Hear that buzz? See those bees? Taste that honey? 

When the California Honey Festival takes place Saturday, May 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown Woodland, you'll hear the buzz, see the buzz, and sample honey.

The festival, launched in 2017--and by co-founder Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute--aims to inspire "people of all ages to protect and celebrate bees and other pollinators." Admission is free.

"UC Davis will have a slimmed down version this year," said Harris. Some of the events on tap Saturday: 

• The UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center will showcase its honey tasting wheel and offer free honey tasting.
• The California Master Beekeeper Program will staff two educational booths. Visitors can examine a bee observation hive, check out the beekeeping equipment and peer through microscopes. Kids' activities are also planned. 
• The Bohart Museum of Entomology of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematolgoy will showcase bee diversity in its specimen drawers. Its live "petting zoo" will include Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects (walking sticks) that folks can hold,  said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
• The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden will address pollinator needs and gardening.
• The Woodland Public Library will offer a children's reading hour.
• Uncle Jer's Traveling Bee Show will provide educational performances.
• The UC Davis Bookstores booth will contain honey, books, and other gifts for sale.
• Visitors can don a bee costume and get their picture taken in the UC Davis Pollination Park, a collaboration with the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. 

Harris said the festival will include live music, a beer and mead garden. Some 100 vendors will sell everything from food to plants to arts and crafts.  The first festival drew some 30,000 visitors.

An after-party is planned at The Hive, part of Z Specialty Food, Woodland. Harris, the "Queen Bee" of Z Specialty Food, said advance registration is required. Access https://zspecialtyfood.com/event/california-honey-festival-after-party/.

Bees, butterflies and beetles will be well represented at the 145th annual Dixon May Fair, which opens Thursday, May 5 for a four-day run (May 5-8) after a two-year hiatus.

They're among the insects depicted in photographs and other art by Solano County 4-H'ers and other youth in the Youth Building, Denverton Hall. The work includes that of Matthew Agbayani of the Vaca Valley 4-H Club, Vacaville, who entered a color photograph of a honey bee and a syrphid fly (aka flower fly or hover fly) foraging on a sunflower.

The judging is done, the ribbons are hung and the doors will open at 4 p.m. May 5.

Chief executive officer of the fair since 2012 is Patricia Conklin, a member of the Western Fairs Association Hall of Fame  and a 4-H and FFA alumnus who grew up in Dixon and exhibited at the Dixon May Fair in her youth. Her daughter, Leta Myers, a marine biologist, assisted with the clerking during the recent judging.  Like her mother, she, too, is a 4-H and FFA alumnus, but in Gridley, Calif., where Mom served as CEO of the Butte County Fair for 10 years. 

The Dixon May Fair,  the 36th District Agriculture Association, is the oldest district fair and fairgrounds in the state. It traditionally ends on Mother's Day. This year's theme is "Super Fun.” 

The fairgrounds are located at 655 S. First St., Dixon. Fair hours are noon to 9 p.m. on May 5; noon to 10 p.m. on May 6; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on May 7; and noon to 10 p.m. on May 8. General admission is $15 for those 13 and older; $10 for children ages 5 to 12; and free for children 4 and under. Seniors over age 65 and military members with active duty cards will be admitted for $10.  Special days include Thrifty Thursday, when general admission for those 5 and older is $5, and Kids' Day Friday, with free admission all day for children 12 and under. See Dixon May Fair website and fast facts for more information on entertainment, exhibits, livestock shows and parking. 

"The use of synthetic chemical pesticides is central to current agricultural practices worldwide. But what is the cost to wildlife via non-target exposures? This talk will summarize when there's risk to bees, when there isn't, and what types of research are most likely to influence farmers, regulatory agencies, and policy makers."

