Submitted by: Terry Dahms, Pres.
East Central Iowa Beekeepers
internet: [log in to unmask]
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THE BUZZ AUGUST, 1994
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A newsletter published monthly as a cooperative effort by The Iowa
Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and The Iowa Honey
Producers Association (IHPA), an affiliate member of the Iowa
Horticultural Society. Copy deadline is the 20th of each month.
Your ideas, comments and letters are welcomed and encouraged.
EDITOR: Bob Cox, State Apiarist, Iowa Dept. of Agriculture,
Wallace Building, Des Monies, IA. 50319 Phone: (515) 281-5736.
IHPA MEMBERSHIP: Membership dues in the Iowa Honey Producers
Assn. are $5.00/year. Send to Gordon Powell, IHPA Treasurer.
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STATE APIARIST REPORT
We now have two field inspectors working in the western part of
the state and the 12th of the month we will start inspecting in
northeastern Iowa. We are looking for an experienced beekeeper to
inspect for about 6-8 weeks this fall and 6-8 weeks next spring in
the northcentral, central and/or the southeast part of the state.
The beekeeper must reside in one of those areas to qualify. If
you are interested or have any suggestions for someone who might
be, give me a call at 515-281-5736.
The honey flow has slowed considerably since June. However,
many beekeepers are reporting a good crop from clover already and
are hoping for some late flows from soybeans and wildflowers. The
southeast part of the state looks to be the best, especially
considering that they have had almost no crop for four years.
This is a good time of the season to take some of that nice light
colored honey off the hives and keep it separate. The extraction
process is much simpler with fewer robbing bees and the honey
temperature warmer.
This is also a good time to prepare products to enter in the
State Fair. All you need is six jars of honey, sections of comb
honey, a frame of honey, a 3-pound chunk of beeswax, candles, or
an observation beehive to enter. Fill out the entry form in last
month's newsletter and send in with the nominal entry fee. If you
need help getting entries to the fair in Des Moines, let me know,
and I'll see if I can find someone else in your area who is coming
to the fair.
BOOK REVIEW: Almond Pollination Handbook by Joe Traynor
You might ask why should an Iowa beekeeper be interested in
a handbook on almond pollination. I'll give you two reasons. 1.)
Many of the principles of pollinating almonds also apply to
pollinating any crop, especially other tree fruits. 2.) The
demand for honey bees to pollinate California almonds and the
opportunity to earn some cash during an off-time of the year may
be attractive to some Iowa beekeepers.
The book is divided into two sections, the first section for
the almond grower and the second for the beekeeper. Topics for
the grower include: orchard design for pollination, renting bees,
pollination management, bee removal and alternate insect
pollinators. This section makes this book the ideal gift for an
orchardist for which you are currently providing pollination
services or a prospective customer. A similar manual for fruit
growers in Iowa (primarily, apples and some cherries, pears,
plums, peaches and apricots) would certainly be valuable.
The section written for the beekeeper covers topics such as
pollination agreements, state regulations, theft, bee delivery,
pesticides, preparing colonies, bee removal, time and duration of
bloom and grower-beekeeper communication.
This 86-page handbook is well written and printed on nice
glossy paper, well organized for easy reference, and has some nice
color photography. And last, but not least, the price is right--
$7.00 (which includes shipping and handling). To obtain a copy
send a check to Kovak Books, P.O. Box 1422, Bakersfield, CA 93302.
LAPLANDERS HONEY CONFERENCE
Friday, September 9th, the Laplanders Honey Conference of
Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri will be held in Allerton, Iowa
at the "Inn of the Six Toed Cat." Dinner will be served at 6 p.m.
and the program to follow at 7 p.m.
"The Honey Market: What's Out There?" will be the theme of the
conference. Lisa Terry, the 1994 American Honey Queen from
Northfield, Minnesota, will be one of the guest speakers for the
evening. Joining her will be Leon Metz, honey packer from Hazel
Green, Wisconsin.
Do join us for dinner and for this timely program. For further
details and reservations contact: Ann Garber 515/872-3119 by
Tuesday, September 6th.
The fourth annual Honey-Walnut Classic will be held the
following day, Saturday, September 10th at 10 a.m. on the east
portico of the "Inn" in Allerton. This popular event honors the
historic "Iowa-Missouri Honey War, 1838-1841."
NATIONAL HONEY BOARD ANNUAL MEETING HELD
The National Honey Board held its annual meeting in Denver June
17. The Board elected Neil Miller, Blackfoot, Idaho, as its new
chairman during the meeting. Randy Johnson, Nampa, Idaho, was
elected as vice president and Steve Klein, Marshall, Minnesota,
was re-elected as secretary/treasurer. Two additional Board
members, Binford Weaver, Navasota, Texas, and Larry Krause,
Riverton, Wyoming, were elected to serve on the Board's Executive
Committee.
