The WV State Honey Festival creates a buzz in Parkersburg
Honeybees create the foundation for our environment.
They pollenate flowers and trees, which helps nature grow and thrive. However, some view them as pests due to their instinct to protect their hives and defend themselves. The W.Va. State Honey Fair is promoting bee education to help the community understand just how important they are.
Honeybees have a variety of roles in their hives, the drones, the Queen, and the worker bees. The drones are the male honeybees. They are tasked with mating with the Queen and producing larvae, or baby bees. When winter comes, the drones are ejected by the worker bees to save food and other resources that will sustain them until Spring.
The Queen honeybee is responsible for ensuring the harmony of the hive. She is the only female honeybee who can lay eggs, which will then grow into larvae. She creates a pheromones to create unity within the hive.
There worker bees, who are all female, collect nectar and pollen, tend to the Queen and the drones, feed the larvae, ventilate the hive, defend the hive and perform other necessary tasks to ensure the survival of the colony.
Honeybee colonies who are under the care of beekeepers tend to make too much honey. The excess honey is then extracted from the honeycombs and strained to remove any bits of beeswax and other impurities.
The festival welcomed many vendors, most of them beekeepers, who sold honey, honey-flavored food items, beeswax products, and other bee-themed items.
Lynn Stoll, Beekeeper for the Mid-Ohio Valley Beekeepers Association, said it is important to teach kids about the importance of honeybees.
