Did you know that Utah has 900 species of native bees? Most of these bees are solitary and not social. In other words, they don’t live in colonies. These wild bees are excellent pollinators of tree fruits and other flowering plants. They don’t have much venom and rarely sting humans.
Honey bees aren’t native to North America. Early immigrants brought their honey bee colonies from Europe. Eventually, they made their way to Utah on pioneer carts and wagons. The European-style beehive basket is the state symbol and the honey bee is the state insect. However, by the late 19th century most beekeepers had shifted to the Langstroth removable frame bee hive.
Today, there are over 40 commercial colonies of bees in Wayne County.
A free community dinner is open to the general public and will take place on Wednesday May 1 at 6PM. The evening will include demonstrations and exhibitions exploring our cultural heritage of honey, bees, and bee keeping. Come make a beeswax candle, a bee house, and participate in a honey tasting.
If you’re planning to join us, please call the USU Extension/4-H Office at 435-836-1312 to let us know how many will participate in the after school program and/or the dinner.
If you’re a bee keeper or have bee memories or artifacts to share, we encourage you to exhibit or demonstrate at the dinner. We’re also looking for local honey or honey product vendors who would like to participate. Send us historical photos of your family history.
Contact Project Director Annette Lamb at info@entradainstitute.org for more information. This project is made possible through a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Entrada Institute and Wayne County USU Extension. LIKE us at facebook.com/sparkinghumanities. – Annette Lamb
Photo Caption. Bee on Flower. Courtesy Zolt Levay, 2018 Artist in Residence Capitol Reef National Park.
Go to the Insider to read the published article.