The Executive Committee is responsible for the conduct of
duties and policies outlined by the National Honey Board. The
Board administers an industry-funded national research, promotion
and consumer information program to increase domestic honey
consumption and U.S. honey exports.
The board member's work at the meeting also included allocating
funds for the 1995 plan year. "The Board will be reviewing the
Committee's work this fall," said Neil Miller, chairman of the
National Honey Board. "Before the Board spends a dime, we review
the program plans to ensure that they uphold the Board's mission
-- to support a strong and viable domestic honey industry by
creating a dynamic marketplace for honey and honey products."
4-H ESSAY CONTEST NEEDS ENTRIES (from June 1994 APIS newsletter)
What does it take to get 4-Hers to sit down and write an essay?
That's the burning question those at the American Beekeeping
Federation (ABF) and myself are asking after looking at the
results of last year's 4-H essay contest. Only fifteen (15)
states submitted winners and (Iowa) was not among them. In
addition, the vast majority of these states had only one to two
entries to choose from. There are three top cash prizes each year
($250, $100 and $50), plus the winner in each state is awarded a
book on beekeeping. This boils down to one fact: there's a great
opportunity to win something by simply entering!
The rules for this year's contest have just been announced.
The topic this year is much different than from previous contests.
The essayist is asked to write an original story on honey bees
suitable for a teacher to read to second-grade students.
Suggested titles include: The Busy Little Bee, I Like Honey, A
Trip to the Apiary, or My Friend, the Beekeeper. There's plenty
of time to get a story together for this year's contest; deadline
is April 1, 1995!
Full contest rules are available from Bob Cox, State Apiarist,
phone 515-281-5736 or the ABF Office, phone 912-427-8447.
A BEGINNER'S BAIT HIVES by Peter Coyle
Having read in John Vivian's book, Keeping Bees, about "bees
for free," by placing bait hives in trees and then, again in the
Aebi's book about their bait hives, my Scottish parsimony took
over. Last year I made my first swarm trap and was excited when
some scout bees started sniffing around and into it. However,
some of Walt Disney's beloved delinquent squirrels knocked on
wood, tasted it and found it good, wherein the bees departed.
Unable to harass my bees during the winter, I turned to
collecting on bait hives, which being a novice in the beekeeping
game, is my substitute for knowledge. I got Cornell's, "Bait
Hives for Honey Bees" by Seeley, Morse and Nowogrodzki and could
just see the bees rolling in. Then there were the articles by
Schmidt, Thoenes and Hurley, from the American Bee Journal, which
explained the importance of pheromone lures, which I just knew I
had to have. I could visualize all those winter clusters of bees
over half of Iowa impatient to zoom into my traps. However, a
catalog price of twenty dollars for what they described as being
made of inexpensive material, and what I gathered would only be a
kind of paper mache, deep, brood box, sent me to the workshop with
cardboard and thin plywood scraps to construct an alternative.
I had read that a volume roughly the size of a deep hive body
was most favored, (although recently opinion has changed).
Climbing ladders and trees with a full box of bees required the
box to be as light as possible. Everything I made had a coating,
externally, of roof cement, thinned with mineral spirits to
sicken the squirrels off and I capped each hive with a lid made
from discarded aluminum soffit to keep everything dry.
Internally, each had homemade rough frames of standard dimension
with a waxed starter strip which would easily transfer to a deep
hive body. I then sat and itched for Spring.
The last week in April, I was out with the ladder visiting
friends who might have suitable spots in trees about ten to twelve
feet up, with morning sun and afternoon shade, just as the
literature suggested. Now, at the end of June, I have had three
swarms from one hive and two from another, with scout bees still
buzzing around the emptied boxes. The first swarm, which I
weighed like a proud father, was five and a half pounds and made
some nice comb honey for me. The last one, which was so big it
filled the whole trap and had a pound or two of bees still
outside, I collected in a screened box using a funnel and
transferring it to a medium super of foundation and two round
section supers at dusk, feeling exhilarated beyond measure.
However, the next day, when I looked in the afternoon, they were
gone, leaving me as devastated as I had been exhilarated. Too
late, I now have two homemade entrance guards.
In collecting one swarm which had started to build comb from
the bottom of the trap, I missed the open sack on the end of a
pole, held helpfully by my companion and neighbor, Cheryl, and
brushed a couple pounds of less than happy bees on her head. This
made me more acquainted with the language of liberation.
Two other bait hives in suburbia have never had a snifter so
far. Perhaps in bee real estate the three most important things
are location, location and location.
