Submitted by: Terry Dahms
East Central Iowa Beekeepers Assoc.
internet: [log in to unmask]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BUZZ FEBRUARY, 1994
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
STATE APIARIST REPORT
I can see Spring coming. Can you? When the days start
getting longer and we see the sunshine as much as we have seen it
lately, even though it is still very cold, I start looking forward
and planning for the Spring activities in the beeyard. I hope you
are thinking of what to do with your beekeeping this Spring.
February is a great time to work on beekeeping equipment. You
know, all those special feeders you planned to build sometime,
those honey supers that need painting and maybe those old combs
with all the drone cells that need to be cut out and replaced with
foundation. Be very careful when melting beeswax because of the
fire hazard. Just ask Paul Goossen (No offense, Paul).
Don't miss your local beekeepers association meetings or maybe
take a beekeeping class this Spring. Read those back issues of bee
magazines and newsletters for new ideas on how to manage your
colonies and your business.
Be sure to order your packages and queens early so you will
have priority on the shipping dates you want. I would advise you
to request Apistan queen tabs and package strips in the bees you
order. If you, yourself, transport packages, nucs, colonies or used
beekeeping equipment with comb into Iowa from another state, you
must apply for an Entry Permit. To obtain an Entry Permit
application form contact the State Apiarist Office in Des Moines
(515) 281-5736.
Plan for how much equipment you will need for the number of
colonies you plan to have. Each colony should have a queen
excluder, if you use them and at least three supers. Be sure you
have some sort of feeder for each colony this spring. Procure any
Terramycin, Fumadil-B, Apistan strips or menthol crystals that you
need to treat your colonies for diseases and mites.
Set yourself deadlines and mark your calendar so that you can
manage your bees efficiently this year. Like Mark Twain said
"Everybody talks about the weather, but no does anything about it."
So if you can't control the weather, control the things you can by
planning and getting everything ready ahead of time.
A HONEY OF A VERSE
"How sweet are Your words to my taste,
Sweeter than HONEY to my mouth!" (Psalm 105:103)
4TH ANNUAL CENTRAL IOWA BEEKEEPERS AUCTION
Saturday, April 23rd the Central Iowa Beekeepers Association
will hold their annual auction at Spencer Apiaries in Cambridge.
Consignments will be made in the order they are received. Contact
Margaret Hala, 1988 Vine Ave., Marshalltown, Iowa 50158 (515)
752-2981. Watch future issues of THE BUZZ for item listings, time
and other details.
NOTICE: Live bees may be sold at the auction. Bees will be
located in a nearby beeyard and available for examination by
prospective buyers from 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. the day of the sale only.
Colonies offered for sale must be state-inspected before the
auction.
AFRICANIZED BEES AND WHERE TO PURCHASE QUEENS - Bob Cox
I hate to even approach the subject of where to purchase
queens in light of the spread of Africanized Bees in the U.S.
However, I am getting repeated questions along this line. First of
all, I don't make recommendations for where to buy queens.
Obviously, there are many good and a few poor queen producers
located all over the South and California.
Because queens mate in the open, there is always a chance the
queens may mate with drones of undesirable parentage. However,
queen and package producers have a lot of incentive to weed out
colonies with bad characteristics near their mating yards. I
believe market conditions will eventually eliminate bad tempered
bees with swarming tendencies and "runny" behavior on the comb.
Although swarms of Africanized honey bees (AHB) have been
found in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and on the border with
California, to the best of my knowledge, there have been no AHB
detections in counties where queen breeders are located in these
states. If AHBs continue to spread and move into queen rearing
areas, we should know in the next five years what impact they will
have on the queen and package supply in the U.S.
IOWA FRUIT AND VEGETABLE GROWERS MEETING
The Iowa Honey Producers Association will have a display booth
at the Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association Annual
Conference February 11th and 12th in Des Moines to promote "Honey
Bee Pollination" and beekeeping. A recently prepared Information
Sheet on Bee Pollination will be handed out to growers attending
the conference. This Information Sheet is printed on pages 7 & 8.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
People with experience in beeswax crafts, honey cooking and
any other bee-related skills are needed to help with "Honey of
Weekend" activities at the Des Moines Botanical Center March 19 and
20. Susan Ferguson, education director at the Botanical Center, is
organizing this event to promote and educate the public about
honey, bees and beekeeping. She is going to tell bee-related
stories and teach songs about bees. Their horticulturist is
planting a bee/herb garden with plants attractive to honey bees.
