- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The educational and entertaining activities drew them in.
The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) was a huge part of it. CAMBP staffed an information booth, fielding questions about honey bees, bee health, and its organization; presented speeches on the UC Davis Speakers' Stage; and staffed an arts and crafts table where youngsters could get creative--and they did!--with bee-utiful decorations.
CAMBP, founded in 2016 by Cooperative Extension associate professor and apiculturist Elina Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, offers comprehensive, science-based information about honey bees and honey bee health. A continuous train-the-trainer program, CAMBP certifies Bee Ambassador, Apprentice, Journey, and Master level beekeepers so, according to the website, "they can effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UCCE (Cooperative Extension staff)."
CAMBP Master Beekeeper Sung Lee of Castro Valley, known worldwide on social media as "Sung Lee The Bee Charmer," provided an observation hive. Throughout the festival, his queen bee laid eggs as attendees excitedly asked questions and captured images. Lee said he purposely did not mark the queen so folks would look for her. "When there were more than five in a crowd, I offered one dollar to whoever finds the queen in 30 seconds," he related. And then he told them: "If you don't, everyone pays me one dollar!"
"I learned that in comedy class!" he quipped.
Wrlter Jason Laurenzano profiled him in Passions Illustrated in a Dec. 31, 2020 piece titled Sung Lee, The Bee Charmer. Laurenzano described him as "a 62-year-old Korean-born naturalized U.S. citizen who owns and operates a pair of successful and award-winning dry cleaning businesses." In his childhood, Sung trained as a speed skater and figure skater.
"In 1982, at the age of 23, he opened Hesperian Cleaners, Inc. in San Lorenzo, California," Laurenzano wrote. "He later opened a second location in the nearby town of Danville. Both are successful not only economically but also in terms of environmental responsibility. His was the first to convert to green technology in Alameda County, replacing toxic cleaning solvents with a technology known as 'Professional Wet Cleaning' that conserves water and energy and produces no hazardous waste." In 2011, Lee was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Environmental Business People and is featured in the regional "Legendary Locals" book.
Sung Lee says his interest in beekeeping originated with fruit trees on his property. Trained by the California Master Beekeeper Program, he went on to become a member of the board of directors of the Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association, "Beekeeper of the Year," and vice president. His fans include 2400 on Facebook (Sung Lee the Bee Charmer); 3100 on Instagram, and more than 4100 on TikTok (with 6.1 million likes).
UC Davis Award. CAMBP recently won a Faculty/Staff Partnership Citation of Excellence Award from the UC Davis Staff Assembly for "outstanding achievements and notable contributions" in disseminating science-based beekeeping information through a network of organizations and trained volunteers since 2016. Chancellor Gary May will present the award to Niño and co-program manager Wendy Mather at a fall reception on the UC Davis campus.
"The award seeks to highlight teams who actively develop and encourage faculty/staff partnerships and as a result are able to make notable contributions to UC Davis that contribute to the University's Mission of Teaching, Research, and Service; and who exemplify outstanding achievement and/or service," according to Staff Assembly officials. (Kian Nikzad serves as the co-program manager of CAMBP but as a new employee, was ineligible to be nominated)
Since 2016, CAMBP has:
- Given 32,000 hours of volunteer time (Beneficial Educational Experiences) and served 186,630 individuals in education, outreach and beekeeping mentorship. If a volunteer hour is worth $26.87, the program has given $859,840 back to the state of California in service of science-based beekeeping and honey bee health.
- Enrolled 185 Honey Bee Ambassadors (a level established in 2021), 494 Apprentice, 93 Journey level candidates and certified 20 Master level beekeepers. There are 12 members in 2023 participating in their Master Capstone projects.
- Since the team began tracking Continuing Education Experiences in 2020, they're recorded 3752 hours
- They're also working on updating a safety manual.
The California Honey Festival, launched in 2017, is the brainchild of the City of Woodland and Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. It takes place annually in downtown Woodland. The 2024 celebration is scheduled May 4.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The festival, free and family friendly, takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event celebrates the importance of bees, and promotes honey and honey bees and their products. Last year it drew a crowd of 40,000,
UC Davis faculty are among those scheduled to deliver 20-minute talks on the Speakers' Stage, located just west of First Street. The list of speakers includes:
10:30 a.m.: Pollination ecologist and professor Neal Williams, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who will discuss "Native Bees and their Conservation"
11 a.m.: Kitty Bolte, GATEways horticulturist, UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, "Planting Your Garden to be a Welcoming Space for Pollinators"
12 noon: Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, and co-owner of Z Food Specialty and The HIVE, Woodland, "Let's Learn to Taste Honey."
1 p.m.: Wendy Mather, co-program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMPB), "So, You Want to Be a Beekeeper?"
