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It's official: the UC Davis Bee Haven will be part of the 2026 UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day.

The event, free and famly friendly and billed as a Super Science Day, takes place Feb. 21 throughout the UC Davis campus. It's an opportunity to explore, discover and connect, said coordinator and co-founder Tabatha Yang, the education and outreach coordinator with the Bohart Museum of Entomology. It's an opportunity to chat one-on-one with the  the scientists.  

The new inclusion means that the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology will contribute three museums or collections to the Biodiversity Museum Day: 

• The Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.  
• Nematology Collection in the Katherine Esau Science Hall, located near Briggs Hall
• The Bee Haven, a half-acre demonstration garden or outdoor museum located at 1 Bee Biology Road, next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility

The Haven is an educational resource for the public to learn about bees and other pollinators, and the flowers they visit. The Department of Entomology and Nematology, under the direction of then interim chair Lynn Kimsey (now UC Davis distinguished professor emerita)  installed the bee garden in the fall of 2009. 

The Haven features more than 200 native and drought-tolerant pollinator-supporting plants. The half-acre garden is designed to provide food and habitat for a variety of pollinators, including honey bees and native bees, while also serving as an educational and research resource.

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A six-foot-long worker bee, Miss Bee Haven, anchors the garden. It is the work of self-described rock artist Donna Billick, a co-founder and former co-director of the UC Davis Art-Science Fusion Program (along with co-founder and co-director UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emerita Diane Ullman of the Department of Entomology and Nematology.)

Another key attraction is the native bee mural on the garden tool shed. It was coordinated by former doctoral student Sarah Dalrymple, who worked as a teacher's assisstant with Ullman and Billick. She is now a member of the Boise State University faculty.

Director of the UC Davis Bee Haven is bee scientist Elina Niño,  professor of UC Cooperative Extension, Apiculture, and a member of the faculty of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. She is also the founder and director of the UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP).

Samantha Murray serves as the education and garden coordinator. The Bee Team also includes Joe Tauzer, manager of the Laidlaw facility; and Wendy Mather and Kian Nikzad, co-program managers of CAMBP. 

The garden is open to the public from dawn to dusk. 

Hosts at the 2025 BioDiv Day, held Feb. 8, were Arboretum and Public Garden; Bohart Museum of Entomology; Botanical Conservatory; California Raptor Center; Center for Plant Diversity; Nematode Collection; Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology; Paleontology Collection;  and Phaff Yeast Culture Collection. Also on the program the Visual Journal Exhibit at Design Museum at Cruess Hall, Room 124; and a Moth Documentary in Cruess Hall.  The Department of Anthropology was unable to participate. 

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Key information on newsletter subscritions, group tours and how to donate:

Subscribe to The Haven Newsletter:
Email beehaven@ucdavis.edu.

Group Tours:
Contact the team at beehaven@ucdavis.edu for more information, or access its website at https://beehaven.ucdavis.edu/tours

Donate:
To donate to the UC Davis Bee Haven, access https://beehaven.ucdavis.edu/donate. Further informatoin is available from Cari DuBois-Wright, director of development, CA&ES, at caduboiswright@ucdavis.edu or 530-752-6971.