Attendees young and old crowded into the Wyck Historic House and Garden grounds to celebrate the Philadelphia Honey Festival on Saturday, Sept. 7.

The free-entry festival is a yearly tradition run by the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild. It aims to educate people on beekeeping and maintaining native plants for pollinators. In previous years, the festival operated in two to three locations on different days across the city. However, this year's event was exclusive to Germantown. Wyck has hosted the festival since it started in 2009.

"I'd like people to, first of all, have a great time and try the honey," Dave Harrod, head of the Guild's board, told the Local. "I'd love people to come away with an appreciation for pollinators and honey bees as part of the larger world of pollinators. The focus on pollinators is primarily a focus on native bees, and bees other than honey bees, which are essentially livestock."

Vendors set up throughout the Wyck grounds with various bee-related products and native plants for sale. In addition to the honey and entertainment, the event featured educational beekeeping demonstrations.

While the festival is only 15 years old, Philadelphia has a long and rich history of beekeeping, dating back over a century. In 1852, Lorenzo Langstroth, a Philadelphia-born clergyman, revolutionized beekeeping with his invention, the Langstroth box. The box was a new form of hive that most modern beekeepers still use.

"The tagline is that, while this (Philadelphia) was the cradle of liberty, it's also the cradle of beekeeping," Kathy May, Wyck's board chair and a member of the Guild, told the Local. "When you guys see beehives out in the field, and there are stacks of white boxes inside like little file folders with combs of honey wax that the bees fill, he (Langstroth) created that."

The Langstroth box uses removable modular components, sectioned out into areas for breeding or storing honey. The box allows the sections to be removed without damaging the hive or harming the bees.

"The inspiration for it (the invention) happened when he was walking home from West Philadelphia to Center City after visiting his bees," Harrod said. "It's a pretty big breakthrough, and all beekeepers are grateful to him."

The Guild formed in 2009, with many of its members hailing from the Northwest part of the city. Defining Philadelphia as the cradle of American beekeeping, the Guild's goal is to encourage and promote urban beekeeping through fellowship and education while raising awareness of the importance of bees to our environment.
The yearly festival serves as a way of attaining the Guild's goal by inviting people of all ages to learn about and experience beekeeping. By spreading awareness of native plants and pollinators, it offers people who may not have the time or space for beekeeping a way to support local bee species.

"It's just a consortium of fellow beekeepers who want to help educate the public on honey bees and general pollination, and also who want to support themselves in trying to be the best beekeepers they can be," May said. "Our native pollinators, the little sweat bees or the bumblebees and whatnot, they're very important for pollination and to our ecosystem as well. Probably the best way people can support our pollinators, in general, is by planting small pollinator gardens in their backyards, or putting up small native bee houses."

Among the stands set up throughout the festival were members of Wyck selling native plants that support local pollinators. Other stands included beekeepers selling honey or local businesses selling products made from beeswax.

Jeff Eckel, a Guild beekeeper, demonstrated "open hive" talks throughout the day at Wyck's apiary, which is a place where honey bees are kept. Eckel, who has been beekeeping since 2007, showed attendees the inside of a hive and how a keeper interacts safely with the bees.

The event that drew the largest crowd of the day was the "bee beard," demonstrated by Don Shump, owner of the Philadelphia Bee Co. After a brief rain delay, a large crowd gathered around Shump as he prepared to dump hundreds of bees on his face, forming a beard.

After explaining to the crowd that there was a very slight chance of being stung, some in the front row moved closer to the back, but most stayed, intrigued by the event. Shump tied a cage containing the hive queen to his face, which caused the bees to swarm onto his chin and face.

Overall, the festival saw a large turnout, with attendees, many with their families, coming and going throughout the day.

"It (the festival) meets our mission of strengthening our community by welcoming everyone in and educating the public about the important role of nature and history in our world," Wyck Director Kim Staub told the Local. "For us, the honey festival is one of the most mission-driven programs that we run."