BY AMANDA PEVEY
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
The Inaugural Honey Festival was held on Saturday at the Alabama Wildlife Federation in Millbrook.
This event was from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a general admission of $5 per person, ages four and up. It was all about sweet honey, and many volunteers and attendees came out to make the day a success.
The day included a plant sale. Maria Pacheco who is the ground specialist/tour guide for the Alabama Nature Center. Her helper, Debra Raymond, is a Naturalist who also takes care of the kids in the school programs and helps Pacheco with the gardens as well. They both were very knowledgeable about all the plants they had for sale for just $5.
There were also vendors selling unique items as well. Be Naturally Rad had natural skincare products, beeswax lotions, as well as beeswax candles and much more. Chicken & Sweets Southern Yard Bird had Southern Jams and baked goods for sale. Ornamental Clay Garden Products with Darla was also another vendor that at the festival this first year.
Lunch was for sale by the Alibamu Lodge #179 Order of the Arrow, and all proceeds from the lunch were given back to the organization.
Live music with Lacy Lynn Band was played outside on the NaturePlex Lawn which may have caused a little dancing.
At 10 a.m. Native Flowers & Pollinators with Claude Jenkins was a presentation in the theater at the Alabama Nature Center. If you were able to come out early, at 8:30 a.m. they had an Apiary Demonstration with Kristen Irions, who is the assistant director of school programs and the Alabama Master Bee Keeper. She has worked with the Nature Center for the past four years.
Irions showed everyone the queen bee, the three colonies of bees, and demonstrated what it’s like being a beekeeper. At 1 p.m., Irions also demonstrated a honey extraction and was able to extract the honey from one of the bee colonies, which produces fresh, raw honey that was for sale. All proceeds from each jar of honey sold went back to the Nature Center.
Irions said, “One of the important facts about honey, for every eight pounds of honey that honeybees make, it creates about 1 pound of wax. Honeybees are not indiginous to North America, but they are a very valuable, domesticated insect that we use as livestock.”
Native bees are an unappreciated treasure, with 4,000 species from tiny Perdita to large carpenter bees. They can be found today anywhere in North America where flowers bloom. Most people don’t realize that there were no honeybees in America until the white settlers brought hives from Europe.
Irions gave out important facts about honeybees, ways we can save the bees, and taught ways we could keep from harming bees. She said it is important to use raw, local honey because there are many benefits and it will last for a long time. At the end of the demonstration, people in attendance asked questions to Kristen and she was able to answer all of them as well. During the summer break the Nature Center has a week-long Busy Bee Camp for ages 10-15. Check out the Alabama Nature Center website for more details.
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. there were kids’ activities where children could craft bee rocks and Pom Pon bees.
Matt Vines, who is the Camps and Community Programs Coordinator, coordinated this entire event. “Over 285 people showed up to this festival throughout the entire day,” Vines said. He’s already eager and excited for next year’s honey festival because he wants to add more vendors and more fun activities for the children.
With COVID restrictions, the organizers had limits on what they could do this year, but he hopes next year will be less restrictive, bigger and better.
Vines said this year had no official sponsors, but it was coordinated through the Alabama Nature Center.
The next BIG event coming to the Alabama Nature Center is the Creatures of the Night program on October 16, 2021. Check out Alabama Nature Center Facebook page as well as their website for more details.
The first annual Honey Festival was a great time of learning about honeybees and it was fun for the entire family. We hope it is the first of many such activities! Thank you Alabama Wildlife Federation and the Alabama Wildlife Federation and Alabama Nature Center. SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THE DAY’S EVENTS BELOW!
