The 2025 Wisconsin Honey Queen, Emily Sydow, has officially concluded her year-long reign, marked by extensive advocacy for Wisconsin honey. Before passing on the crown, Sydow reflected on a busy year that included traveling thousands of miles and sharing her bee-related knowledge with countless people.
Sydow is a Sun Prairie native and a student at UW-Madison studying agricultural applied economics and public policy.
Her year was packed with nearly 40 events, during which she put over 4,000 miles on her car. When asked about the highlight of her reign, one event immediately came to mind.
“I do have to say the Wisconsin State Fair definitely stood out in my mind,” Sydow tells Mid-West Farm Report’s Stephanie Hoff. “Was it because I was there for 10 days? Maybe. But the cooking demonstrations that I gave every day in the Wisconsin Products Pavilion were so awesome.”
The fair provided a major platform for the Wisconsin Honey Queen to share “pro tips” on cooking with honey, a skill Sydow had to hone during her time as queen. She emphasized that because honey is sweeter than sugar, it requires recipe adjustments: substitute one cup of sugar with about three-fourths cup of honey and reduce other liquids and oven temperature to prevent quick browning.
She also educated the public on the fascinating life of the worker bee, which is exclusively female and lives for about six weeks in the summer. Worker bees forage on 50 to 100 flowers per trip, using a special “honey stomach” to carry nectar back to the hive. The moisture is then drawn out by the fanning of their wings, transforming the nectar into honey, which they store to survive the winter. Pollen, often mistaken for nectar, is a valuable protein source for bees.
As a final note of encouragement, Sydow urged the public to support local pollinators.
“Keep a lookout for those bees as you’re coming into spring,” she advised. “Continue planting those native wildflowers to help our pollinators thrive.”
Congratulations to Emily Skala, the incoming 2026 Wisconsin Honey Queen. Skala is a small-scale beekeeper, an active member of the Brown County Beekeepers Association, and a previous Wisconsin Honey Producers Association youth scholar.