My experience, limited as it is, suggests that I should err on
the large side with the boxes, worrying less about the spaces
around the frames, as the bees are unlikely to construct burr comb
between inspections, although one swarm built comb on about a
third of nine frames in just a couple of days.
The mistakes I made were very instructional, if humbling. Ah,
but just wait until next year.
FOR SALE: 7 bee hives, two-story plus misc. equipment. Contact
Raymond and Jo Whitwood, Muscatine. phone (319)263-0992.
FOR SALE: 55-gallon drums $6.00 each; 20 or more $5.00 each.
Call Harry Hunter in Des Moines at (515)266-1984.
FOR SALE: Stainless 8-frame extractor with Dayton electric motor,
cappings knife and misc. supers, frames, lids & boxes. Asking
$200/offer. If interested call Des Moines at (515)270-8726, leave
message if no answer.
FOR SALE: Kelley electric, vibrating uncapping knife with
electric motor $175; Kelley steam vibrating uncapping knife $125;
Dadant electric stainless mini-melter $350; C.C. Pollen Co. traps
used only one season $30 each. Call Monroe Neihart near Clarinda
(712)582-3200.
FOR SALE: Qualitly Section Comb Honey in Cartons $1.90 each. Call
Stanley Weiser, 2674 - 303rd Pl. in Adel. Ph: (515)993-3126.
"Butter and HONEY shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the
evil and choose the good." (Isaiah 7:15)
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
AUGUST
11-21 Iowa State Fair Apiary Exhibit, 2nd Floor of
Agriculture Building, State Fairgrounds, Des Moines
Open daily 9:00 a.m.- 9:00 p.m. Come see the best!
SEPTEMBER - NATIONAL HONEY MONTH
9-10 Laplanders Honey Conference 6:00 p.m. the 10th and
Honey Walnut Classic 10 a.m. the 11th both at the
Inn in Allerton, Iowa.
12 Eastcentral Iowa Beekeepers Meeting 7:00 p.m. in
basement of Montgomery Hall, Johnson County
Fairgrounds, Iowa City
15 Scott County Beekeepers Meeting 7:00 p.m. at Riefes
Restaurant, Locust St., Davenport.
17 Central Iowa Beekeepers Meeting at Royal Cafe in
Huxley. Buffet dinner at 5:30 p.m., Business Meeting
6:30 p.m. and Program at 7:30 p.m. (We will try again
to show the Bee Emergency Video.)
NOVEMBER
11-12 Iowa Honey Producers Annual Meeting in Marshalltown.
FOR SALE: Home Study Course "Rearing Honey Bee Queens in the
Northern U.S." (with manual and video tape) by Dr. Marla Spivak
and Gary S. Reuter, the University of Minnestota. $40.00 Contact
Dept. of Entomology, University of Minnesota, Hodson Hall, St.
Paul, MN 55108-6125 or call Dr. Spivak at (612) 624-4798.
Dear Beekeeper Friends,
I am writing this short announcement to let you know of the
recent loss of my father, Russell Stephenson of Williams, Iowa.
He died suddenly in his home on May 19th at the age of 77.
As some of you know, he sold his business, "Stephenson Honey
Farms" in 1993 and retired. He loved the beekeeping business and
being able to work in the outdoors. He offered great assistance
and advise to several beekeepers and those interested in the field
during his life. My father enjoyed talking to many of you over
the years and sharing the constant cares and concerns of the
Midwest beekeeper. [Editor: I certainly enjoyed getting to know
Mr. Stephenson when inspecting his equipment for the sale. He had
an efficient way to handle frames during the extracting process
and developed a unique way of removing excess moisture from his
honey after it was extracted and checked his own bees for tracheal
mites with his microscope. He certainly applied his engineering
skills learned in his silo construction company to the beekeeping
business.] Thanks for being a special part of my father's life!!
He will be greatly missed!
-Thomas Russell Stephenson and The Stephenson Family
OTHER INSECTS OCCUPYING BEE HIVES
Sometimes beekeepers may become alarmed or at least
concerned about insects other than honey bees inside their hives.
At times the beekeeper may see cockroaches, ants, beetles, spiders
and wax worms (moth larvae) occupying their bee hives. As a
general rule healthy, populous colonies are not damaged by these
insect guests.
Many times wax moths are blamed for the death of colonies.
This is almost never the case in Iowa. The wax moth larvae are
nature's clean-up crew after a colony dies. This can actually be
helpful if the colony died from American foulbrood disease by
reducing the probability of spreading the disease to neighboring
colonies. The best way to prevent damage to your combs after the
colony has died is to keep an eye on your bees and pick up any
empty hive equipment from the beeyard.
The primary problem beekeepers encounter is in storing empty
beeswax comb, especially brood comb during the warm summer months.
