| Bee disorder didn’t dampen West Virginia Honey Festival |
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| By JOLENE CRAIG
Ohio Correspondent
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Bee colonies are looking up after a difficult year, officials said during the 27th West Virginia Honey Festival in Parkersburg, W.Va., Aug. 25-26.
The annual festival in City Park, about 14 miles from the Ohio border, focuses on apiarists and promoting its industry. “We promote the honey industry through crafts, entertainment and a honey bake contest,” said Carol Gaydac, one of the event’s organizers.
David Rectenwald, director of the West Virginia State Beekeeper Assoc., said colony collapse disorder (CCD) continues, but colonies are making a comeback.
“Beekeepers are replacing their bees and things are looking up,” Rectenwald said. “There is a whole list of things that could have caused it, but it has happened many times in the last century and the bees always come back. This is something we endure.”
While the association held live beehive demonstrations, beekeeper Steve Conlon did bee beards.
“One of the most popular things we have are the bee beards,” Gaydac said. “Everybody likes to see his demonstrations.”
Conlon, who owns ThistleDew Farm in Proctor, W.Va., with his wife, Ellie, said the bees were a little bit temperamental because of higher than 90-degree temperatures.
“I use young bees because they are less likely to sting, but every once in a while they do, and sometimes an older one gets in the hive,” Conlon said. “They are a little wild today because of the weather.”
He began doing bee beards – in which he puts a queen bee in a box strapped to his chin and worker bees follow her to hang on his chin and neck – in the early 1980s, and more than 100 people watched his first performance Saturday. “I really started doing the bee beards because entertainers make more than beekeepers,” he said.
“People really seem to like to watch him do the bee beards, because they are interesting,” Gaydac said.
Conlon said there are about 3,500 bees per pound and he uses about three pounds of bees to complete the beard.
Alisa Poling, of Mountain State Honey in Tucker County, said her farm has been participating in the Honey Festival for at least a decade, selling several different types of honey and byproducts.
“This year we have three kinds of honey (Autumn Olives, Basswood and tulip), but some years we have seven; it all depends on what is going on,” she said.
Bees produce more than 300 kinds of honey, depending on the pollen they are around, ranging from flowers to trees, Poling explained. “It all depends on what flowers and plants are near them as to how the honey tastes – darker honey tends to have a richer flavor,” she said.
Janet Clayton of the Barbour County Beekeepers was named the 2007 Beekeeper of the Year, with 15 years experience in the business.
“Hopefully the trouble years will be few and far between,” Clayton said. “All of our food depends on bees, and we need to keep going.”
Poling said her farm’s honey production has increased this year from last. “As a beekeeper, you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature,” she said.
This farm news was published in the Sept. 5, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 9/5/2007 |
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