PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - The 44th annual West Virginia State Honey Festival took place at the Parkersburg City Park this past weekend beginning Saturday, August 23 and ended Sunday, August 24.
The West Virginia State Honey Festival is an event to show off all the ways to use honey and educate people about the honeybee, according to the president of the West Virginia Beekeeper's Association, Lousia Householder.
"The festival showcases honey and other products of the hive, not just honey, but there's wax products and propolis and tinctures and all sorts of things," said Householder. "I think it's just getting the information out, oftentimes you know the little critters we deal with are stinging insects and that scares most folks and we want to get out and tell you about the honeybee that we take care of on a daily basis."
Householder said her favorite part of the festival is getting to socialize with beekeepers that come from different parts of the state of W. Va.
"I like getting together with all of our beekeepers and just socializing," said Householder. "We live all across the state, so events like this allows us to come together for beekeeping and visit with each other."
During the weekend at the festival there were different events throughout the day like, an antique car show, kids story time, bee bread demonstrations, live music, and more.
The first event held on Sunday, August 24 was an open been hive demonstration by beekeeper and Seasonal Apiary Inspector, Robert Elliott.
"Today, we have a beehive that we brought in, and we open up to let people see what an actual hive looks like on the inside," said Elliott. "We try to show people what the queen looks like in an open territory."
Elliottsaid coming to events like these are valued to him because it is important to keep people educated about the honeybee because a lot of them are dying.
"We are in a crisis as far as trying to keep the honeybee alive," said Elliott. "The whole United States lost close to 65 percent of the population and West Virginia was averaging about 45 percent, so we go around and try to educate people about the honeybee."
Along with events at the honey festival there were craft, honey and food venders set up, including, Perfectly Pink, Kathy's Krafts, Spencer3D, Hill Billy Honey, Simply Bee, Bearville Bees, White Valley Kettle Corn, Smokin' Cauldron, MCJC Farms and many more.
Jeremy Griffith from Sleepy Holler Homestead, said the weekend at the honey festival went well.
"It's been a really great turn out this weekend and there were a lot of people moving through," said Griffith. "The events and entertainment have been awesome and there is a whole lot of great venders out here."
The Wood County Recreation Director, Bill Vincent, who helps plan the honey festival said he received a bunch of positive feedback about how the festival was set up this year.
"We've had a lot of great comments, they like the way it is set up, they like the coziness of it all," said Vincent. "We've had a lot of positive comments, and I think the venders have been happy with the attendance both days."
Vincent said the honey festival weekend turned out excellent and the people who did not get to attend the festival this year should plan to come next year.
"I think it was very successful, especially not knowing how the new location in the park was going to turn out, but we had so many volunteers, the City Park staff, office director have all been phenomenal helping us put this one," said Vincent. "So, in the end it's been very successful this year."