BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Bee Experience and Honey Tasting lets people interact with bees up close while learning about the insects, honey and how to become a beekeeper.
There are numerous locations around Baton Rouge where the experience takes place, but it all narrows down depending on your preference. From a meditation temple, health food store community garden, bee garden or a rural life field.
.Kevin Langely is the founder of the experience, holding several positions in the capital city such as president of the Capital Area Beekeepers Association, vice president of the Louisiana Beekeepers Association and the board of the Pollinator Stewardship Council.
Through this experience, Langley said it came to life after noticing the common interactions between humans and bees.
“What I’ve realized is that people are afraid of bees and a lot of this is their perception of what the bees are doing. So this bee experience basically is for people that want to learn more about bees or nature and to dispel their myths and fears,” he said.
He wants to replace fears with awareness and education about the importance of bees.
“Most people don’t even know that the bee lab exists here, and for 95 years they’ve been doing research on bees to keeping them healthy, which in turn keeps our crops pollinated, which is food supply and food security,” he said.
When doing the experience, people learn more about the insects through a personal interaction experience that allows them to inspect a beehive and extract fresh honey from a honeycomb while being suited up in a beekeeper suit.
Langley then ends the experience with a honey tasting.
“They spent an enormous amount of time foraging on all the flowers that are blooming throughout the entire year,” he said.
At the end of the experience, Langley said he hopes people take away the need to take care of bees and save them.
“I want them to do something proactively to help the bees, meaning not spray as much chemicals in their yards, plant pollinator plants and support beekeeping efforts,” he said.
Tickets for the bee experience are $50 per person. Bee experience sessions can be personal or with a group. Click here for more information on the experience and to book a session.
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