Whether you’d like to taste some local honey, learn more about these pollinators or don a protective suit for an up-close look at a hive, check out the Athens Area Honeybee Festival on Saturday, May 25. The festival will run from 9 a.m.–1:30 p.m. at the Athens-Clarke County Extension Office at 275 Cleveland Road, in partnership with the Eastern Piedmont Beekeepers Association.
“One target audience is young people and people who know nothing about bees,” said ACC Extension Agent Laura Ney. “This will help expose people to bees for the first time in a positive way.”
There will be games, snacks, honeybee-friendly plants for sale from the UGA Bee Lab and plenty of knowledgeable beekeepers on hand for answering questions. “Most beekeepers are just good educators,” Ney said.
If you’re a parent of a small child, or someone who hasn’t been stung before, the honeybee festival—and bees in general—might make you nervous. The festival will have plenty of protective gear for those folks who want to peer inside the hives, space for activities away from the hives and the ability to summon first aid for any unfortunate accidents. “We luckily have our fire department right there to respond,” Ney said.
It might also help to know that only 5% of the population will have a systemic serious allergic reaction to an insect sting, according to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Asthma and Allergy. Allergies are often genetic, so if someone in your family has had a severe reaction to a bee sting, you might want to get your own EpiPen whether you attend Saturday’s event or not.
“Every single person’s body is going to be different,” Ney said. She’s been stung a handful of times, and while it’s painful, the bump generally fades to an itchy spot the next day. “I happen to respond really strongly to fire ants,” she said.
A bee sting on my foot will make getting shoes on difficult for a day or two, and I still think wasp stings are worse. It could be because those suckers seem to target my armpits. I inevitably end up shoulder holstering bags of frozen veggies around the house.
Some beekeepers choose to forgo the full suit. “They would rather just take the risk of getting stung on the leg or arm,” Ney said. But everyone handling bees should wear the hat and face-net combo known as a beekeeper’s veil, she said. “You don’t want to risk getting stung in the eye.”
If you’re past the point of worrying about stings and are considering backyard beekeeping yourself, the Honeybee Festival would be a great time to get some hands-on experience and meet with like-minded folks. There won’t be a how-to guide for beekeeping at the festival, Ney said, but resources will be available for the curious.
While there are plenty of great beekeepers, readers should keep their critical thinking caps on when asking for advice and information. One local beekeeper boasted to me a few years ago about how much sugar water he went through to feed his bees. He told me that Georgia doesn’t have enough flowering plants through most of the year to support a hive. I don’t know about his yard, but as a state, yes, we do. If something feels off, you can ask the same question again to a different beekeeper. I did that and found out that most beekeepers in our area don’t feed sugar water to their hive for most of the year.
Another word of warning: Leave your bananas at home if you plan to attend the Honeybee Festival. Bananas contain a chemical included in the honeybee alarm pheromone. The smell of bananas can drive normally calm bees into a fury. I learned this from my mother, who kept several hives in her North Carolina home for years and gave away vats of honey.
WHO: Athens Area Honeybee Festival
WHEN: Saturday, May 25, 9 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
WHERE: ACC Extension Office
HOW MUCH: FREE!
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