1:30 p.m.: Jean-Philippe Marelli, senior director of Integrated Pest Management for Mars Wrigley Confectionery (also a journey level master beekeeper and Melipona beekeeper in Brazil), "Stingless Bees: The Amazing World of Melipona Bees"
2 p.m.: Cooperative Extension apiculturist/associate professor Elina Lastro Niño of Entomology and Nematology, and director of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMPB), "What Our Bee Research Is Teaching Us."
2:30 p.m.: Sanmu "Samtso" Caoji, a 2022-23 Hubert Humphrey fellow, and founder of the Shangri-la Gyalthang Academy, and CEO of the Cultural Information Consulting Company, "Empowering Women to Become Beekeepers and Bread Winners for Their Families While Keeping Bees in the Wild"
3 p.m.: Rachel Davis, coordinator of Bee City USA Woodland and chair of Bee Campus USA UC Davis (and GATEways Horticulturist for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden), "Woodland Is a Bee City; UC Davis Is a Bee City--What This Means to Our Communities"
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology communications specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey will provide a background slide show of images of honey bees and native bees.
This will be the Amina Harris' last California Honey Festival as director of the Honey and Pollination Center, which she founded in 2012. The co-owner of Z Food Specialty and The HIVE, Woodland, Harris will retire from UC Davis at the end of June. She co-founded the California Honey Festival in 2017 with the City of Woodland.
The festival is both educational and entertaining. At her annual booth, Harris explains what the honey flavor wheel is and invites the crowd to sample honey varietals. Attendees can also check out the bee observation hives, watch cooking demonstrations and kids' shows, taste mead and other alcoholic drinks (if of age) and learn about bees from beekeepers and bee scientists. Vendors, offering various products and food, will line the streets.
The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program, founded in 2016 by Niño, provides a program of learning, teaching, research, and public service. They offer comprehensive, science-based information about honey bees and honey bee health. Since 2016, the organization has donated 32,000 hours of volunteer time and served 186,630 individuals in education, outreach and beekeeping mentorship. Read more about their classes and their work on their website.
Following the California Honey Festival, an after-party will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. at The HIVE Tasting Room and Kitchen, 1221 Harter Ave., Woodland. It will feature pollinator-inspired food, drinks, and dancing to the music of Joy and Madness, an 8-piece soul and funk group. Tickets are $20 and will benefit the California Master Beekeeper Program. "Each ticket includes entry to win a bountiful Yolo County food and drink basket (value $500)," Harris said. More information is on this website.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Now another "pride" awaits.
Z Specialty Food will host a Nature Day celebration, a free public event from 11 a.m., to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 2.
The 20,000-square-foot facility, which houses the Moon Shine Trading Company, Island of the Moon Apiaries, and The Hive, includes a processing plant, a tasting room (honey and mead), a gift shop, an outdoor courtyard and a pollinator garden. As the largest honey varietal business in California, it is the pride of all folks eager to say: "Show me the honey!"
And now on Saturday, April 2, during the Nature Day celebration, you'll see the pride of The Hive.
What's on tap for Nature Day?
Don't Toss Those Scraps! – Natural Dye Workshop
Time: All day
Learn how to utilize food scraps and create one-of-a-kind dyes for clothing, fabric and yarn. You'll be provided white cloth, avocado pits and black beans. What's with food waste? Each year Americans waste 108 billion pounds of food, contributing to extensive environmental, economic, and societal impacts.
Miridae Living Labs
Time: All day
You'll get to play with seed bombs, bugs, and plants with Miridae Living Labs! This is a non-profit, Sacramento-area organization dedicated to using native insects and plants as tools for education, research, and community engagement. The business "strives to generate positive ecological changes in our communities under the guidance and leadership of community members," a spokesperson said.
Noon: Container Gardening with California Native Plants (first-come, first-serve basis with purchase of plant)
Miridae Mobile Nursery is a customized box truck that transforms into a curbside native plant shop. Its goal is "to bring people together through plants and gardening." All profits from its sales of native plants support its science education, non-profit Miridae Living Labs.
The Hive Nature Loop Scavenger Hunt
Time: All Day
You can grab a pamphlet and go on a scavenger hunt for plants in The Hive Nature Loop. Find all the plants and show to a team member to win a prize!
Pollinator Garden Tour
Time: 1 p.m.
Join plant curator Rowan Boswell for a tour of the two-acre pollinator gardens at The Hive. It's billed as: "Get inspired by our oasis and outdoor courtyard, designed to meet the needs of our community and native species. Discover pollinator favorites, California natives, and drought-tolerant plants."
Bohart Museum of Entomology
The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis will display specimens of bees. The insect museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens; a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas); and a gift shop.
