A possibly uninteresting couple of thoughts on county fair booths

[Robert Mathews (ACBA Webmaster)]

First of all, thank you to everyone who has volunteered at the county fair so far! Yesterday I saw Daphne W. and Jason L. do beekeeping demonstrations at the fair, and it's really impressive how much impact it makes on people. It draws crowds who have never seen live bees before and are just astonished when the hive gets opened. People have lots of interesting questions, and it's fun AND educational. Some pictures here.

If you've done a demo and enjoyed it, post here to encourage others to sign up to volunteer at the fair. I think people are afraid it would be difficult, but most people who do it say it's not.

After spending the day there, I wanted to write down a couple of things I noticed for whoever runs the fair booth next year (maybe me, because I like the fair, even though I'm sure you're all sick of me nagging you to volunteer so maybe it will be someone else's turn to nag).

One thing is that we got second place prizes in every category (categories are things like "Educational Value", "Creativity and Use of Special Effects", and so on). This is a little annoying not financially (the difference between first and second place is only $50), but because one of the things they're supposed to be judging on is how different your booth is from the previous year. Our booth looks very different, but the booth that won first prize in every category was effectively unchanged from last year... and still won "creativity". So maybe changing it a lot isn't worth the effort.

Another thing I've noticed over the years is that in the "Educational Value" category, they're mostly judging based on quantity of education. If you literally cover your walls with 30 posters, you win that prize. But it's not a very interesting way of judging, because...

Nobody looks at educational posters or video. In the many hours I was there yesterday, not one person looked at the video screens with the bee quiz I spent so much effort on! I noticed this in previous years, too, when we had a few posters up; almost nobody ever read them. And it's not just us: I checked out some other booths for a while (including the one with dozens of posters that won), and I didn't see anyone ever reading any of their posters either.

That's because people are at the fair to see interesting stuff they haven't seen before, not to read posters or watch videos. This is especially true of children. By that standard, our booth and demonstrations are far and away the best of our area. The other booths usually don't have any visitors lingering at them, but our booth has crowds, because live bees and beekeeping demonstrations are interesting stuff they haven't seen before.

Unfortunately the judging takes place before the fair is open: the judges just see empty booths and check for "are there a lot of educational signs", etc., instead of what really matters: "do people crowd around this booth, ask questions, and learn a lot?"

I don't know how to solve that mismatch, but every year there's a discussion about how to win the educational content prize. The next time that comes up, it's worth keeping in mind that winning the "educational value" prize, and actually educating people about what we do, are completely different things. I suppose we could put up more posters to win $50 and a blue ribbon, but fairgoers won't care. I'm thrilled instead to see the absolute delight that the bees and passionate volunteers give to fairgoers. Thank you again, volunteers, for making it possible.

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Robert Mathews (ACBA Webmaster)

[Leslie Louie]

Thanks Rob for these thoughts.  I was also a bit annoyed by getting second place in all the categories considering how much time and effort went into planning an innovative display, increasing the size of viewable bees in the observation hive by 300%, and having those videos in the hives walls. I thought it looked amazing from the shared photos and want to thank you and the others who came up with the ideas and put it all together. Just remember it’s not the judges’ opinions that matter but as you say it’s the people who vote with their feet and attend our booth! 

I’ve been out of town since the start of the fair but I’m looking forward to my shift in the booth and doing a demonstration! 

Leslie

(she/her)

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[Danny Williamson]

I encourage volunteers to do more bee demos. I enjoy doing it especially when you have a passion for bees people notice that and it makes them more consciously aware of how important bees are. My advice when doing a bee demo just make it simple like when you were first learning beekeeping. For example I first mention to smoke the entrance with a few puffs of smoke first then explain why you smoke them. Then after when you open it you can mention that there is approximately 30,000 bees in this hive and the queen lays about 2000 eggs a day then you can explain the stages egg, larva, pupa and adult. From that you will start to get in the flow of it and things will just come to you. Plus it's always good to ask questions. Your mind can overthink to much but if you take it in steps it will be easier. Dan the bee whisperer.

[Bees & Beeks]

I personally think that our booth this year looks so much better than last year - we have similar content but so much more streamlined on the video screen and the cells looks great.  Maybe next year you we can type up interesting facts and pictures into the cells. 

Obs hive looks much better as we updated a few items like making the exit solid so it doesn’t open up. The medium frame on top so bees have room to expand was also an excellent idea. If we put translucent red film on the glass would it hep lower the stress level of the bees inside the obs hive?  I’m not certain how often you need to replace bees in the obs hive but my hives are available if you need them.  

