Kids Invited to Color "Bee-autiful" Artwork for Bayer CropScience Coloring Contest

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., April 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of the opening of Bayer's North American Bee Care Center, the company is launching Color Me Bee-autifully, a coloring contest and learning activity for children 12 years and under. The coloring contest will allow youth to learn about the many beneficial aspects of honey bees in pollinating fruits and vegetables.

The coloring contest launched April 15, the day of the North American Bayer Bee Care Center grand opening, and the entry deadline is May 15. You can learn more on how to participate at the contest landing page.There are four coloring page options that allow children to color images of honey bees in their environment. Two options are simple coloring pages with honey bees and Beekeeper Barry. The other two options encourage children to draw honey bees in the environment.

"Bayer has dedicated more than 25 years to help ensure the protection of bees through its Bee Care Program," said Becky Langer, Bee Care program manager. "Through the Color Me Bee-utifully coloring contest, we hope to increase children's awareness of the importance of honey bees to our food supply, which includes many of our favorite healthy treats and kid-friendly snacks."

The winner will be selected by a panel of judges based on the artist's creativity and neatness. Entries will be visible online on the Bayer CropScience FlickR page. The top 15 entries will be on display at the North American Bayer Bee Care Center for the month of May and June. The grand-prize winner will receive a prize pack that will include a Bayer Bee Care branded iPad, art supplies, gardening kit, honey and fuzzy bees.

Contest details, including four downloadable coloring pages, a lesson plan, official rules and link to the gallery of submissions can be found at the coloring contest landing page.

Bayer CropScience encourages parents and educators to visit the contest landing page to learn how to get their students involved in this fun, learning activity, and learn more about the North American Bayer Bee Care Center in Raleigh, N.C.

A hub for worldwide honey bee health initiatives, the Center is a $2.4 million investment that supports scientific research and development, and education of the public on honey bees' integral role in agriculture. The Center serves as a hub for premier technological, scientific and academic resources to protect and improve honey bee health and sustainable agriculture. Additionally, the North American Bee Care Center is targeting LEED Silver certification. The environmentally sustainable facility will help Bayer CropScience reduce its carbon footprint in an effort to promote corporate environmental stewardship. Products and technology developed at the Center will focus on control of parasitic mites in honey bee hives, help manage a Healthy Bees program, assess the safety of crop protection products to bees, and much more. Other activities conducted on-site include a Sentinel Hive monitoring program, varroagate testing and development, Varroa resistance monitoring and varroacide screening.

Bayer is committed to environmental stewardship and sustainable agricultural practices, including the protection of beneficial insects such as honey bees. For additional information and background on other sustainability initiatives please visit http://www.bayercropscience.us/our-commitment/bayer-initiatives.

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About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 8,819 million (2013) and is one of the world's leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 22,400 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.press.bayercropscience.com.

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Forward-Looking Statements
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SOURCE Bayer CropScience