So says Scott McArt, an assistant professor in the Cornell University's Department of Entomology, who will speak on "Pesticide Risk to Pollinators: What We Know and What We Need to Know Better" at the Wednesday, May 4 virtual seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

The seminar begins at 4:10 p.m. The Zoom link: 
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076

McArt, who joined the Cornell faculty in 2017, focuses his research on pollinator health and ecology. His areas of expertise include disease ecology, ecotoxicology, community ecology, chemical ecology, and plant-pollinator interactions. He  maintains his lab research site at https://blogs.cornell.edu/mcartlab/. 

"Research in our lab focuses on the impact of pesticides, pathogens, and habitat on honey bees and wild bees," he writes on his website. "We are particularly interested in scientific research that can inform management decisions by beekeepers, growers and the public. Current research projects include: 1) Understanding pesticide exposure and risk to bees in multiple land management contexts, 2) Combining empirical data with network modeling to understand pathogen transmission in complex plant-pollinator networks, and 3) Understanding how habitat enhancements (e.g., flowers at solar power sites) impact pollinator populations and the services they provide to agriculture."

McArt's duties at Cornell also include director of the Cornell Chemical Ecology Core Facility, and associate curator of the Cornell University Insect Collection.

He writes a monthly column, Notes from the Lab, in American Bee Journal; each month he summarizes scientific publications for a non-scientific audience. "The goal is to make the emerging pollinator health science more approachable and relevant to beekeepers," he says.

He is also a member of the New York State (NYS) Beekeeper Tech Team, which works directly with NYS beekeepers to improve honey bee health, reduce colony losses, and increase profitability of the state's beekeeping industry: https://pollinator.cals.cornell.edu/nys-beekeeper-tech-team/

In addition, McArt coordinates such beekeeping workshops as "Introduction to Honey Bee Queen Rearing" and "Honey Bee Biology and Disease Management for Veterinarians" and engages with growers regarding pesticide risk to bees and creating pollinator-friendly habitat. His extension materials are onsite.  

When asked "What gets you out of bed in the morning?" during a new faculty interview, he responded "Most of the factors contributing to declines in bee health (pesticide exposure, lack of floral resources, disease, inadequate management practices) are preventable. With targeted research efforts and educated stakeholders, regulatory agencies and public, we can make a difference."

McArt holds a bachelor of arts degree in environmental and evolutionary biology (2001) from Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., and a master's degree in biological sciences (2006) from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. He received his doctorate in entomology in 2012 from Cornell University. He served as a USDA-NIFA (National Institute of Food and Agriculture) postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amhurst, in 2014, and then as a research scientist at Cornell from 2014 to 2017, before joining the Cornell faculty. 

Nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is coordinating the spring seminars. For Zoom technical issues, contact him at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.

(See complete list of spring seminars.)

Don't miss this seminar by Tobin Hammer Wednesday, April 13 on "Mystery of the Missing Microbes: Why Do Bees Keep Losing Their Symbionts?"

Hammer, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, UC Irvine, will give the in-person and virtual seminar, hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. The Zoom link:  https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076. 

Community ecologist Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is hosting the seminar.

"How do insects and microbes form symbioses, and why do these partnerships often break down?" Hammer asks in his abstract. "We are addressing these questions with the gut microbiomes of social corbiculate bees. Despite an ancient association with their bee hosts, these symbionts are surprising dynamic over developmental, ecological and macroevolutionary time scales. I will discuss our recent discoveries of symbiont loss in bees, and efforts to understand why and how these losses occur."

Hammer received his bachelor's degree in general biology from UC San Diego in 2009 and his doctorate in evolutionary biology in 2018 from the University of Colorado, Boulder.  He served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas, Austin, from 2018 to 2021.

Hammer's research interests include microbiomes, symbiosis, microbial ecology and evolution, bees, biodiversity, insect-plant interactions and tropical biology.

"We are a new research group at UC Irvine studying the ecology and evolution of symbioses between hosts (especially bees) and microbes," he writes on his lab website. 

Nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is coordinating the spring seminars. For Zoom technical issues, contact him at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.

(See complete list of spring seminars.)