Bee Happy,

Mimi Edwards 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 29, 2026, at 3:10 PM, 'Robert Mathews (ACBA Webmaster)' via The Alameda County Beekeepers Association <the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

First of all, thank you to everyone who has volunteered at the county fair so far! Yesterday I saw Daphne W. and Jason L. do beekeeping demonstrations at the fair, and it's really impressive how much impact it makes on people. It draws crowds who have never seen live bees before and are just astonished when the hive gets opened. People have lots of interesting questions, and it's fun AND educational. Some pictures here.

[Robert L Mathews]

On Jun 29, 2026, at 4:05 PM, Bees & Beeks <bayare...@gmail.com> wrote:

If we put translucent red film on the glass would it hep lower the stress level of the bees inside the obs hive?  I’m not certain how often you need to replace bees in the obs hive but my hives are available if you need them.  

That's a good question; I don't know. Some of the problem with dead bees in the hive is that despite people on the Internet claiming that undertaker bees can pull dead bodies through a queen excluder, they usually don't -- this has been an ongoing problem with our county fair observation hives (both the one I've built in the commercial Mann Lake ones) for years.

It looks like they're more stressed than they actually are, because dead bodies start piling up on the queen excluder. I was really worried about them and I brought them home this weekend (switching them out for another hive), but they seem fine a day later, with the queen laying again. But dead bees sure aren't a good look, whatever the cause.

I plan on experimenting more with this after the fair is over, but for now I'm just switching them out more often between my hives of bees. (I should've switched out the ones that were there a couple of days earlier but I was unfortunately on vacation.) Thanks for the offer of your hives, Mimi; I'll let you know if we need it!

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Robert L Mathews

[Danny Williamson]

I notice judging this year at the fair wasn't fair with alot of exhibits too. I've talked to other people that thought we should of got a first place ribbon in all the categorys for all the effort that was put in the booth. Well like they say you can't win them all. But maybe we inspired and won more people's hearts to be beekeepers. 

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[Jim Veitch]

Yes, I was explaining how a hive of 40,000 bees has a death rate of 1.000 bees/day and the role of undertaker bees and no way to easily clear them in the observation hive to a few people.  Maybe 1.5" tape around the bottom glass would mask the dead bees.

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[real...@aol.com]

Hello Robert 

Could it be possible  to get the slots available for the fair ,  finally got back out of the trip jet lag and the great cold my Grand son shared  ! 
Thanks Joel 

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

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[Paula Breen]

Hi @Joel Rambaud  there's a link in the second paragraph if you scroll up to the original message in this thread. Maybe I'll see you there!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/the-alameda-county-beekeepers-association/87977525.2118028.1782786014378%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Robin Chatham]

Yes Robert i agree with your booth observations and plans for the future. Yes i agree with the rest that the booth is better, the crowd loves us and demos are fun. 

More volunteers needed. Little experience required. 

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[Gerald Przybylski]

Hi Rob,
I read the posting, and responses. 

Last year was the prototype.
This year is the Beta version. 

As was noted, clearly the static appearance is more important for judging, and the judges are looking for clutter. 
This year the booth was somewhat sparse of "decorations" - "eye candy." 
If we're gonna "compete" we can "teach to the test." 
Perhaps we can hang up some of the posters that are used in "Presentations" to increase the obviously attractive clutter level. 
This year do we have the usual table/stand with give-away brochures? 
Apologies. I didn't order any catalogs from Dadant and mann-lake this year.  They could help  improve the clutter level. 
I think I saw that the picture stand was set up. 

I wonder what it would take to create one or two art pieces that look like swarms that could. be hung from the edge of the booth.  
That could be an eye-catcher.   Tedious to build from bee-shaped beads.   Perhaps it could be made from a couple of 3-D printed pieces fit together and painted. Tedious to paint.

I had another crazy idea.
We know how when they're not being played, video games enter "attract-mode."  
Could the booth detect the approach of the judges, and do something other than sit there passively?  Turn on a slide-show, or a projection, or a bee robot... 
IR detectors,  motion sensors, security sensors are easy to find these days. 

This may sound dumb, but it might work.   A camera aimed at the entrance of the bee hive in the cage piped to a TV screen hanging from the top edge of the booth
might attract an audience of mesmerized watchers, even though the bees are doing nothing particularly interesting. Every minute it could show 5 or 10 seconds of 
"sponsored by the Alameda County Beekeeper Association" in place of the video or on top of the video. 

Perhaps too much work. 
Perhaps an art project for a student. 

that's my 2¢
jerry

[Robert L Mathews]

On Jun 29, 2026, at 7:20 PM, 'real...@aol.com' wrote:

Could it be possible  to get the slots available for the fair ,  finally got back out of the trip jet lag and the great cold my Grand son shared  ! 

Anyone can volunteer for the fair right here on this web page that shows the available spots.

(Also, we had a volunteer cancellation for tomorrow from noon to 3, so if anyone wants to volunteer for that, please do so ASAP.)

Thanks!

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Robert L Mathews