CHIPPEWA FALLS — The inaugural Chippewa Valley Bee Expo will kick off Saturday at the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds, featuring more than 40 exhibits and speakers throughout the day. Hardware to build your own hives will be for sale, and visitors can learn about cooking with honey and how to grow gardens with pollination from bees.
However, there is one thing you will ironically not see there, ironically: bees.
“At this time of year, there won’t be an opportunity for the bees to be there — it’s still too cold,” said organizer Galen Klisiewicz.
Based on early ticket sales and interest, Klisiewic said he is optimistic the event will draw a crowd of 1,000 visitors. They have already planned a 2026 event that will be expanded to two days.
“This is a ‘you-don’t-want-to-miss event.’ You are going to see things you haven’t seen before,” he said.
When their group started plans to launch the bee expo, it was just about bees. But as it has grown and evolved, Klisiewicz said they will have exhibits on sustainability and farming without using chemicals.
“The expo is a registered non-profit and it’s geared towards the youth, and it will teach them about pollinators,” he said.
Without bees pollinating crops, the world would run out of food in just a few years, Klisiewicz said.
“We would never be able to pollinate enough of our food,” Klisiewicz said.
So, Klisiewicz is concerned about the loss of bee population in recent years.
“We lost about 50% of all of our honeybees in the United States,” he said. “And there is no apparent reason yet.”
He listed possible reasons from fertilizers, sprays, and even increased use of phones, saying the electronic signals may be confusing the bees.
Klisiewicz owns nine bee hives on his property north of Stanley, totaling more than 500,000 bees.
Each bee hive has about 60,000 bees. A worker bees’ lifespan is only about 35 days, and it produces about one-eighth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, he said.
The bee expo will be open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the fairgrounds. Tickets are $15 for adults (ages 12 and younger are free). Klisiewicz said seniors and veterans will receive a $5 discount at the door.