Spring Fest!

Yesterday, Eric and I were so excited to represent the Northeast NJ Beekeepers Association at the Teaneck Creek Park Spring Fest Celebration.  We were given one of the awesome club tablecloths to use, as well as pamphlets, coloring books, and stickers from the club to hand out, but were actually worried our table would be boring and flat without more.  Silly us.

Like we weren't so excited we'd think of more to bring!

We brought my canopy, which was really smart, considering how hot and sunny it got on the blacktop.  And then we brought my beekeeping jacket and veil to hang from the canopy, which of course was interesting to non-beekeepers.

We got these amazing posters, one on pollination and the other on beekeeping, from Hudson Valley Bee Supply, got some poster frames for them, and they were a great eye-catcher.  Lots of people stopped to look at the photos and read about them.

On the table, we had the six different pamphlets, coloring/activity books, one of our empty new hives and an unused honey super with foundation frames in it, our smoker, hive tools, brush, frame rest, and my gloves, plus a shadowbox frame with our cool bee stages action figures and some information about the various stages of bee life.

And to prove we were there, there's us!

We had an amazing, amazing day.  With the exception of one man who seemed to only want to try and antagonize us (we didn't take the bait), everyone else was either excited about our booth or really looking for information.  It's terrific how many people either are interested in keeping bees or even just helping bees by planting the right flowers and herbs or putting out water for them; how many people were beekeepers, former beekeepers or friends or family of beekeepers.  We also met kids who ran the gamut from "I love bugs!" to being scared of bees until we were able to explain to them that yellowjackets are not bees.

The coolest, I think, was one young lady with really nifty pink glasses, who came over to ask us why, when she waved her arms and ran, the bumblebees flying around the area followed her.  Her dad was surprised when he found his daughter, who had just been running from bumblebees, over at our honeybee booth, but it made perfect sense to us!  Who better to come to with her question?

The biggest lament?  It's over and we want to do more!