[Bonus] Short: The Midwest Honey Bee Expo

[Bonus] Short - The Midwest Honey Bee Expo

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Jeff Ott: Welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast Shorts, your quick dive into the latest buzz in beekeeping.

Becky Masterman: In 20 minutes or less, we'll bring you one important story, keeping you informed and up to date.

Jeff: No fluff, no fillers, just the news you need.

Becky: Brought to you by Betterbee, your partners in better beekeeping.

Jeff: Hey, everybody, welcome to this Beekeeping Today Podcast Short. This is a special one I'm really excited to talk to you about.

Becky: This is exciting because our guests are from Wisconsin. They're my neighbors, practically.

[laughter]

Jeff: We have with us Bill Werning and Doug Koltermann. Guys, why don't you introduce yourselves, and then we'll talk about the Midwest HoneyBee Expo.

Bill Werning: All right. I'm Bill Werning, and I'm Doug's partner in the Midwest HoneyBee Expo. I raise around 60 colonies of honeybees a year. I have managed up to 400 at times when I was younger, and I consider myself a sideliner beekeeper who just enjoys helping others learn more about honeybees.

Jeff: Fantastic. Doug?

Doug Koltermann: Thanks, Becky and Jeff, for having Bill and I on today. We really appreciate it. We're excited to talk to you about the Midwest HoneyBee Expo. Just a little bit of my background. I just finished my seventh year in beekeeping. I maintained about 100 colonies this summer at its peak. I'm quite involved with local groups such as the Walworth County Beekeepers Association. I'm president of that association. I'm on the board of directors of Wisconsin Honey Producers, and I also mentor for the Wisconsin Hero Outdoors program for veterans and first responders. It's good to be here. Thank you.

Jeff: Keep them busy. Absolutely. Great.

Becky: Like I said, I'm neighbors to the Wisconsin group. The Wisconsin beekeepers, on many different levels, are doing so many amazing things, so it just makes sense that they came up with the Midwest HoneyBee Expo. Either Doug or Bill, could you tell us how you came up with the idea and why you're doing it?

Doug: About three years ago, I was doing some thinking about what was available from an education standpoint exclusively in the Midwest. I saw a void in the space and thought there was a need for a bigger expo where we'd have lots of education. I was thinking about it, dreaming about it. I got to know Bill over the past several years, and I knew he was really a stand-up guy, and he was an excellent beekeeper with a lot of experience. People really look up to Bill and admire his beekeeping style and what he's done with overwintering colonies.

I gave Bill a shout one day and said, "Hey, Bill, here's what's on my mind." He said, "Huh, ironically, Doug," he goes, "I'm seeing the same thing from my perspective. I'm seeing a void in the space in the Midwest for a really big show." That's how the Midwest HoneyBee Expo was born. We came together with the same vision, and it was amazing how in line our vision was for this thing with each other. That was the birth of the expo.

Actually, last year was our inaugural expo that took place in January. We literally had our first discussion on this expo. It was probably in about May of 2024. We only had eight, nine short months to put this thing together last year when we did it. I think we pulled off a great educational expo, as well as one that was featured with many vendors and great speakers.

Jeff: Was this a collaboration of multiple groups, or is this something that you decided was a hole that needed to be filled, and you stepped in?

Doug: Yes. Bill and I, just the two of us, collaborated, and we saw the void, and we stepped into the space and decided to start this thing. No other outside groups or influences are involved in this, just strictly Bill and I putting this thing together.

Bill: However, we do have a great group of volunteers and people that we did bounce ideas off of that were a great deal of help to us along the way for sure.

Jeff: Can you give us an overview of the conference and the number of days and the high-level general track of the speakers, and the educational programs?

Bill: It's a two-day conference. It is Friday, February 6th and 7th of February, 2026. We'll have two to three different speaker stages throughout the day, running, and we'll have multiple workshops. We've got probably around 16 well-known beekeepers speaking at this event, or scientists. We've got a wonderful bunch of workshops set up. One of the ones that I'm really looking forward to is the one by Zachary Lamas. It's going to be a workshop on how to sample your bees for pesticide deaths, and also a cut comb workshop that is going to be put on by Tom and Melissa Sussman. That's going to be a really exciting one as well.

There's just a slew of different topics from your traditional ways of beekeeping to treatment-free to horizontal hives with honey bee. There's a lot of selection and choices for all beekeepers, not just any specific style of beekeeping.

