The University of Georgia’s Bee Program, located at the UGA horticulture farm, is home to UGA’s Bee Lab and research center. The bee program allows students, graduates, hobbyist and commercial beekeepers to deepen their knowledge of different forms of bumblebees, carpenter bees and other native bees.

“Georgia, traditionally, was the biggest beekeeping state in the union for many hundreds of years, and only recently got overtaken by California and Texas” Lewis Bartlett, the UGA Bee program leader, said. “A lot of that is producing colonies and queen bees that will be purchased by beekeepers in other states so that they can pollinate crops that happen very early in the year, when it would be hard to have lots of bees that early in spring.”

Bartlett maintains hundreds of bee colonies alongside Jennifer A. Berry, apicultural research professional and lab manager. Jack Garrison, a lab and research technician and his dog, Bandit, work alongside Bartlett as well.

UGA’s bee lab specializes in agricultural research, improving beekeeping, understanding how diseases spread and the impact of pesticides. Students also maintain the lab and use it for their own research and learning processes.

Students are able to volunteer and work part-time positions while working on research. The program is not funded directly by the state of Georgia. The university receives funding from the state that is put into a separate support for the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

No annual budget is provided by UGA or the state. All money is raised by Dr. Bartlett through fundraisers and donations.

A lot of the money raised is used to help students research, communicate and network. This allows undergraduates to accompany lab members at conferences and present research. Students can network and find lab advisors as well as possible graduate schools.

In November, most of the UGA Bee Lab will be in Phoenix, Arizona for the Entomological Society of America Conference. Bartlett works on policy work for a fellowship with ESA and travels twice a year to work with legislators on understanding the value of UGA’s work. He has even hosted a representative from Jon Ossoff's office for the Georgia Beekeepers Association.

UGA offers a Master Beekeeper Program, a four-step program that provides participants the opportunity to increase their knowledge on beekeeping. You do not have to be a UGA student to be in the program. Local beekeepers are allowed to come in and work on their own research as well as volunteer. Beekeepers who have participated in the Master Beekeeping Program have been published in scientific literature.

The program teaches beekeeping and other insect knowledge so that students can differentiate between types of bees and different insects such as beetles and butterflies.

The lab puts on annual fundraisers, such as Buzz Bash, to provide students with networking opportunities, raise money and provide knowledge of bees to the public. Alumni, faculty and students can attend these events.