Two dozen beekeepers from Maryland and DC made their way to Sevierville, Tennessee from January 4-6, 2023 to participate in the third annual Hive Life Conference, organized by June 2022 MSBA keynote Kamon Reynolds of Tennessee's Bees!
The conference is extraordinary and original to our community in an amazing number of ways. First, it has grown from 300 participants its first year to 600 in its second to an estimated 2,000 last month. This made it the largest North American beekeeping conference, even though it was scheduled at exactly the same time as the American Beekeeping Federation 2023 meeting.
Second, the conference is an outgrowth of the explosion of podcast/Youtube/online media information and community building among beekeepers. This brings a very different feel to the who, how, and why of the presenters. The organizer, Kamon, invests considerable time in connecting with and presenting speakers who have trustworthy, helpful and useful voices that they wish to share freely with others. For example, Etienne Tardif of Alaska is an HVAC specialist who applies his educational training and professional experience to the thermodynamics of the winter cluster: an interesting and astoundingly helpful lens on this phenomenon. Frankly, my favorite Hive Life presentation and the reason I will buy the presentation recordings when they come out. But it reminded me of a scientific presentation at EAS Ithaca by Dr. Tom Seeley of the role played by carbon dioxide management in the colony. The two come together to give a fuller picture of what our bees are up too, and what impact our actions and management decisions might have.
Third (and most people found this to be the most welcome), the friendly bee-centered enthusiasm and energy share universally among participants was simply joyful and astounding. We are in stressful times, and people were explicitly in a place where they said, "Let's work together" and "a friend of bees is a friend of mine." During his closing remarks, Kamon explicitly touched on this, "let's not get divided by the little things when we are here for the big ones." One grass-roots organized activity was a honey swap: if you brought some of yours, you could trade for honey from just about anywhere in the country.
Fourth (and some of our at-home family members may grimace at this), ALL THE VENDORS were there, about 100 of them, filling about a third of the whole convention center. Deals were to be had, pickup trucks beds were to be filled, entire booths were to be emptied. Vendors were another source of beekeeper education, as numerous hive types, tools, components, and parallel gear were available for inspection and explanation. I came home with a bee lining box, my first comb honey super, and 20 minutes of training in how not to break it. And that's just the stuff I confessed to my husband. Vendors made lots of special advance deals for pre-orders to be picked up onsite. These alone might help defray the cost of future conference attendance!
Fifth, the most amazing honey show I have ever seen: over 900 entries from approximately 500 participants! The judges achieved an incredible feat in processing these entries overnight! Maryland attendees brought back a number of prizes, including Monica Schmitt with a first for her gift basket! Elaine Storm and Kim Mehalick also brought home ribbons and recognition.
With 2,000 beekeepers in the place and so many organizations on site, there was more, so much more. Bluegrass music, mead tastings, silent auctions, side sessions.
Hive Life 2024 will take place from January 4-6, 2024, also at the Sevierville Convention Center. This year sold out more than a month in advance, and based on both popularity and the size of the site, this is likely to happen much earlier this year.
[Return to February 2023 BeeLine newsletter]