Jeff: From beginning beekeeper to more advanced beekeepers, there's something for everybody.

Bill: Correct.

Becky: Now, if I remember correctly, last year's program was so successful that you actually needed a bigger venue. Is that true?

Doug: Yes. Last year, we held the expo at the Waukesha County Expo Center in Waukesha, Wisconsin. We literally filled the vendor halls completely. We couldn't fit another single vendor in the vendor hall. We had two different speaker stages last year. At times, the rooms were close to capacity, both speaker stages. In addition, Becky, as you know, being in the Midwest, weather in end of January, early February can be questionable at best. The problem we also had last year was there was about 100-yard division walk, an outside walk between the main speaker building and the vendor hall.

That was a big risk that Bill and I assumed when we took that on. We decided we'd make it happen. Thank God we had great weather last year in the end of January when our expo took place, and people did not have a problem walking between the two areas there. Given the fact that we really had a lot of people there last year more than originally anticipated, and the fact that we wanted to mitigate that risk of having people walk outside in February, we took a look at numerous different venues in the area.

Without question, the Alliant Energy Center stood out as the premier one in the area. We have a lot of flexibility with space, a very large vendor hall with very high ceilings. In the event that we exceed our expectations on number of vendors, we can add on additional space to accommodate them. We have some really nice speaker halls. We also have additional rooms rented for our honey show as well as our workshops. The space is very flexible. It's all under one roof.

In addition, there's also a brand-new remodeled hotel that's attached to the Alliant Energy Center. It's called the Hilton Spark. They really gave us a great deal in our rooms for this expo for a while. We've got a block of rooms on our website that, if they follow the hotel link, it's called the Hilton Spark. You can get a great deal on some rooms for this expo. That's connected by a walkway to the Alliant Energy Center. You can literally park your car, come into the expo, go to your hotel, and not have to go outside during the course of the expo. We've sheltered people also this year with the Alliant Energy Center.

Becky: Basically, you're attracting those maybe more South Midwest beekeepers, telling them, "It's not as cold as you think it is, and you'll be protected and safe."

Doug: Right.

[laughter]

Jeff: Can you give us a sneak peek at some of the vendors that'll be there?

Bill: We've got well over 35 vendors already. We've got Mann Lake, Dadant, HillCo, Heritage Honeybee, Project Apis m., and we've got a couple other ones. There's a fellow out of Neenah, Wisconsin, named Rance Bennett, who's going to be speaking on a condensing hive style, who will have a booth here under the name of This Old Hive. We will have SimplKomb, Heffernan's Honeybees out of Michigan. They'll have some beekeeping attire. HiveAlive will be there. The Stream Team and Nature's Image Farm will be with us.

Vita Bee Health and Nathalie B. with Bee Mindful, Apis Tactical, BroodMinder, Wisconsin Honey Producers, James Lee will be here speaking, and he'll have a booth for the Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of Michigan, Technically Beekeeping, Flawn Seed Company, one of our sponsors. They're going to have some pollinator habitat seeds for sale. Apimaye will be here. 21st Bee will be here. Let It Bee is a local beekeeping supplier out of Wisconsin. That'll be here as well. Acorn Bee will also be here, and a few others that are getting still signed up yet. We've got a good number of vendors with a lot more still coming in.

Jeff: Just to be full disclosure, we will also be there with a booth to record on-site and talk to listeners. It's just generally be in and enjoy the show.

Becky: It's so exciting because one of the best things about this kind of an expo is talking to beekeepers. If you're a beekeeper and you maybe want more insight into how to keep your bees better and how to maybe have your bees work through the climate and get some great tips from local beekeepers, this is such a great opportunity to not just attend the talks but also go to the expo and also meet beekeepers who are going through the same kinds of winters as you are. It's just a great time to learn.

Bill: Exactly.

Jeff: I like, also, the whole concept of regional bee conferences because, for those beekeepers who can't fly across country or to different countries to be there, as Becky said, to meet up with other beekeepers facing the same problems and same weather, the same issues that you have. Bill or Doug, how can someone find out more about the conference?