A few years ago several products were available for fumigating or
treating stored beeswax combs. These products are designed to
kill insects, therefore fumigated combs should always be aired out
for a few hours before placing them on the bees.
Most recently, the product "Paramoth" (PDB -
Paradichlorobenzene) is no longer available for bee equipment.
I've heard conflicting reports from beekeeping supply houses as to
the fate of registration of this product for treatment of beeswax
combs. One story is that PDB is a carcinogen and EPA has
withdrawn registration for use on beeswax. Another beekeeping
supply dealer says they will have approval from EPA to sell PDB
later this fall.
Outside of using chemical products, combs can be placed in a
deep freezer for a few days to kill any adult moths, larvae or
eggs. Additionally, the moths do not like light or fresh air.
Therefore, storing combs in a way that they are exposed to both of
these elements may be of some help. Light colored combs from
honey supers are pretty safe from the moths.
Another system that may work for you is to keep empty comb
stored on the colonies where the bees will keep the moths out
during the warm months (June, July, August, September and
October). Then, bring in empty equipment and store in an unheated
building for the winter and nature will give them a cold
treatment.
Dear Iowa Honey Promoter:
Along with getting your honey harvested, it's time to plan to
promote your state's beekeeping or honey exhibit at your local
fair or festival. To aid in honey promotions Media kits are
available from the National Honey Board by contacting Sherry
Jennings, Industry Relations Director at (303)776-2337. Media
kits include: a story on pollination, newsreleases, summer recipe
tips and two new recipe leaflets -- "Bringing You Nature's Bounty
Is Our Line" and "Make Magic in Minutes." Use the media kit to
give to local newspaper editors, television news shows and radio
stations the latest buzz on honey.
BRINGING YOU NATURE'S BOUNTY IS OUR LINE -- Recipes from NHB.
Back to Nature Cookies
1/2 cup shortening 1 cup honey
2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla
1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts 1/2 cup finely chopped apple
1 cup raisins
In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and honey until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in
vanilla. In medium bowl, stir together flour, soda, baking
powder, salt and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to honey mixture,
beating until smooth. Stir in oats, nuts, apple and raisins.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets about 2 inches
apart. Bake at 350 F 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are golden
brown. Makes about 5 dozen.
Honey Pork Chops & Apples
6 pork loin chops (about 3/4-inch thick)
Salt, pepper and ground sage
2 Granny Smith or other tart apples
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1/4 cup HONEY
6 Maraschino cherries (optional)
Brown chops slowly in skillet; remove to shallow baking dish.
Season chops with salt, pepper and sage. Core and slice apples
into 1/2-inch rings. Add butter to skillet and saute apple rings
until crisp-tender. Place 1 apple ring on each chop. Cover and
bake at 300 F for 30 minutes. Drizzle honey over apples and chops;
baste with drippings. Cover and bake 15 minutes longer or until
pork is fully cooked. Place cherry in center of apple rings before
serving. Makes 6 servings.
Honey-Kissed Fruit (Microwave Method)
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
2 fresh pears, pared, cored and halved
1 can (5-1/4 oz.) pineapple chunks, drained
1 cup each red and green grapes, halved, seeded
Blend honey and orange peel; set aside. Place pears in 4
microwave-safe serving glasses; drizzle with honey mixture. Cover
each glass with plastic wrap; vent. Microwave at HIGH (100%) 3 to
5 minutes or until pears are tender. Combine pineapple and grapes.
Divide evenly between servings and sprinkle over pears. Serve warm
or cold. Makes 4 servings.
Honey Cloverleaf Rolls
1 package (16 oz.) hot roll mix
6 tablespoons honey, divided
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 cup sliced almonds
Prepare dough according to package directions, adding 2
tablespoons honey to liquid. Cover kneaded dough with bowl and let
stand 5 minutes. Melt butter and remaining honey; stir in lemon
peel. Roll dough into 36 balls (about 1 to 1-1/2 inch diameter).
Form clusters of three balls, dip each in honey mixture and then
almonds. Place each cluster in well-greased muffin cup. Let rise
30 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Bake at 350 F 15 to 20
minutes or until lightly browned. Brush with honey mixture, if
desired. Makes 12 rolls.
Honey Cranberry Butter
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup HONEY
1/4 cup chopped cranberries*
1/4 cup cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons ground walnuts
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons grated orange
peel
Cream butter and honey in
medium bowl. Add cranberries,
cranberry sauce, walnuts, milk
and orange peel. Whip until
light pink in color. Serve at
room temperature; store in
refrigerator, tightly covered.
* Use fresh or frozen
cranberries, if desired; chop
before thawing.
New NHB recipe folder; see page 7 for recipes.
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