Buzzy fun at Niwot Honey Bee Harvest Festival
Downtown Niwot was abuzz with excitement Saturday for the fourth annual Niwot Honey Bee Harvest Festival to celebrate everyone’s favorite eusocial flying insect—the honey bee.
The day of bee-centric family fun featured more than 60 vendors selling local honey, honey products, artisan crafts and kid-friendly activities. For those interested in hands-on beekeeping, there were educational demonstrations, with live beehives and regional mead tastings.
“There is an actual ‘bee’ who is talking to kids; it’s just so positively Colorado,” said Sharon Glassman, a vendor who was representing Smile Songs, a line of musical greeting card stickers and gifts. Glassman said she creates a unique song for each design.
“Events like this let people interact in a really organic way, I just had a lovely conversation with a woman who turns out to be my neighbor, and now I’ll get to see her everywhere,” Glassman said.
Girl Scouts representative Christine Smith said she was happy to see people out interacting with others.
“I love events like this, it gets the community out on the streets, away from their screens and allows people to connect with each other one-on-one,” Smith said, “And, it supports small businesses.”
Colorado is home to over 950 species of bees, making it one of the most bee-diverse states in the United States. These include native species such as bumblebees, mason bees, leafcutter bees and sweat bees.
“I love being part of the bee fest. It combines fun with highlighting how important bees and other pollinators are to our ecosystem. I love seeing Niwot ‘busy,’ and it’s an opportunity to share our town’s charm and vitality,” said Deborah Read Fowler, vice president of the Niwot Business Association.
Bee experts led a series of talks at Left Hand Grange to honor Tom Theobald, a longtime beekeeper in Niwot and a passionate advocate for pollinators. Beth Conrey, founder of Beth’s Bees in Berthoud, talked about the detrimental effects of pesticides on bee populations as well as the importance of queen bees to a healthy population. Other speakers discussed the world of wasps and the symbiotic relationship between bees and mushrooms, among other things.
“About six or eight years ago, I experienced firsthand the devastating effects of improper pesticide use, when the county conducted a spraying on agricultural subleased land. My entire hives were wiped out,” Conrey said.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture enforces laws that protect bees, but sometimes that enforcement is lacking, Conrey said.
Beekeepers also are keeping a close eye on how fires affect bees, given the recent wildfires across Boulder County, including the Stone Canyon that started July 30 near Lyons. A changing climate seems to be creating more need for related fire research, said Julian Resasco, an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“Wildfires in Colorado’s forests can have significant effects on native bees, but not necessarily the negative ones you might assume,” said Resasco.
He noted that bee abundance and diversity often increases after a fire because wildflowers thrive in the new habitats and bees like wildflowers. He said that the abundance of woody material and bare ground after a fire also can create ideal nesting sites for bees.
“Wildfire is something native bee communities have withstood over millennia, but climate change and disruptions of historical fire regimes through fire suppression are altering wildfire frequency and severity,” said Resasco.
