Molly Carlson tells her story from being an OCBA apprentice to a current NCSU graduate student studying honey bees.

Come to the September 10 OCBA meeting to hear the journey of one of our own beekeeper apprentices.  Molly Carlson is a current master’s student in the NCSU Apiculture Lab and the 2026 recipient of the John T. Ambrose Student award. She got her start in beekeeping in 2013 as a sponsored 4-H student and OCBA apprentice and continued on to intern in several USDA-ARS honey bee research labs. Thereafter, she completed her B.S. in biology at NCSU. It was then that she developed a deeper interest in honey bee behavior and communication. 

Molly will discuss her journey through beekeeping and internships, and introduce her current master’s project: answering the age-old question of honey bee queen supersedure. This research project will attempt to identify the key factors of queen acceptance and rejection, using different queen and brood pheromones. 

 

Our OCBA meeting will be held at the Orange County Center of the NC Cooperative Extension located at 1020 US Highway 70 West in Hillsborough beginning at 6:00 p.m. with appetizers and desserts provided by the members.  Molly will speak at 7:00 p.m. and our meeting will conclude with a brief coverage of business topics.