollinate the crops that help meet the growing global demand for a nutritious and abundant food). It also will address food challenge issues by bringing together significant technological, scientific and academic resources to protect and improve honey bee health and sustainable agriculture.

In its recent assessment of honey bee health, the United States Department of Agriculture noted that bees are suffering from a complex set of stressors, including parasites and diseases, lack of genetic diversity, and inadequate nutrition, while stressing the need for collaboration and information sharing among all stakeholders as a critical component in promoting best management practices. The North American Bee Care Center is being created with these goals in mind.

Bayer CropScience also is expanding its Clayton research apiary, known as “Beesboro,” to include an appproximately 1,200-square-foot building with an office, a wintering cold room, extraction area, bee hive maintenance area and storage areas. This facility is expected to be ready later this summer.

“At Bayer, we have been committed to bee health for more than 25 years,” said Bayer CropScience President and CEO Jim Blome. “The Bee Care Center is the latest example of our dedication to sustainable agriculture, and we hope to continue to provide the research necessary to ensure the health of colonies and honey bees around the world. Our scientists are working to help solve some of the most pressing honey bee health problems, as their importance to the global food supply cannot be overstated.”