Hive of Activity: Patrons comb for sweet deals at West Virginia State Honey Festival

Sep 01, 2023

Aug 28, 2023

Brody Smith, 3, and his grandmother, Millie Farnsworth, Sunday on their annual visit to the Honey Festival. Farnsworth has eight other grandchildren she has done this with over the years. (Photo by Clara Noelle)

PARKERSBURG — The annual West Virginia State Honey Festival sponsored by Wood County Recreation Commission concluded its 42nd year Sunday at City Park.

Around 4,000 people total showed up with the majority of people showing up on Saturday.

“I think it’s been well attended this year,” said Bill Vincent, Wood County Recreation Director.

Numerous craft stations were available and members of the Bee Association attended the festival.

The children were kept occupied through many activities available. Among them was a scavenger hunt. Children were given a sheet and they filled it out by visiting the different booths and learning something about bees. If they filled out the sheet, they were able to receive a prize for their efforts.

Large tents were filled with craft booths at the Honey Festival. One of the booths had sample chapstick that you could kiss onto a sticky note and pin to a cork board. (Photo by Clara Noelle)

Games, bouncy houses, craft booths, a train and live entertainment also were at the Honey Festival.

“The Bee Association has given so much support, everybody has,” said Vincent.

Charlie Metz is a local beekeeper. He involved himself in the festivities by giving himself a “bee beard” with the help of a few bee inspectors. Metz started by extracting the queen bee and putting her in a plastic cylinder under his chin.

The cylinder had holes big enough to let the queen breath and release her pheromones. The pheromones are what attract the worker bees to Metz’s chin.

The bee inspectors carefully take bees out of a prepared bee box, the same box that previously held the queen bee, and shake them into a bucket. Once they have enough bees in the bucket, the bee inspectors carefully dump the bees onto a prepared cardboard tray placed on Metz’s neck. The bees will flock to the queen bee tucked under Metz’s chin with some help from the bee inspectors.

Charlie Metz did the “bee beard” again this year on Saturday and Sunday, drawing a large crowd on both days of the Honey Festival. (Photo by Clara Noelle)

The bees did not sting Metz, as he did not harm the worker bees or the queen bee. He wore ear plugs to keep the bees out of his ear and tried to keep his mouth shut as much as possible to keep them out of his mouth. He breathed solely through his nose and the bees would not crawl up it, as they do not like the hot air. With some help from the bee inspectors around him, the bees did not crawl into Metz’s eyes.

When the cardboard tray was removed, Metz had a beard made out of bees.

Clara Noelle can be reached at [email protected]

Charlie Metz uses the queen bee to work his bee beard. The queen bee’s pheromones attract the worker bees and attract them to stick to Metz’s chin. (Photo by Clara Noelle)

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