Upgrading to a full-time staff member this year, Max Dewaele has been a part of the HBRC since 2022. Max is going into his fourth year at the University of Ottawa in the sciences but has returned to Guelph this summer to assist at the research center.
A few years ago, Max noticed bees flying around his garden, and it sparked an interest. Their behaviour, mutualistic relationship with flowers, and their sociality are just some of the aspects that captured his attention. Max called his decision to initially volunteer as natural and led him to learning more than he could imagine.
Max’s role mainly focuses on beekeeping management and research support. However, one of his more-so creative projects has been building small nest “homes” for solitary bees. He has created a few different designs that will appear in our shop soon. As a former bicycle mechanic, Max has the skills to maintain the HBRC bike loaner fleet!
When asked about his best memories from the HBRC, he recalled his first time picking up a queen bee; “I didn’t think that I would ever find her, and I started getting nervous, but that made it just so satisfying when I finally saw her and really began to realize just how amazing she was at her job. Picking her up was shocking; I really thought that the other bees would attack me, but to my surprise at the time, they didn’t even notice.”
Thank you, Max, for all the amazing work you have done!
