A beekeeper asks for experience with a hive at a county fair.

We always take our observation hive to our county fair.  Crowds love it.
Kids want to touch it and find a queen.

However, I would strongly urge beekeepers to not take a working or open hive
to a fair without some way of containment and absolute control.  A few years
ago we had our hive and  3 spots from our booth was a booth with sno-cones
(shaved ice with flavoring in a cup).  Apparently there were yellow jackets
and some bees all over that booth, on the counters, on the dispensers, etc.
A young boy, around age 13, came to our booth and asked who owned the bees
in the observation hive.  I was so thrilled that the boy was interested in
nature and he was perhaps combining some religion in his quest for
knowledge.  So I launched a discussion about bees specifically and nature
generally.  He interrupted me and said he was not interested in nature, he
just wanted to know who owned the (expletive deleted) bees because they were
bothering everyone and we needed to get our bees out of the fair.  I then
explained they couldn't be our bees because our bees were securely locked in
the hive.

If we were immediately identified, even if erroneously, as the culprit, I
cannot imagine the trouble you would be in if one of 'your' bees stung
someone who was allergic and on the other side of the fair at a food booth.

Just my opinion, but I would be wary.

Judy in Kentucky, USA
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