Wisconsin Honey Producers Association

🐝 Registration is open for the 2026 WHPA Fall Convention!

Join beekeepers from across Wisconsin for a weekend of learning, networking, shopping, and fun!

📅 November 5–7, 2026
📍 Chula Vista Resort, Wisconsin Dells

This year’s keynote speakers include:

🎤 Scott McArt — Assistant Professor of Pollinator Health at Cornell University
🎤 Dr. Dewey Caron — Author and Professor Emeritus of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware

Convention highlights include:

🐝 Educational sessions featuring local and nationally recognized experts
🛍️ Vendor trade show
🍯 Honey Queen Auction
👧 Kids & Bees Expo
🥇 Wisconsin State Fair Honey Show
🤝 WHPA Annual Business Meeting
🏆 Saturday evening banquet, member awards, and Wisconsin Honey Queen coronation

The WHPA Fall Convention is open to everyone—members and nonmembers alike. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with fellow beekeepers and learn more about the issues shaping Wisconsin’s honey and beekeeping industry.

✅ Register today! Choose online registration or download the paper registration form.

🏨 Reserve your room at the Chula Vista Resort.

The group-rate reservation deadline is October 5, 2026. Register and reserve your room early—we can’t wait to see you in Wisconsin Dells!

For more information, visit

WHPA Fall Convention | Wisconsin Honey Producers Association WHPA’s annual Fall Convention is held on the first Thursday through Saturday in November. Each year, the convention is held in a different area of Wisconsin. Beekeepers from across the state come together for a weekend of networking, learning, and fun. Keynote speakers include locally and national...

👃Can you smell what your bees are saying?

When worker bees raise their abdomens, tip their stinger down, and fan their wings, they are releasing the Nasonov pheromone.

This chemical signal helps guide nestmates to their hive entrance, a swarm’s new home, or an important location. By fanning their wings, they spread the pheromone through the air, helping their nestmates find their way. 🐝

Extra fun fact: humans can actually smell this pheromone and describe it as having a fresh, lemony scent! 🍋

🐝 We’re proud to celebrate WHPA Youth Scholar graduate Nicholas, who recently answered a call from local authorities to rescue a swarm in his neighborhood! He set out a box to entice the bees, squeezed in a football game, and returned to find they had patiently waited for him. Way to put your beekeeping skills into action, Nicholas! 🐝🏈

🐝 Another WHPA family that knows how to make volunteering a family affair!

Pictured here are Chris, Faith, and Gideon Hansen—although with Chris’s big family, we’re not sure we’ve ever managed to get the whole Hansen crew in the same room at once! 😊

Chris serves as one of WHPA’s District Chairs, and we can always count on him to work a few shifts at the Wisconsin State Fair—usually with a couple of his kiddos joining in.

Faith also shares her talents with WHPA as a member of our Communications Committee, where we especially appreciate her creativity and knack for creating great digital content.

We’re grateful for families like the Hansens who give their time and talents in so many different ways. Thank you, Chris, Faith, Gideon, and the entire Hansen crew, for supporting WHPA and Wisconsin beekeeping! 🍯💛

🐝 That’s a wrap on another Wisconsin State Fair! 🍯

Eleven days at the fair takes a tremendous amount of teamwork, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who helped make the WHPA booth a success this year.

💛 To our volunteers: Thank you for giving your time, sharing your enthusiasm, answering countless questions, selling Wisconsin honey and hive products, and representing Wisconsin beekeepers so well. Whether you worked one shift or several, you were an important part of our success!

🍯 To our State Fair Committee members: So much happens behind the scenes long before the doors open—and continues right through teardown. Thank you for coordinating the countless moving parts, solving problems, organizing supplies, scheduling volunteers, and taking care of all the details that make 11 days at the fair possible.

🐝 To our booth managers: Thank you for being there day after day to keep everything running smoothly, support our volunteers, restock products, answer questions, troubleshoot the unexpected, and make sure our booth always looked its best.

👑 And a very special thank you to Emily, our 2026 Wisconsin Honey Queen! Emily put in many hours over 10 days at the fair, helping in the booth, giving daily presentations on the Wisconsin Building stage, and sharing the story of Wisconsin honey bees and beekeeping in countless conversations with fairgoers. Her enthusiasm, knowledge, and willingness to connect with people made her a wonderful ambassador for Wisconsin beekeeping throughout the fair. Thank you, Emily, for representing WHPA and Wisconsin’s beekeepers so well! 🍯🐝

Our State Fair booth is WHPA’s biggest opportunity to connect with the public, promote Wisconsin honey, and share the importance of honey bees and beekeeping. We simply could not do it without the many people who generously give their time and talents.

Thank you for another wonderful Wisconsin State Fair! We hope you had as much fun as we did. 💛🍯🐝

Dick Sturm of the Brown County Beekeepers Association and Booth Manager Michael Dick participated in a interview on Newsradio 620 WTMJ during Wisconsin State Fair.

Select the 3:00 pm segment titled "Brewers Magic, Packers Lessons & State Fair Sweetness". The interview can be found at the 24:00 minute mark.

player.amperwavepodcasting.com

🐝 Beekeeping—and volunteering with WHPA—really is a family affair!

The **Dick family—Michael, Rhonda, Adison, and Mikayla—**has been a familiar and valued part of our Wisconsin State Fair booth for many years.

Michael serves as one of our booth managers, helping keep everything running smoothly throughout the Fair. He’s also pretty good at recruiting volunteers—especially when he can call on family and friends! 😊

That spirit of service runs in the family. Adison received the 2025 WHPA Youth Award in recognition of her outstanding commitment to the success of our State Fair booth year after year.

We’re incredibly grateful to the entire Dick family for the many hours they’ve spent supporting WHPA, Wisconsin beekeepers, and our State Fair tradition. 🍯💛

Thank you, Michael, Rhonda, Adison, and Mikayla, for making WHPA a family affair!

Another sweet beekeeping family…the Bergners. Thanks to Bryan, Danielle, and their son, Miles for supplying the colony of honey bees on display at the Wisconsin State Fair. This year’s queen is very patriotic showing off her red, white, and blue marking. 🐝🍯🇺🇸