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Like bees to a hive Eleanor Mae, 4, of Ashland, gets buzzed Saturday by a handmade bumblebee during the Oregon Honey Festival at the Ashland Elks Lodge. [Mail Tribune / Jamie Lusch] Saturday Aug 19, 2017 at 4:14 PM Aug 19, 2017 at 4:14 PM Nick Morgan Mail Tribune @mtcrimebeat Pollinator proponents swarmed to Ashland Saturday for a celebration of all things apian. The fourth annual Oregon Honey Festival drew a crowd estimated at 500, according to Sharon Schmidt with Cascade Girl, a nonprofit organization that puts on the National Honeybee Day celebration. The festival drew crowds from near and far to learn from beekeeping experts, buy from 30 vendors and enjoy the fruits of bees' labor. Schmidt said her grandmother kept bees in Wisconsin, but her interest came more recently, as she learned about the importance of bees on the ecosystem and the creatures' sensitivity to neonicotinoid pesticides. "As beekeepers, we're losing 40 to 50 percent of our hives," Schmidt said. Among the beekeepers checking out the festival was Joe Bachman, who for the past five years has kept a hive at his home in Reno, Nevada. Bachman and his wife were in town for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and found themselves in honey heaven. "These are all bee freaks around here," Bachman said. Bachman was able to talk to Portland-based cedar-hive supplier Naked Bee Hives about upgrades to his hive, while his wife gathered ideas and pointers for her wildflower garden. His next project will be an improved fence around his home, because the sweet aroma draws bears. "We've been attacked by bears twice," Bachman said, though he said he's never been stung by a bee. Bachman said the honey their bees make, from a mix of sage and wildflower pollen, makes the effort worth it because it "doesn't taste like anything out there." Hives were far from the sole focus Saturday. Janice Cox of Medford gave an apitherapy workshop, showing locals how to make homemade beauty products with honey and other bee-based ingredients, including a honey cleanser and a beeswax lip balm. Honey is a "natural humectant," making skin clean and full of moisture, according to Cox. "It's something the pioneers used," Cox said. "It's not like it's a new idea." Cox said she started making her own beauty products to save money years ago, but the pastime has grown more popular as people seek greater control of the ingredients in the products they use. "Now people want to be in control," Cox said. "It makes people label readers." Two Oregon mead makers were on site, including Oran Mor Artisan Mead out of Roseburg. Lilly Weichberger, Oran Mor's founder, said her business began with a "great love for Celtic culture." After a trip to the United Kingdom, she noticed mead was difficult to find stateside. She studied wine-making in America, then headed back to the United Kingdom for mead-making pointers. She comes across many people new to mead, which predates beer and wine by roughly 1,000 years. "Keep in mind, it's not wine, it's not beer and it's not cider," Weichberger said. "It's its own thing." — Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MTCrimeBeat.