{"647647":{"#nid":"647647","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Happy World Bee Day: Inside the Urban Honey Bee Project","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis story first appeared in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/c.gatech.edu\/3hCQQJj\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech News Center\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELocated on the rooftops of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/clough.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EClough Undergraduate Learning Commons\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and The\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/livingbuilding.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EKendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design\u003C\/a\u003E, the Urban Honey Bee Project is a unique interdisciplinary undergraduate research program focused on the impact of urban habitats on honey bees.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMay 20 has been designated by the United Nations as World Bee Day, aimed at raising awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face, and their contribution to sustainable development.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMany of Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s research projects focus on improving the human condition and nurturing the well-being of human communities, but the Urban Honey Bee project is all about improving conditions for these beneficial social insects.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe director of the Urban Honey Bee Project is Jennifer Leavey, a principal academic professional in the School of Biological Sciences and the College of Sciences.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The project allows Georgia Tech students to apply what they are learning in science, engineering, and computing courses to the study of urban pollinators.\u0026nbsp;This could lead to improvements in urban food production or a better understanding of urban ecosystems,\u0026rdquo; Leavey says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENot only does it provide honey to students, but the Urban Honey Bee Project has also been tagging bees with RFID chips, which are scanned by readers installed at hive entrances. This allows tracking of the honey bees so they know which bees are coming and going.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Kind of like mini BuzzCards.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe group is interested in the mating behavior of bees in urban areas.\u0026nbsp;Genetic diversity among male bees in honey bee mating areas can lead to stronger, healthier honey bee colonies.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We tag male bees with RFID chips, which allows us to know how old they are when they start taking mating flights, and how weather, pollution, nutrition, and pesticide exposures affect their behavior.\u0026nbsp;We can also correlate this behavior with genetic markers,\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;Leavey explains.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis work was inspired by Julia Mahood, an Atlanta-area master beekeeper and founder of the citizen science project mapmydca.com.\u0026nbsp;She is identifying honey bee mating areas (also known as drone congregation areas) using mechanical drones.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMany wild flowering plant species along with food crops in our ecosystem depend on pollinators and it is crucial to learn as much as we can about honey bees, and all pollinators, to safeguard their future and ours.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo learn more about the Urban Honey Bee Project visit \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/bees.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebees.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s Urban Honey Bee Project is a research program focused on the impact of urban habitats on honey bees.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech\u2019s Urban Honey Bee Project is a research program focused on the impact of urban habitats on honey bees."}],"uid":"34528","created_gmt":"2021-05-20 18:41:22","changed_gmt":"2021-05-20 18:44:31","author":"jhunt7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2021-05-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2021-05-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"647637":{"id":"647637","type":"image","title":"Bees 01","body":null,"created":"1621526924","gmt_created":"2021-05-20 16:08:44","changed":"1621526924","gmt_changed":"2021-05-20 16:08:44","alt":"Urban Honey Bee Project","file":{"fid":"245851","name":"DSC_7308.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_7308.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_7308.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":682125,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/DSC_7308.jpg?itok=B_LkoFoD"}},"647638":{"id":"647638","type":"image","title":"Bees 02","body":null,"created":"1621527085","gmt_created":"2021-05-20 16:11:25","changed":"1621527085","gmt_changed":"2021-05-20 16:11:25","alt":"Honey Bee with RFID Chip","file":{"fid":"245852","name":"DSC_9957_2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_9957_2.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_9957_2.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3287255,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/DSC_9957_2.jpg?itok=K5do78qf"}},"647639":{"id":"647639","type":"image","title":"Bees 03","body":null,"created":"1621527140","gmt_created":"2021-05-20 16:12:20","changed":"1621527140","gmt_changed":"2021-05-20 16:12:20","alt":"Emma Carmical","file":{"fid":"245853","name":"DSC_7320_2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_7320_2.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/DSC_7320_2.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2479066,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/DSC_7320_2.jpg?itok=KVUmxAWZ"}}},"media_ids":["647637","647638","647639"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"402381","name":"Urban Honey Bee Project"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"23911","name":"bees"},{"id":"166890","name":"sustainability"},{"id":"489","name":"atlanta"},{"id":"109","name":"Georgia Tech"},{"id":"180897","name":"honey bees"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"70141","name":"Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEvan Atkinson, Institute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["eatkinson6@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}