Bug Squad

Faster than a speeding bullet... As soon as UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey opened a beehive and removed a chunk of honeycomb to show visitors, here came the speeding bullet. A fast camera shutter caught what the eye couldn't see. It was a queen yellowjacket taking dead aim at the comb.

WAS is not just the first and third person singular past indicative of be. It's the Western Apicultural Society, an organization dedicated to the science and art of rearing honey bees. You'll find scores of commericial beekeepers at the 31st annual WAS Conference, scheduled Aug.

Youre not going to be able to jump on the pomegranate bandwagon with your pockets bulging with gold without a lot of hard work, Kevin Day, farm advisor with UC Cooperative Extension Tulare County, told a reporter for a news story published May 14 in the Western Farm Press. Yes, hard work.

The competition was fierce. We're talking 800 postdoctoral scholars on the UC Davis campus, 12 finalists and two winners.

Honey bee geneticist Robert E. Page Jr. is in good company. Good company, indeed. Think scientists Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. Page, who received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1980 and then became a noted geneticist at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.