Louisiana’s USDA Honey Bee Lab: Keeping our Bee Industry Humming

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles

More than a third of the food we eat comes from crops pollinated by honey bees. That is why Dr. Lanie Bilodeau of the USDA Bee Lab in Baton Rouge works hard to keep our managed bee population healthy.
            
​One of Louisiana’s best kept agricultural research secrets is the USDA’s Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Lab. Just south of the main LSU Campus, the facility’s cluster of buildings are jam-packed with tables of microscopes, shelves of experimental plants, rooms of high-tech machinery such as genetic analyzers and bioreactors, and freezers filled with DNA samples. Scattered around it all are towers and towers of humming bee hives. Beyond the compound lies open fields, where the lab’s bees forage. 

“We have a staff of 24 that includes 7 scientists,” says Bilodeau, the Bee Lab’s Research Leader, and who holds a PhD in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology from UL-Lafayette. The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has ongoing research in 16 bee research labs around the country, with 6 main labs dedicated specifically to honey bee work. “Ours is the biggest bee lab in the U.S.,” she says. “The Baton Rouge unit has been operational 95 years, and we’ve been in our current location 67 years.”

As we wound through a maze of rooms, we were joined by Kevin Langley, who raises his own bees and does bee rescues and relocations. Langley is also President of the Capital Area Beekeepers Association and Vice-President of the Louisiana Beekeepers Association. These two organizations, as well as the Louisiana Farm Bureau, strongly support Baton Rouge’s Bee Lab. 

“Lots of Louisiana beekeepers raise bees for export to other states and Canada,” Langley said. “I like to keep my stakeholders up-to-date on bee research. The work they do here at the Bee Lab is vital to our industry.”

Langley explained that honey bees alone pollinate 80 percent of all flowering plants, including more than 130 types of fruits and vegetables. Cotton, soybeans, oil seed crops, vegetables, cover crops, forage crops, and several nut varieties depend on bees. “Take the almond,” he said. “Each little nut has to be pollinated by a single bee. Where would that industry be without bees?” 

Cornell University did a study on the value of bees, and concluded that bee pollination contributes more than $18 billion annually to the U.S. economy. According to the FDA, this agriculture benefit is worth 10-20 times the value of the honey and beeswax markets. 

The Baton Rouge Bee Lab plays such an important part in maintaining a robust honey bee economic impact. And the lab’s mission is simple:  To use genetics and honey bee breeding to solve the problems affecting the commercial beekeeping industry. Eradicating the dangers to bee health is more complicated.

It has widely been publicized that the honey bee population is dwindling. “There’s a significant honey bee decline from 20-30 years ago,” Bilodeau says. “Bees used to live 2-3 years in commercial hives. Now they average 6 months.” Even so, the managed bee population is holding steady, thanks to research successes and diligent colony management. Over the past couple of years, however, bee prices have doubled, as well as the food to feed them.

The reasons for bee demise are numerous. Changes in weather patterns have an impact. “Decoupling is a term used to describe what happens when the timing of the colony’s activity and nutritional needs do not match that of a flowering plant,” said Bilodeau. “Lately, some plants are flowering in winter, when bees are not ready to eat.”  

Then there’s what she refers to as the “four P’s,” which are pathogens, poor nutrition, improper use of pesticides, and pests and parasites. 

“A big killer is Varroa mites,” Bilodeau says of the parasite that can wipe out a whole bee colony. “Another devastating physiological threat comes from viruses.”

To help solve these problems, the Bee Lab does research on 3 types of honey bees: European (the most common used for U.S. pollination), and 2 mite-resistant stocks developed by the Baton Rouge USDA Bee Lab (Russian and Pol-line). “Most beekeepers in the U.S. use European bees,” she says,    

Curious as it seems, no honey bees are native to the U.S. “We do have thousands of native bee species in America,” say Bilodeau, “but no true honey bee.”

As we toured the room where artificial insemination on bee queens is performed, Bilodeau got technical. “We focus on bee genetics and general biology,” she said. “We look for ways to improve insecticide resistance and adaptation to artificial diets. We experiment with toxicology, virus resistance, and aggression. We closely study the molecular biology of our bees. Small genome changes happen quickly. Mutations can change everything in the next generation.” 

Langley put this research into plain terms: “They’re developing lines and stocks of honey bees with improved survivorship. We need bees that are disease resistant, resilient, and productive.”
 
Through the doors along a maze of hallways I could see that lab staff was busy as, well, bees. In one room we ran into Biological Research Technician Elisabeth Pigott, who was concentrating on pipetting liquid into a tray. We walked into another room where award-winning Research Scientist Vincent Ricigliano was working on bee genetics, mutation, pathogens, and vaccines.

