Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven Sculptures

Davis, California, United States

Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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Miss Bee Haven is a six-foot-long worker bee sculpture by Donna Billick in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre pollinator garden beside the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Wells Fargo funded the work.

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Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven Sculptures

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Site-level location · 38.5382° N, 121.7534° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A worker honey bee six feet long sits in a half-acre garden at the University of California, Davis, and the entomologist who oversaw the garden said it accurately represents a worker bee.

The sculpture, Miss Bee Haven, stands in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven beside the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road. The garden was installed in the autumn of 2009 and is maintained by the university's Department of Entomology and Nematology.

Davis artist Donna Billick, a self-described "rock artist", designed and built the bee in her studio over four months. According to a 2010 UC Davis article, she used rebar, chicken wire, sand, cement, tile, bronze, steel, grout, fiberglass and handmade ceramic pieces, and visited the apiary behind the Laidlaw facility to study her subject. The name is a pun: "I like to play with words," she said. Billick founded the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program in 2006 with entomologist-artist Diane Ullman. Wells Fargo Bank funded the sculpture.

Entomologist Lynn Kimsey, who oversaw the garden, called the bee "the perfect focal point for the garden". In 2010 it stood on a pedestal beneath an almond tree, a fitting place because, the article noted, each acre of California almonds needs two hives for pollination. A 2025 UC Agriculture and Natural Resources report on the garden described the bee as the sculpture that anchors it, and noted a native bee mural on the garden's tool shed.

The Haven's website lists the garden as open daily from dawn to dusk, and the 2025 report says admission is free.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

A six-foot worker bee sculpture in a half-acre pollinator garden, with a native bee mural on the tool shed. According to UC Davis in 2025, the garden is open to the public from dawn to dusk and admission is free.

ACCESS

Bee Biology Road, beside the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. The Haven's website lists it open daily, dawn to dusk; group tours can be arranged by contacting the Haven team.

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