They would like someone to demonstrate how to make different kinds
of beeswax candles, other beeswax crafts, cooking with honey, skep
making or any other bee-related crafts. The Iowa Honey Producers
can also sell any honey and other bee products (bee pins or other
jewelry, cookbooks, etc.).
REGISTER FOR SPRING BEEKEEPING CLASS IN DES MOINES
Starting on Thursday, March 10, 1994 a beekeeping class will
be offered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture in cooperation
with Polk county ISU Extension service. It will be held every
Thursday night for 8 weeks at the Des Moines Botanical Center.
This will be an in-depth class covering a variety of topics on
beekeeping for fun and profit. Each class session will last from
7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Do you have friends or relatives who have expressed a desire
to get into beekeeping sometime? Suggest they take this class or
better yet, take it with them. The class will include hands-on
experience in the classroom and during four field trips. Those
interested in starting with bees, novice beekeepers and even
seasoned beekeepers are all welcome to participate.
Preregistration is required by February 28th and a
registration fee will be charged. For details and a registration
form contact Bob Cox, State Apiarist, Iowa Department of
Agriculture, Wallace Building, Des Moines, Iowa 50319 telephone
(515) 281-5736 or Mohamad Kahn, ISU Extension, (515) 270-8114.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
FEBRUARY
11 & 12 Iowa Fruit and Vegetables Growers Meeting at the
Crystal Inn in Des Moines. Contact Bob Cox for more info.
28 Registration deadline for SRPING BEEKEEPING CLASS
MARCH
12 IHPA Board Meeting 1:00 p.m. at Royal Cafe in Huxley.
14 Eastcentral Iowa Beekeepers Assn. Meeting 7:00 p.m. at
Montgomery Hall, Johnson County Fairgrounds, Iowa City.
19 Central Iowa Beekeepers Assn. Meeting. 5:30 p.m.
Buffet dinner. 6:30 p.m. Meeting (Election of
Officers). Royal Cafe in Huxley. DIRECTIONS: Take
Hwy. 210 exit from I-35 and go west to U.S. Hwy. 69.
Go north to Huxley one mile, then through town to the
shopping center on the east side of the highway.
19 & 20 "A Honey of a Weekend" - Des Moines Botanical Center,
909 East River Drive, Des Moines. Come and
enjoy a foretaste of spring, bee crafts, bee stories
and songs, a bee herb display, and other honey bee
related activities for all ages, all under the dome.
OPEN: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
26 Southwest Wisconsin Honey Producers Meeting. 9:00 a.m.-
3:00 p.m. Metz Honey Farm. Hwy 61 North of Kieler, WI
(just across the river from Dubuque, Iowa) Potluck
meal at lunch time.
FOR SALE: 80 - 6 5/8" honey supers w/9 frames of drawn comb, frame
spacers in supers. $3.75 @ Contact: Monroe or Janet Neihart,
College Spring (near Clarinda) (712) 582-3200.
FOR SALE: Packaged Bees - 2 lbs. with Queen $23.50; 3 lbs. with
Queen $26.50; All packed with Apistan (TM) strips; To be picked up
at Aurora, Iowa mid April. Contact: Douglas Child (319) 634-3682.
FOR SALE: Complete bee operation - 100 two-story hives with bees
plus equipment for 150 colonies. Call Bill Eickholt (712)
225-5207.
FOR SALE: Clover Honey in Barrels or Pails. Call Lapp's Bee
Supply Center. 1-800-321-1960.
FEBRUARY IS A SWEET TIME TO INITIATE A HONEY QUEEN PROGRAM
Now is the time to talk to a young lady about being a Honey
Queen. It is wise to get started early when she is 13 to 16 years
old. Prepare her by teaching her about beekeeping and honey for a
year or two so that she is knowledgeable before she is considered
for the honey queen. You may use the display ad below to recruit.
Paul Goossen, Chairman
IHPA Honey Queen Committee
RR 1, Box 83-A
Homestead, IA 52236
(319) 622-6410
HONEYBEE POLLINATION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN IOWA
Successful crop pollination is a partnership between the
pollinator (honey bee, usually) and the flower; beekeepers and
growers. Cooperation is the key word here. The grower and
beekeeper must understand each other's needs to pollinate the crop
and protect the bees.
