Well, it looks like I am going to kick off the State Fair this year. It will start at 4:00 pm tomorrow, Oct 20th, which is Thursday. For all of you that haven’t participated in some kind of a fair honey booth, then you have missed a great opportunity to talk about bees, pollination, safety around stinging insects, and maybe get names for possible new beekeepers.

We usually have at least two people per watch (shift) with one experienced watch beekeeper. That way, the new watch beekeeper will learn what is expected during the fair in the honey booth. This is where we tell the general public about the merits of honey bees and the food chain of the world. (And we hear, “Oooh, I didn’t know that!”)

We also sale honey for the local association. We tell the difference of the honeys in tastes and colors. Did you know there are 140 different varieties of commercially harvested honey in the US? They range from very light yellow that you can read a newspaper through to a very black honey that you cannot see light through. Sweetness from very light to a heavy syrupy sweet. Taste from very mild to very strong with a Kick to it. That is something that most people don’t know.

We will have an observation hive there to show the public. Most people have never seen a bee up close except when they got stung. They marvel at the way the bees have made the comb and cannot believe that the bees manufactured the wax themselves. I guess they thought the bees went to the store and purchased the wax. hehe. That is one of the reasons for having a -show and tell-  at the fair.

“Where is the queen?” “I saw a queen last year and it had a red spot. Why is this one white?” “What?! You painted the dot on the bee? I thought they came like that.” These are some of the questions and statements we hear all the time. People marvel at the knowledge that they don’t know or thought they knew.

Go to the fair, volunteer to work at the club’s honey booth, and meet people. You are a special person because you keep bees. You know a whole lot more about bees than Johnny Q. Public. You will be raised up in their eyes as an extraordinary person and one to listen to. I have little children that I have talked to in school when I gave bee talks, come up dragging their parents and hugging my leg or waist because I have become a friend by showing and talking about my bees in class. Great Feeling!

What ever you do, just remember to check your honey and pollen stores in your hives, because they are going into their winter right now. You will be going into your winter next month. If there is not enough honey or pollen, then you must feed sugar water or HFCS and pollen substitute.

What ever you do, keep you veil handy, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.