Beekeeper and Technical Research Assistant

This position will fund a beekeeper to maintain the research colonies of honeybees at the John Krebs Field station for the Oxford Bee Lab. The beekeeper will be responsible for requeening, queen rearing, disease and parasite control, swarm prevention and honey production. The person appointed will also liaise regularly with lab personnel to orchestrate experiments, including the provision of adult bees and brood comb for experiments and the creation of minicolonies for testing diets. As a research assistant, the person employed may also engage in laboratory experiments in close collaboration with lab personnel. The person will also occasionally liaise with the public and may also be responsible for building and maintenance of an observation colony. They will also be expected to liaise with the lab's PI to develop future plans for development of bee lab activities in the area of training and teaching of beekeeping and related topics.
Individuals with experience in inspection of bee colonies and with liaising with UK Home Office staff over the importation of bees will be preferred.
The University of Oxford is committed to equality and valuing diversity. All applicants will be judged on merit, according to the selection criteria.

Department of Biology, The John Krebs Field Station, Wytham, Oxford OX2 8QJ

This post is a 30% appointment and is available immediately.