Harry Laidlaw has spent most of his long life working with honey bees. Now, his life’s work has been honored with the renaming of the Bee Biology Facility after the Department of Entomology emeritus professor.
At a celebration at the University Club last week, Laidlaw was presented with a replica of the new sign for the "Harry H. Laidlaw, Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility" by his former student Robert Page, now chair of the Department of Entomology. Laidlaw received a standing ovation from those in attendence–nearly 100 current and former faculty, staff, students and beekeepers from California and beyond.
"At 93, Harry is considered the dean of apiculture and the father of honeybee genetics," said Page, making the presentation.
Laidlaw developed methods for artificially inseminating queen bees, which naturally mate with male drones in flight. This made possible selective breeding of bees and opened up the field of honeybee genetics.
Selective breeding of bees had eluded scientists and beekeepers for 200 years, Page said. For example, Gregor Mendel, who discovered the fundamental laws of genetics in pea plants, spent the rest of his life trying to breed bees, without success.
"Honeybees have been my interest since I was a very little kid. To come to somewhere like the University of Cal-
ifornia and have a career working with bees, to me was just heaven," said Laidlaw, accepting the plaque.
Laidlaw first became interested in breeding bees when his grandfather, Charles Quinn, retired and took up beekeeping.
With his grandfather, Laidlaw initially developed what became known as the Quinn-Laidlaw hand-mating method. He refined these methods while studying at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, obtaining his master’s degree in 1934. In 1939, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.
During this time, he developed a series of instruments that allowed him to inseminate anesthetized queens with sperm from selected drones.
"The methods of breeding we developed are now used worldwide," Laidlaw said.
Following wartime service as an entomologist, Laidlaw arrived at what, at the time, was the University of California College of Agriculture, Davis, in 1947. He established a program in bee genetics, with the aim of improving bee breeding stocks, and began a collection of bee mutations that became the basis for a national stock center.
He also carried out studies on bee pests such as American foulbrood, on the breeding of queen bees and on re-queening colonies.
Laidlaw’s research did not always meet with approval, said Page. In 1945, the New Yorker magazine published a poem by E.B. White inspired by his work, including the lines: "What boots it to improve a bee, if it means an end to ecstasy?"
Laidlaw taught courses in apiculture and entomology from 1948 until his retirement from UC Davis in 1974. After retirement, he continued to train beekeepers from around the world in his methods.
Sue Harvey, an independent beekeeper from Canada who attended the Nov. 29 presentation, trained with Laidlaw in 1980.
"He was instrumental in developing the British Columbia bee breeding program and the bee industry there," said Harvey. "A lot of us owe an awful lot to Harry Laidlaw."
Charles Hess, now special assistant to the provost, was associated with the management of the UC Davis Egypt project in from 1978 to 1983, when Laidlaw helped develop the beekeeping industry in Egypt.
"This is a good example of what has made UC Davis great: the love of fundamental research, and of applying that research worldwide," Hess said.
Laidlaw was awarded the Western Apiculture Society’s "Outstanding Service to Beekeeping" award in 1980, being cited as "one of the great scientists in American agriculture." In 1981 he won the CW Woodworth Award of the Pacific branch of the Entomological Society of America. He received an Award of Distinction from UC Davis in 1997.
Laidlaw published his classic text Queen Rearing in 1950, in collaboration with J.E. Eckert. His most recent book, Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding, written in collaboration with Page, was published in 1997.
Local artist and sculptor Donna Billick designed the new sign for the Harry H. Laidlaw, Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. The laboratories, located off Hutchison Drive, are currently being refurbished, and will be reopened early in 2001.