MEXICO — Students attending the Mexico Public Library’s Summer Reading Program were treated to a small spoonful of honey from beekeepers Bob and Louise Stickney’s bees following the Rumford couple’s presentation at the library on Wednesday.

The couple has eight full-sized bee hives and four nucleus hives that they tend on their property. During the winter months they tap their maple trees to make maple syrup for their home-based business, Stickney’s Sweet Stuff.

This was the fourth presentation of the library’s summer reading program, with each prior Wednesday presentation this summer about nature and wildlife.

Children attending the next presentation on July 31 at 10:30 a.m. will learn about soap-making, and the library will end its summer reading program on August 7 at 10:30 a.m. with ice cream, raffle tickets and prizes of passes for a Maine State Park, Black Mountain of Maine, Santa’s Village in New Hampshire, Fun Town Splash Town USA, and tickets for a Portland Sea Dogs game, said Library Director Marilla Couch.

Before the Stickneys began their presentation on bees, Couch read a book about bees to about a dozen children, who surrounded her as they sat on the carpet to listen on Wednesday. Following Couch’s reading, Louise Stickney read to the children a book titled “Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera,” by Candace Fleming, which the Stickney’s donated to the library after their presentation.

Following their reading they put together a wooden beehive box with a stand and frames and explained to the children that this is how they “make homes” for their bees. “The bees are gonna build their homes in these frames,” Louise told the children.

Bob showed them how they use a special tool to lift the wax and honeycombs that the bees build on the frame. Louise also showed the children how they wear special jackets, long pants, a veil head covering and gloves to protect themselves from bee stings when they remove honeycombs from the hives. At the end of their presentation, everyone attending was offered a small spoonful of the couple’s honey to taste, as Louise Stickney explained that their honey has a different flavor every time they harvest it.

“This is honey that we just harvested, we call it spring honey because it’s from nectar harvested  from spring flowers in the early summer. It’s usually very light in color, whereas we harvest again in the fall and that honey is coming from goldenrod, asters, (and other plants). It tends to be a darker honey, and it’s a totally different flavor.

“What the honey tastes like is very dependent on what the bees are getting for nectar, and we don’t know where our bees go so it’s wildflower honey,” Louise said.

The Mexico Public Library is on 15 Recreation Drive. For more information about the library and its programs call 207-364-3281.

Beekeepers Bob and Louise Stickney of Rumford show children how bees create wax and honeycombs on the frames the Stickneys provide for them inside the hives during a Summer Reading Program for children at the Mexico Public Library on Wednesday. The next presentation is on soap making on July 31. (Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times) Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

Carson Chartier, age 7 of Mexico, tried on a beekeeper jacket with veil head covering after he attended the beekeeping presentation at the Mexico Public Library with his mother Heidi on Wednesday at the Mexico Public Library. (Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times) Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

Mexico Public Library Director Marilla Couch reads a book about bees to children at the library on Wednesday as beekeepers Bob and Louise Stickney, left, listen before their presentation on beekeeping. The next presentation is on soap making on July 31. (Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times) Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times