Photography
Some 24 images of honey bees by award-winning photographer Kathy Keatley Garvey of UC Davis will be showcased. A communication specialist for the Department of Entomology and Nematology who takes images of honey bees and other pollinators in her leisure time, she comes from a long line of beekeepers. She writes a daily (Monday-Friday) Bug Squad blog.
The Hive Facility Tour
Times: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Visitors are invited to tour the four-year development, created to educate the public on honey, bees, and pollination. Nectar director Josh Zeldner will guide the tours of 20,000-square-foot, Zero Net Energy facility.
Z Specialty Food began as the Moon Shine Trading Company, founded in 1979 by Ishai Zeldner (1947-2018), who died at age 71. He worked as a commercial beekeeper and studied beekeeping at UC Davis. He became fond of yellow starthistle honey. "He loved it so much that he began giving it away to his friends, and quickly realized he was going broke doing so," remembers his widow, Amina Harris, the director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. Her title at the family business? "Queen Bee." Son Josh Zeldner is the "nectar director." Liz Luu is the marketing manager and tasting room manager, or a "worker bee."
Honey enthusiasts all, they and their crew will greet the public on Nature Day, April 2. The bees will be there, too, foraging on the Pride of Madeira.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That's Z Specialty Food's newly constructed The HIVE, located at 1221 Harter Ave. Woodland. It's 42 years in the making, including four years of design and construction, said self-described "Queen Bee" Amina Harris of the family-owned business.
A grand opening public celebration, featuring live bands, plant tours, family activities, and honey and mead sales, as well as food available from the HIVE and local food trucks, will take place Saturday, Nov. 13 from 1 to 7 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Z Specialty Food, home of the Island of the Moon Apiaries, the Moon Shine Trading Company, and The HIVE, specializes in 30-plus honey varietals, including Mexican coffee golden reserve varietal honey, Northwestern blackberry gourmet varietal honey, Florida white tupelo honey, and California spring wildflower honey. Another favorite: starthistle honey, favored by many beekeepers.
“I am passionate about introducing people to taking the time to taste honey properly, noticing every unique color, flavor, aroma and texture that comes through,” Harris said.
Inside the 20,000-square-foot, Zero Net Energy facility is an "upscale wine tasting room, with a rustic wood rustic-clad bar where visitors stand while an employee behind the bar offers honey samples on tiny plastic spoons," according to an article in Sacramento Magazine. "Each honey is surprisingly unique, with its own distinct color, aroma and flavor profile."
Harris, who serves as the director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute, said her husband, the late Ishai "Charles" Zeldner, founded Z Specialty Food in 1979. A fourth-generation food merchant who worked with a beekeeping operation in Israel while living in the kibbutz, Beit HaShita, he later studied apiculture at UC Davis. He died June 17, 2018 at his home in Davis at age 71.
"Our late founder, Ishai Zeldner, always wanted a place to host people from all over the world, and blow their minds around the vast array of flavors, colors and textures of varietal honey," the website relates. "Now you can experience the fruits of our labor, from a family business that has been through it all over the last 42 years, and counting."
Son Joshua Zeldner, nectar director of Z Specialty Food, commented about the grand opening celebration: "It's hard to believe we are finally here, a true dream come true..." His dad, he said, "always wanted to have a ‘honey museum' on I-5, and now we do. I am so excited to invite people to experience what we have created, the full circle of plants, bees, honey and mead."
The site includes a courtyard and a pollinator garden.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic: the annual California Honey Festival, which was scheduled May 2 in historic downtown Woodland.
This year would have been the fourth annual.
But, of course, and rightfully so, the cancellation is for our protection. It needed “not to happen.”
The California Honey Festivalevent, launched in 2017 and sponsored by the City of Woodland and the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, is an all-day, free festival that usually draws a crowd of some 30,000.
The event aims to cultivate an interest in beekeeping, and to educate the public in support of bees and their keepers, according to Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. Through lectures and demonstrations, the festival-goers learn about bees and how to keep them healthy. Major issues facing the bees include pests, pesticides, diseases, malnutrition, and climate changes.
Yes, those major issues still face the bees. But now we humans face a major issue of our own: a deadly virus. We are sheltering-in and social distancing. Bees are social insects and are out foraging for nectar, pollen, propolis and water. Their colony is one huge superorganism, with a queen bee, workers and drones. They all depend on one another to make the hive run smoothly. No queen bee, no colony. No workers, no colony. No drones, no colony.
As of 4:30 p.m. today, Covid-19 has infected more than 1.9 million people, and sadly, more than 118,000 people worldwide have perished, according to Johns Hopkins University. Reportedly, the United States is “nearing the peak right now.”
Stay safe out there!