ECONOMICS
Honey bees are an important part of Iowa's agro-ecosystem.
Currently, about 1000 beekeepers in Iowa keep about 60,000 colonies
of honey bees. The honey bees have produced an average of about
five millions pounds of honey annually valued at about $2.5 million.
However, honey bees are valued much more for the pollination of food
crops in Iowa than for the honey that is produced. Many field and
horticultural crops, home gardens and plants utilized by wildlife
are dependent on honey bee pollination for the production of their
fruits, nuts and seeds.
The best estimate of the value of honey bee pollination in Iowa
is $92.2 million annually. Honey bees increase yields of some crops
(e.g. soybeans, small fruits and peppers), while apples, melons,
cucumbers and squash are almost totally dependent on honey bees for
the production of fruits.
Strong, healthy colonies of bees are the best pollinators.
Beekeeping in Iowa recently has been ravaged by parasitic mites,
poor honey crops and the loss of the honey loan and buy-back
program. If colonies are being rented for pollination, the profits
from honey production finance the maintenance of populous,
disease-free colonies during the 10 or 11 months of the year when
they are not being rented. However, most of the pollination service
is provided free of charge in Iowa and honey and beeswax are the
only incentives for keeping bees. In any case, any threat to the
beekeeping industry that reduces the number of bee colonies for
pollination would adversely affect Iowa agriculture.
THE POLLINATION PROCESS
For bee pollination to take place, the plant must provide a
food reward for the bee in the form of sweet nectar and pollen,
while the bee helps the plant to set seed and reproduce. The bee
transfers pollen from the anther of the flower to the stigma.
Successful pollination does not imply successful fruit set. Many
physical, mechanical and genetic factors can prevent fruit set.
Genetic Factors
It is important to understand the breeding system for each
specific crop and cultivar to avoid genetic problems. Some crops
will set fruit with no pollination (parthenocarpic), will self
pollinate or will be wind pollinated. However, other crops are
self-sterile, self-incompatible or self-fruitful and require bees to
transfer pollen from another pollinizer variety for successful fruit
set. Some crops have separate male and female flowers and bees must
move pollen from the male flower to the female flower.
SPECIFIC CROPS
Tree Fruits - apples, cherries, pears, plums, apricots, peaches.
Many of these fruits are self-sterile or self-incompatible and
require bees to cross-pollinate between different cultivars. For
example, most apple cultivars are self-incompatible and require
cross-pollination for fruit set. When foraging on apples,
individual honey bees often show fidelity to a particular cultivar
and may establish foraging areas on a single tree. If bees move
between trees, it is often down a row, rather than between rows.
You might then ask, "how does cross-pollination in apples
occur?" It was discovered in specialized studies examining pollen
from the bee's body under an electron microscope that much of the
pollen transfer occurs inside the hive. The ratio of pollinizer to
main cultivar trees is very important, so that compatible pollen is
not be overly diluted in the hive. Additionally, this makes the
highly socialized honey bee the ideal pollinator for this crop.
Recommendations vary from 1 to 3 colonies per acre for adequate
pollination of these crops.
Vine Crops - melons, cucumbers, pumpkins & squash.
Vine crops have separate male and female flowers and bees are
needed to make the pollen transfer. For example, watermelon
pollination requires that at least 1000 grains of pollen be
deposited on the stigma if a uniform melon is to result.
Recommendations for numbers of colonies vary from one to five
colonies per acre and are not precise because conditions can vary
within a colony from 10,000 to 60,000 individual bees. It is
recommended that a bee population that will provide one bee for each
100 flowers in a field at any particular time will be sufficient.
Small Fruits - Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries.
Most of the berries depend on bee pollinators to produce high
yields and well-developed, full-fleshed, high-value berries. Berry
flowers have many pistils and each must receive its grain of pollen
before it can contribute to the size, shape and taste of the fruit
to come. The central fleshy portion between the seeds does not
develop in poorly pollinated areas. Blueberry flowers must be
pollinated by bees or there is no fruit at all. The most
predominant berry crops, strawberries and raspberries will only set
small and misshapen fruit in the absence of insect pollination.
Cross-pollination of berry crops are often helped with
inter-plantings of two or more varieties. Catalogs descriptions
should be carefully noted for pollination notices and requirements.
|
