$6 million bee lab opens at University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota is celebrating the opening of a new bee research lab.

The $6 million facility is 10,000 square feet and includes space for labs, honey extraction and hive observation. State bonding money covered two-thirds of the cost and the rest was made possible through fundraising.

University entomologist Marla Spivak, a 2010 MacArthur genius grant recipient, says it's a major improvement for researchers.

"There's no comparison. We were in a garage basically before and we had our equipment scattered and stored all over campus. Now this puts everything under one roof," she said.

Spivak and the other researchers are studying how to promote honeybee and native bee health. Bees are pollinators and support food systems ranging from soy beans to almonds.

"We have a food-grade extracting facility where we harvest our honey, we have a wood shop, we have a garage big enough to fit our truck so that we can come home from the field, pull the truck into the garage and close the door so the bees we bring home with us sometimes don't bother anybody," she said.

Spivak says it's the first time in many years that a U.S. university has built a new facility dedicated to bee research.