Lorenzo Langstroth (December 25, 1810 – October 6, 1895) is considered the father of American bee keeping. For the past few years he has been celebrated at the Second Congregational Church in Greenfield (1843-48)  where he created his bee box.

He realized the value of bee space, “a gap size of between 6.4–9.5 mm (1⁄4–3⁄8 in) in which bees would not build comb, nor would they close it with propolis.” For the past few years there has been a gala event in the spring.

These young lady bees were making the rounds of games and art making.

Kim Skryn, the State Apiarist gave a talk to explain how honey bees live, gather and make their food – and make food for us.

A woman who came to hear the talk had been given some drone bees. These are the male bees and they will not  give you a sting. They are only waiting around for the queen bee to die – and then  they will need to mate with another one of  the female bees.