At the University of Georgia's veterinary hospital, aspiring veterinarians learn to care for a…

At the University of Georgia's veterinary hospital, aspiring veterinarians learn to care for a variety of patients, including dogs with dermatitis and horses with colic. On a Sunday morning in April, veterinarian Jörg Mayer was in a small, overgrown field teaching students how to conduct house calls for a group of patients that rarely visit the hospital: honeybees. Dressed in white coveralls and protective mesh hoods, the students prepared to inspect hundreds of thousands of bees. "Are we all ready?" Mayer asked. Over the next two hours, they examined over a dozen hives, looking for signs of disease such as deformed wings or discolored larvae, which can indicate serious issues for the bees and, consequently, the food supply.