“I think mites are a bee’s biggest threat,” Ricigliano said, as he showed me two of his experiments. He pointed out a tray of tall, large vials full of a deep green liquid. “This is microalgae. There’s no viable treatment option for viruses, and I’m experimenting with an edible option.”

He then opened a door to a tray of foot-high sunflower plants. “If things work out like I want, bees can feed on these sunflowers and get their vaccinations.”

Bilodeau’s research team keeps having scientific advances, and her outreach keeps expanding.  In addition to continued work with LSU faculty and graduate students, over the last year-and-a-half her unit has collaborated with Baton Rouge’s Southern University, working with faculty and a student on bees and urban forestry. She also hopes to begin work with the Southern researchers on bee resilience in urban environments. 

All this research requires elbow-room, something the current lab facility lacks. “We’re conducting state-of-the art research in very old facilities,” says Bilodeau. “We’ve outgrown our space and are hoping for a budget increase next year. We are in the process of leasing land on the Southern University Campus and hope to build a 51,000-square-foot facility. All we’re waiting on is congressional funding.”  

While Lanie Bilodeau waits for Congress to act, she and her researchers will continue to work to save our commercial bees. Their diligence is crucial to beekeepers like Kevin Langley, as well as to farmers, whose crops directly or indirectly rely on these remarkable insects.
 

 
Do you have a Louisiana agriculture story or a recipe you’d like to share? Contact me at [email protected].
 
Cynthia Nobles is the cookbook editor for LSU Press and the author/co-author of several historical cookbooks, including A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook, The Delta Queen Cookbook, and The Fonville Winans Cookbook.
 
 
 
 
Honey Roasted Pecans
Makes 1 pound
 
1 pound pecan halves
2 tablespoons butter
⅓ cup honey
¼ teaspoon salt, divided
 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper or heavy-duty foil. Place pecans in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in honey. Pour honey mixture over pecans and mix thoroughly, so that nuts are completely coated.
3. Spread honey-coated nuts in a single layer in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half the salt and bake 7 minutes. Turn pecans over with a spatula, sprinkle with remaining salt, and bake 9 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely on the sheet pan. Store in an airtight container up to a week.
 
 
Honey and Coconut Cookies
Makes 3 dozen
 
1 stick butter
¾ cup honey
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups shredded coconut
 
1. In a saucepan, melt butter. Remove pan from heat and thoroughly stir in honey. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and refrigerate 15-30 minutes.
2. When ready to bake, place a rack in the upper half of your oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. To the honey mixture, stir in the egg, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour and stir until combined. Stir in the coconut.
3. Drop batter by the tablespoon 2 inches apart on the prepared pan. (Do not refrigerate dough between batches.) Bake until bottoms are evenly brown, 11-15 minutes. Cool a few minutes on the baking sheet, then cool completely on a rack. Keeps fresh up to 3 days.
 
 
Old World Whole Grain Bread
Makes 1 loaf. Recipe is by Ann Darphin Jennings of Baton Rouge.
 
Whole wheat, oats, flax, and honey combine to make a nutritious, tender loaf reminiscent of the sturdier loaves common in Europe centuries ago.
 
3½ cups whole wheat flour, divided
1½ cups warm water, divided
¼ cup wheat bran
¼ cup steel cut oats
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup honey
4½ teaspoons yeast
¼ cup flax meal (or grind your own whole flax seeds)
1½ teaspoons salt
 
1. In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup flour, 1 cup warm water, bran, and oats. Cover and let stand 1 hour.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, add remaining ½ cup warm water, olive oil, honey, and yeast and let stand 5 minutes.
3. Add bran mixture to yeast mixture, along with remaining 2½ cups flour, flax meal, and salt. Using a bread hook, mix on low speed 7 minutes. Form dough into a ball, place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1½ hours.
4. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan. Punch dough down and remove from bowl. Knead lightly and shape dough into a loaf. Place in the prepared pan, cover lightly with a clean dish towel, and let rise until bread reaches about 1 inch above pan rim, about 30 minutes.
5. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Bake bread until dark brown, about 30-35 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and allow to cool at least 30 minutes before slicing.
 
 
Honey Hot Toddy
Makes 1 drink
 
I’m not sure if this popular concoction really cures colds, but it does warm you up on a chilly night.
 
½ cup water
1 tablespoon honey
2-3 tablespoons whiskey
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 lemon slice
1 stick cinnamon
 
Bring water to a boil in a small pot and remove from heat. Add honey and stir until dissolved. Pour honey mixture into a small mug and stir in whiskey and lemon juice. Garnish with lemon slice and cinnamon. Serve immediately.