Carly Raye - Iowa Honey Queen

“It started March 24th, 2016 with a surprise ceremony from friends at FBI(Friendly Beekeepers of Iowa) where I was crowned FBI Honey Queen”.

 

Carly Raye is the 2017 Iowa Honey Queen, and as such she travels the state giving programs about honeybees, honey, and beekeeping! She has been keeping bees with her parents for the past three years after getting started beekeeping through the Iowa Honey Producer's Youth Scholarship program.

 

Although Carly initially started beekeeping with an interest solely in honey, she now appreciates honeybees and all aspects of the hive and shares that appreciation with whoever will listen. It is her goal to reach all 99 counties before her tenure is completed in November 2018. 

 

Carly explained the critical importance of the Queen Bee, who is responsible for the reproduction of bees in the hive. The only purpose of the male drones is to join the race to mate with the queen in order to keep her fertile. The female worker bees do all of the pollen gathering, hive building and honey production.

 

She also mentioned the critical importance of bees practice of pollinating flowers and plants, which is necessary for their growth and development of fruits, vegetables and decorative plant species. Without bees, it would be very difficult to grow most fruits and vegetables, which are a major portion of human diets.