Clermont teen named 2015 American Honey Queen

CLERMONT - Gabrielle Hemesath, 19, of Clermont buzzes with enthusiasm when talking about honeybees.

Hemesath, a freshman at Iowa State University majoring in marketing, has been working on a commercial bee farm for the past eight years.

'It started as a summertime job, and I grew to love them once I saw everything they do for the environment and all the great things you can do with honey,” Hemesath said during a recent phone interview. 'So I got two hives as my own.”

She said with her two hives, she produced 189 pounds of honey this year. She keeps it in her dorm room, and said she gives it to everyone on her floor.

'I'm definitely known as ‘the bee girl,'” she said. 'People come to me all the time asking for honey. And honey can be used for so many things. I use it for sore throats because I talk so much, and scratches and minor burns because of healing properties. And it's great for hair and skin.”

In 2013, before leaving for college, she decided to pursue the title of Iowa Honey Queen, whose duties include advocating for honey products and the state's beekeeping industry.

'My cousin saw the queen at the Iowa State Fair and told me about the program,” Hemesath said. 'Once I got to know what her job was, I got interested. It's a very professional program. They put so much work into giving us skills that we can use for the rest of our lives.” Among those skills are marketing, networking and public speaking, she said.

In January, she was crowned the 2015 American Honey Queen, which means she will be promoting the industry across the United States on behalf of the American Beekeeping Federation. It's only the second time the queen has hailed from Iowa since the program began in 1959; the first was Diane Jurchen of Cumberland, who was queen in 2009.

The competition has nothing to do with beauty, Hemesath said. She had to do a marketing presentation, take part in interviews, and demonstrate her writing skills.

'We wear business suits when we present, and we're expected to be professionals,” she said.

Hemesath said she will be balancing her duties as queen with her schoolwork this spring. But during the summer and fall semester, she will be traveling the country.

'I'm looking forward to going to Florida and Texas and Washington,” she said. She will be doing many of the same things she did as Iowa Honey Queen, she said, but 'on a much broader scale.”

After her reign is over, Hemesath said she plans to continue studying marketing at Iowa State, and eventually would like to own more bees and make a line of products.