Doug: They can go to our website, midwesthoneybeeexpo.com, to find out more information on all aspects of the trade show and the expo, in addition to the honey show that we're going to have. I also want to mention that on Thursday, the day before the expo starts, we are going to have a Honey Judge training and certification course held by the American Honey Judge Training Council that's going to take place in the Spark Hotel. It's going to be an all-day event. You can go to our website and click on the link to that Honey Judge training and certification session. It is a fee session, but it is an all-day session that'll take place, again, on the Thursday prior to the start of the expo.

If you're interested in learning how to become a honey training judge or just learning more about how honey shows work function and getting better information on how to prepare for a honey show, that's an excellent class that you can take. It's by the American Honey Training Council, which is a leader in our country in judging, training honey shows throughout the nation.

Jeff: We've had them on the podcast, and I'll have a link to that discussion in the show notes. It's a really interesting, and I strongly recommend it to anybody who's interested in becoming a honey show judge.

Becky: I'm guessing that if you register soon, you get a little bit more of a discount than if you show up at the show and register. Is that true?

Bill: Yes. If you register now, you can still get under our early bird discount pricing, which will be good through November 30th. We're going to extend that.

Becky: This sounds like a really good holiday gift for the beekeeper in your life. If you are listening to this and the holidays are coming up, and you want to go, then you might want to let your loved ones know that this is what you want in your Christmas stocking.

Jeff: This definitely sounds like a great time of year to go checking out all the equipment, learn some new techniques, or brush up on the latest developments and existing techniques with the speakers. I think it's great that you've come together to produce a show that reaches the Midwest beekeepers. I'm looking forward to seeing you both and join the show that you are working so hard on.

Doug: We appreciate that, Becky and Jeff. We look forward to seeing you guys there and having you do one of your podcasts from our expo. Again, this is going to be a great educational opportunity in the Midwest. It's going to give you exposure to a wide array of vendors offering lots of different equipment.

Literally, we were told, from numerous people last year, that you can literally save the price of admission with the show specials that are taking place from these vendors. If you have a shopping list, you can go in there, and with the deals that they have, you can literally save the price of admission. We encourage people to come on in, brush up on your beekeeping skills, and come see us at the Midwest HoneyBee Expo next February.

Becky: Doug, that's excellent. That means that people are going to be able to register for the show and then go in and pre-purchase equipment and pick it up at the show?

Doug: That is going to be up to the vendors. Some of the vendors may have presale-type of possibilities on their website. HillCo did that last year, for instance. You could order early off the HillCo site and then pick up at the expo and get their show discount price, as long as you were attending the expo.

Becky: Excellent.

Doug: We're encouraging a lot of the vendors to do that once again, to have some deals out on their website. It's totally up to their discretion on how to handle that, and up to them to make that possible through their own websites. Look for those deals from our vendors, and you can pick those things up then at the expo.

Becky: Make sure you show up with an empty vehicle.

Jeff: [laughs] Yes.

Doug: And a trailer.

Bill: [laughs]

Becky: And a trailer. [laughs]

Doug: One other thing before we go. I wanted to make people aware that we do have a Lee Heine scholarship opportunity. If there's any youth beekeepers out there, high school, college age, that are pursuing an education with a focus on apiculture, they can apply for our Lee Heine scholarship. We already have donations from the different vendors coming in for that, along with a few of the attendees that actually are donating some money towards that scholarship.

100% of those proceeds that are donated to that scholarship will go out to a beekeeper or beekeeper that is pursuing education in apiculture. Last year, we were able to give out two $500 scholarships to two different students. Make yourself aware of that if you are a student and apply for that. We encourage that.

Becky: Lee Heine was not just a Wisconsin treasurer of a beekeeper, but he was beloved throughout the country.

Jeff: He's a great man.

Becky: I absolutely love that you have named the scholarship after him.

Jeff: He's quite the personality.

Becky: Right. [laughs] What about social media? Is there a group on Facebook, Doug, that we could follow?

Doug: There is. There's a Facebook group out there, which is Midwest HoneyBee Expo. I'd encourage you to all take a look at that group, join that group. A lot of our vendors are going to be posting their specials that they're going to have, show specials, on that Facebook group. Join that, keep an eye out on that page. We also will highlight some of our speakers, some of our vendors on that page. It's good to stay in contact, social media-wise, through the Midwest HoneyBee Expo Facebook group.

Jeff: Doug and Bill, thank you so much for joining us today, and look forward to talking to you again down the road.

Doug: Thank you very much, Becky and Jeff. We appreciate you having us on today.

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