Chinook Honey Farm’s Honey Harvest Festival was today, near Okotoks, just south of Calgary. As always, Art and Cherie entertained their hundreds of guests with lots of games, demonstrations, and programs. The farm has a great meadery with a wide variety of excellent honey wines which I think they’ve been making for at least five years now. But it is also a fully functioning commercial honey farm with an interesting visitor centre/store.

We try not to miss the various Chinook Honey festivals. Something new for this year’s Honey Festival was a bee-beard demonstration. Select souls donned a few thousand bees, partly to prove that bees are not vicious savages, and partly to prove it can be done. In this case, the bearded folks were able to grow full-length whiskers in the Abe Lincoln style. Not all bee-bearded wannabees are so lucky, as we’ve seen with 34-year-old Matthew Cruikshank of Burlington, Vermont. The poor chap has been trying for years – as you can see in this national web magazine’s article: “Man Has Trouble Growing Full Beard of Bees.” Fortunately, the participants at this year’s event didn’t have such problems.

Finally, what bee event would be complete without a donkey or two dressed up as a bee? My kids found Bee-ore, the reluctant worker donkey-bee, to be a docile self-effacing creature. No rides, fortunately, but plenty of delicate nose rubs.