A sweet celebration of a vital part of nature is set for Whiteville on Sept. 11.
The N. C. Honey Festival highlights the significance of bees in the environment, celebrates honey and honey products, encourages bee-friendly practices, and promotes beekeeping in all of North Carolina.
Honeybees and other pollinators are essential to maintaining most ecosystems. Somewhere between 75 and 95 percent of all flowering plants on the earth need help with pollination. Pollinators such as bees provide services to over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1,200 crops.
That means that one out of every three bites of food you eat is there because of the work they do.
Tanya Hiltz, a beekeeper at Lake Waccamaw, says that bees will spend their entire life making honey.
“Bees in the summer only live for two to four weeks,” she said. “They work and collect honey to store for a winter they will not see.” She says one of her favorite things about bees is how selfless they are.
One worker bee will produce one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. In order to produce one pound of honey, about two million flowers must be visited.
Westley Ward is a former beekeeper, and has a fondness for the tiny creatures.
“Without bees, we wouldn’t be here. God gave us bees. There would not be food without them,” Ward says.
The fifth annual North Carolina Honey Festival will take place in downtown Whiteville, and this year the event’s theme is “Together”.
The Honey Festival Committee will join with Phillip and Shannon Britt and members of the Town of Chadbourn for a Strawberry Lane. Strawberry treats and products will be for sale, and a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to support the state’s oldest agricultural festival, the N. C. Strawberry Festival in Chadbourn.
Local beekeepers are encouraged to peddle their wares of the bee-related kind, and exhibits will be on display to educate the general public on the tiny heroes.
For a list of events and any updates to the schedule, visit the N.C. Fifth Annual Honey Festival Facebook page. Any vendors interested in being a part of the festival can call 910.446.6771 for more information.
