Going to the bees: WSU kicks off honey bee facility fundraiser drive

There’s something in your beard, sir. Steven Sheppard and Dan Bernardo patiently entertain the crowd supporting the kickoff campaign for the new bee research facility.

Bernardo donned these bees to show support and fundraise for the new bee research facility on the WSU Pullman campus.

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Gazette intern reporter

Washington State University Provost Dan Bernardo and Steven Sheppard, WSU entomology department chair, raised awareness for honey bee health Friday, June 17, by wearing bee beards at the Lewis Alumni Center.

“It's very noisy,” said Bernardo, “but we have paramedics and every bee expert within 1,000 miles here, so I'm not nervous.”

The “bee beards” worn by Bernardo and Sheppard are formed when a queen bee is taken from a hive and placed in a cage and when the bee colony being used is relocated from their hive. The bees are given sugar syrup to ensure they will be well-fed and less likely to sting the bee wearer. The bees are sprayed with the sugar syrup before they are released onto the person, who has the queen tied around their neck in a cage. The bees smell the queen and as they begin to locate her, they gather on and around the cage tied to the person with the queen, forming a “beard.”

Eric Olson, a Washington state bee keeper, and Bernardo pledged to match dollar-for-dollar donations made to the campaign by June 30, up to $25,000 .

“This shows that Cougs will do virtually anything to support their alma mater,” said Ron Mittelhammer, Regents professor at WSU who opened the ceremony with a short introduction.

The event was the kick-off to the honey bee campaign to raise awareness of the depleting honey bee population and to receive funding for a new honey bee and pollinator research facility.

Paul Staments, founder and president of Fungi Perfecti, donated $50,000 to the bee center at the event. WSU and the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS) plan to build a research facility to study honey bees. The 15,000 square-foot building will cost approximately $16 million and will be located next to the Eggert Family Organic Farm on the Pullman campus.

“Having a center like this will provide better facilities and equipment and resources for honey bee research equal to those anywhere around the world,” said Sheppard.

The research space will have more than 2,700 square-feet dedicated primarily for diagnostic labs, a cryogenic germplasm repository, molecular lab and a controlled atmosphere room. The controlled atmosphere will allow research of transformative wintering technology, with the potential to reduce the U.S. honey bee winter population losses from 30-40 percent to a more sustainable level.

“Bees are vital to our food system, and this building will help improve Washington agriculture,” said Sheppard.

The facility will also provide breeding stock to the beekeeping industry as well as assist with breeding improvement. It will include a screened observation area, allowing the public to watch bees in demonstration gardens. Scientists from around the country and the world will also be able to visit and conduct research.

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