By Geoff Smith (@GeoffSmithLNN on Twitter)

Importance of bees theme of this year’s corn maze

Aug 5, 2018 | 8:17 AM

LETHBRIDGE – A tradition since 2000 once again has people spending up to two hours trying to find their way out of a cornfield north of the city.

For the 19th year, Theo Slingerland has devoted part of the property to the Lethbridge Corn Maze, this year featuring a bee theme. Slingerland told Lethbridge News Now it started as a way to draw people to their berry farm.

“We were trying to find a way to attract people to come out into the country, and I heard about a corn maze and somebody else had made a bale maze in this area. And, I figured, why not try it out and see what happens?” Slingerland said.

He said the theme for this year was inspired by the importance of bees to agriculture.

“We grow pumpkins and the bees are very important there,” he said. “We have some bees now on the farm, and they produce honey, and besides the honey they also, help the pumpkins and all the other fruit as well.”

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So, what does it take to build a corn maze? It starts with the theme.

“Then I start drawing it up and make a maze out of it on paper, and then I cut it out in a corn maze when the corn is still short. It takes anywhere from two to three days to cut them out.”

The corn maze is on Range Road 22-4, west of Shaughnessy. Detailed directions are on their website, along with operating hours. The maze is open until Oct. 27, and the farm has other attractions including a petting zoo. Slingerland said there will once again be a fundraiser at Thanksgiving, but a charity hasn’t yet been chosen.

Slingerland explained they plan to keep it going as long as people are interested in taking part.

“People come out, they see that it’s a clean fun way of entertainment, there’s physical activity, there’s animals to see, so there’s all kinds of things to do for all kinds of different ages. So, if people keep on coming and enjoying it, then we keep on going as well.”