While honeybees are small insects, their impact on the food chain and the ecosystem is anything but.

Honeybees contribute over $16 billion each year to the agricultural industry, and over one-third of food is pollinated by honeybees. Yet, their numbers are declining worldwide.

Fourth-year agricultural and extension education major Cheyenne Bastian-Brown has recently begun her term as the 2025 American Honey Queen, a position dedicated to providing education on bees and raising awareness of the importance of a healthy bee population.

Hailing from Ralston, Pennsylvania, Bastian-Brown first became interested in honeybees after meeting a local beekeeper during her sophomore year of high school. After that, she was hooked.

“We got to talking, and I got really interested in the aspect behind honeybees and just everything that goes into them and how much work it is,” Bastian-Brown said. “I wrote a speech about honeybees and I went on to the state Future Farmers of America (FFA) convention with that speech, and I just absolutely fell in love.”

Later that same year, Bastian-Brown met the Pennsylvania State Honey Queen. After learning more about the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association’s Honey Queen program, she vowed to run. She went through the application process, which included traditional interviews and a speech, and became the 2024 Pennsylvania State Honey Queen.

During Bastian-Brown’s year-long term as the State Honey Queen, she traveled the commonwealth, attending fairs, festivals, and schools to provide educational presentations and general knowledge about the beekeeping and honey industries.

After her time as the state Honey Queen came to an end, Bastian-Brown was named the 2025 American Honey Queen in January. The job is similar, but instead of promoting the beekeeping and honey industries throughout Pennsylvania, she does it all throughout the United States.

“I have gone on two trips so far, and I would say they’re equally my favorites,” Bastian-Brown said. “I went to Tampa, Florida, for the Florida State Fair and then attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston, and I actually got to ride in the grand entry parade for one of the days of the rodeo while I was out there.”

Since Bastian-Brown started her term as the American Honey Queen in January, she’s been able to make two trips because of her full-time college schedule. She said she keeps three calendars in three different places just to make sure she stays on top of her schedule.

Despite needing to balance her studies with her duties as the American Honey Queen, Bastian-Brown said she’s had nothing but overwhelming support from those around her.

“I grant the entirety of me even running for the American Honey Queen position to the three professors in the agricultural education program,” she said. “They really had a lot of conversations with me about what it was going to mean to be doing this.”

The balance may be tough with the American Honey Queen position being an essentially full-time job, but Bastian-Brown enjoys the work. She’s loved all things bees since meeting the beekeeper in high school and enjoys the educational aspect of the job, too.

With such a large impact on the food folks eat every day, beekeepers and the honey industry are crucial to the food chain. The sheer weight honeybees carry throughout the ecosystem makes them something worthy of learning about, and Bastian-Brown is happy to teach it.

“The biggest thing that it comes down to is people want to know where their food comes from and how their food is made,” Bastian-Brown said. “It’s a huge part of agricultural education as a whole, but if we didn’t have bees, we really wouldn’t have much food to buy.”

Folks can follow Bastian-Brown and American Honey Princess Emilia Burnham’s travels on their blog, Buzzing Across America.