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NAUVOO, ILL. -- The weather was perfect Saturday for people in Nauvoo to enjoy the 73rd annual Grape Festival.  The slight breeze in the air didn't stop people from getting knee, or chest deep, in mud for mud volleyball. The grape fest has been a long Labor Day tradition and is one of the oldest festivals in West Central Illinois. The Labor Day tradition began in 1938.  Grapes were the staple crop in Nauvoo at the time, so residents decided to develop a festival around their harvest and the town's booming wine industry.

There were also dozens of booths set up at the Grape Festival. One of the stands belongs to the Aldridges. They bottle their own honey and collect bee's wax.

"They're kind of like humans. There's bugs and stuff that they get so we gotta do treatments on them to keep them healthy," said Tenile Aldridge.

Tenile and Ernie Aldridge bottle their own honey. What started off as a hobby, has now turned into a business. They have close to 150 hives with more than 80,000 honey bees per hive... Their bees, produce two types of honey.

"A lot of people like the lighter honey to put it in their tea or put on toast and stuff and a lot of people use the darker honey for barbecuing. It makes an excellent base for barbecuing or when you're cooking anything," Aldridge said.

The bees also produce wax which can be used on cast iron skillets, or for loosening a nut or bolt. But the bee that produces all the honey and wax might not be who you think it is.

"A lot of people think it's the men. Well with honey bees, the women do the work, the men don't. The women are all the worker bees. You have one Queen Bee and you got to have her or you won't have a hive. So men really aren't too big in the bee world," Aldridge said.

And it's a calm, sunny day like Saturday that is perfect for collecting honey.

"They don't get as agitated because their focus is going back and forth getting that honey and nectar and pollen and everything," said Aldridge.

Each honey bee makes one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its life.  Worker bees live for 4-9 months during the winter season, but only 6 weeks during the busy summer months. They literally work them selves to death.