The Ohio State University Honeybee Laboratory (Johnson Lab), Honeyrun Farms, Ohio State Apiarist, OH

Description of Elective Experience: 

This is a self-designed experience in Honey Bee Management and Medicine. Honey bees are classified as a food producing animal by the FDA and must receive antibiotics via a veterinarian. Experiences will include performing common diagnostic tests of Honey Bee hives (e.g. looking for parasites), inspecting colonies, lessons in queen rearing, Honey Bee conservation education, shadowing the State Apiarist on hive inspections, and shadowing a commercial honey bee operation. These will take place at a total of four sites: The Honey Bee Laboratory at Waterman Farms, Johnson Lab at OSU Wooster, traveling with the State Apiarist to a neighboring county hive inspection, and Honeyrun Farm. Contact between all of these locations has been coordinated by Reed Johnson, Associate Professors of Entomology at OSU Wooster.

Institutional and Educational Resources - staffing, equipment, etc.: 

Bee Laboratory at Waterman: PhD Chia-Hua Lin, Graduate Student Harper McMinn-Sauder
Bee Laboratory at Wooster: PhD Reed Johnson
State Apiarist: Ms. Barbara Bloetscher
Honeyrun Farms: Owners Isaac & Jayne Barnes

Equipment provided: Beekeeping protective suit and other necessary beekeeping supplies including smokers, frame crowbars, etc.

Student Responsibilities - what is expected of students in terms of hours, days of the week, shadowing or actual support?: 

Expectations: Student shadows and participates in various beekeeping activities. This includes viewing and then performing a varroa mite test, examining hive frames together and indicating visible signs of health, viewing and aiding in commercial honey extraction, and other related activities. The intention is for the student to learn how to evaluate hives and perform beekeeping activities, as well as learn about common husbandry practices and health issues of honey bees. The day-to-day activities may vary and are dependent on the weather.
The time expectation is about 35-40 hours a week, working M-F and not on weekends.

Student Housing (include costs, amenities, pet friendly, contact info if different from elective contact info): 

N/A, all local

Supervisor: 
Reed Johnson
Contact email: 
Address: 
Carmack Rd
Columbus, OH 43220
United States
Animal Type: 
Is student housing available?: 
No
Hours of supervision by a licensed veterinarian per week: 
0