I am Kaelyn Sumner, the 2024 American Honey Queen. I am from Wisconsin, and I am a senior at Kansas State University majoring in Agricultural Education with minors in Food Science and Entomology. My interest in beekeeping began in FFA, where I was nationally recognized for my specialty animal production project and agriscience fair research. In my spare time, I enjoy crocheting, beadwork, spending time outdoors, baking, and learning more about honeybees.
Where in America is Queen Kaelyn?
February 23-26 – New Jersey (state beekeeping meeting and school presentations)
March 6-10 – Kentucky (beekeeping school and community presentations)
March 13-17 – Florida (Florida Bee college)
April 10 – Wisconsin (school presentation and town board meeting)
April 12 – Wisconsin (school presentation)
April 18 – Wisconsin (school presentations)
April 22 – Wisconsin (school presentations)
April 24 – Illinois (Earth Week lunch and learn presentation)
April 30 – Wisconsin (Ag Discovery Day)
April 30-May 5 – California (California Honey Festival)
May 9-10 – Wisconsin (school presentations)
May 14-18 – Kansas (school and community presentations)
May 29 – Wisconsin (school presentation)
June 23 – Wisconsin (Dairy Breakfast)
July 26-31 – New Jersey (Warren County Farmers’ Fair)
August 1-3 – Iowa (Mississippi Valley Fair)
August 4-10 – New Jersey (State Fair)
August 11-17 – Illinois (State Fair)
August 21-24 – Kentucky (State Fair)
August 25-September 2 – Nebraska (State Fair)
September 3-8 – Ohio (Lithopolis Honeyfest)
September 23-30 – California (Palo Cedro Honeybee Festival)
October 4-6 – Maryland (Oregon Ridge Nature Center Honey Festival)
October 7-12 – Massachusetts (Topsfield Fair)
October 13-19 – Montana (Northern International Livestock Exposition & state beekeeping convention)
October 27-November 3 – Wisconsin (community presentations and state beekeeping convention)
November 17-23 – Virginia (community presentations)
It was a real pleasure meeting you today at the Clark County Fair. We met briefly while you were making a presentation to a group of people at the Bee Barn. I learned quite a few things from you regarding bees and how important they are. I mentioned to you that my grandfather was a bee keeper in the old country. I have a picture of him from the early 1930's standing in his grove of bee hives. I believe that bee keeping was a generational profession as the hives were on the land of my forbears. I think he also tended all the hives throughout the village fields. I visited the village 2 years ago and the hives are still there as well as the ones scattered throughout the fields of wheat and sunflowers. I can only imagine that these hives had been there for hundreds of years. I suspect that I have beekeeping in my genes because of my interest in them even though I've never tended bees. I have a strange attraction to them. Have you ever tasted linden honey? It's the most wonderful honey that you can find in the world. It is found in Ukraine and is the lightest yellow honey you have ever seen. It is almost colorless. Thanks again for the time answering all my questions. Had I not had to leave with my friends, I would have had a hundred more question to ask you about bees. I think your story about becoming the American Honey Queen is fantastic. Your curiosity and passion for the subject is inspiring. Maybe, I hope, I will find the time to start raising bees just as my grandfather once did. Thank You!
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