More than four dozen Maryland and DC beekeepers attended, learned, shopped, competed, and (many) WON at the January 2026 North American Honey Bee Expo in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the largest honey bee conference in North America.

Marylanders Dr. Jeff Pettis and Dr. Frank Linton were keynote speakers at the event, which successfully captured the breadth of current beekeeper interest from practical insights, cool ideas, advanced scientific research, and potential threats on the horizon.

Honey Contest Champions

The NAHBE Honey Contest is enormous and inspiring. Also enormous was the Maryland delegation's commitment to competition! Many had multiple entries across several categories, several of us in over a dozen!

The show is run by the AHSTC, the American Honey Show Training Council, which deploys dozens of volunteers over multiple days to make the contest happen and to discuss the show with visitors after the awards have been made.

Big wins included Kim Mehalick's Blue ribbon for Honey Cake and First Place for Culinary overall! Valerie Wampler also brought home a first for her Ornamental Candles, as did Kelly Brown for her Macro Photography of a honey bee eye. Maryland Bee Inspector Allen Storm won first for Antiquities, too!

Marylanders won literally dozens of recognitions, too many to list here (but not on the MSBA Facebook group! Please post your ribbon pictures!)

Below, Valerie Wampler, Kim Mehalick, and Kelly Brown (deservedly victorious!)

Winning recipes from NAHBE have already been included on the MSBA website recipe area! Here are just a few!

• Creamed Honey Filled Chocolate (First Place)
• Honey Cupcake with Honey Cream Cheese frosting (First Place)
• Orange Sorbet Lip Balm (First Place)
• Honey Marshmallows (Second Place)

The next NAHBE conference is still in the planning stages, though it is also likely to be in early January 2027 in Louisville, KY.

[Return to February 2026 Beeline Newsletter]