These past two weeks have been busy. One of the scientists I have been working with and many of the lab employees took a trip to North Dakota. They completed hive inspections and assessments of many hives. I was unable to go because they needed my help in the lab tagging bees with trackers for a foraging experiment.
We began the week by doing a few hive inspections, to verify that the queen was laying and the hive was strong. The rest of the week consisted of tagging and painting bees. We also completed a few mite washes. Next week we will be doing more fun experiments with our lab work in esterase assays.
I also was able to help a visitor scientist from the Czech republic with her experiment. She is determining the collagen stress levels in a Honeybee when injected with different viruses and diseases. These are a few of the cages we were freezing bees in to place them into tubes to dissect.
I was walking down the hallway today and saw this funny informative sign. I thought I would share it. It is very important to remember that when you spray for mosquitoes you are killing the bees as well.