File item: BUZZ0793.TXT 7/26/93 9:32AM
17408
Submitted by Terry Dahms - President
East Central Iowa Beekeepers
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THE BUZZ JULY, 1993
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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 Robert Shepherd, IHPA Treasurer.
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STATE APIARIST REPORT
The honey flow is on in many parts of the state, especially in
southern Iowa at the time of this writing (June 22nd). This warm
weather is a welcome change. We have fewer colonies this year to
start with, but the surviving colonies are in good shape.
The new bee law and rules go into effect July 1st. A copy of
the new rules are included in this issue of THE BUZZ. The critical
item is Varroa mite treatment. If ten or more mites detected,
treatment must start within 10 days. However, bees with fewer than
10 mites on an ether roll must be treated sometime before October
15th of the same year. Mite-infested or diseased bees that are not
treated will be declared a nuisance and destroyed. As with the
previous law, neglecting a disease or parasite problem is what gets
you in trouble.
If you would like your bees inspected, contact my office at
(515) 281-5736 or one of the field inspectors listed below.
Southern Iowa Eastern Iowa
Mike O'Hearn Tom Schuster
RR 2, Box 17 15926 Old Hwy. 20
Northboro, IA 51647 Peosta, IA 52068
(712) 534-2272 (319) 556-6670
Central and Northcentral Iowa Northwest Iowa
Louis Rickers Bill Eickholt
1531 13th St. 412 Sherman Ave.
Boone, IA 50036 Cherokee, IA 51012
(515) 432-8037 (712) 225-5207
This spring 20 entry permits were issued for beekeepers to
transport approximately 14,000 colonies of bees into Iowa. Most
of the bees originated in Texas, but colonies were also brought
in from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Nebraska. In addition,
I don't know how many bees in packages and queen cages were
shipped to Iowa from all over the U.S. It's no wonder that we
have a parasitic mite problem in Iowa. Fortunately, Apistan
package strips or queen tabs accompanied many of these shipments.
The new Iowa bee law requires all packages not shipped via the
U.S. Postal Service, be shipped with an Iowa Entry Permit.
SIOUX HONEY ASSOCIATION PIONEER PASSES AWAY
C.A. "Bert" Brown, part of the family who were founders of
Sioux Honey Association passed away in December 1992. The name,
Brown is also remembered as the resistant bee stock that Dr.
Rothenbuhler tested in his famous study with behavioral disease
resistance in honey bees.
The following is a quote about Bert from a September, 1988 ABJ
article by Dr. Joe Moffett.
Bert was a third generation beekeeper who literally grew up
with the bees. His grandfather kept bees at Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.
His father, Edward Brown and his brother, Edward, Jr., were two of
the original founders of of Sioux Honey Cooperative Association in
1921. During the early years of the coop., Bert helped his mother
keep the books for Sioux Honey. Meanwhile, his father was
president of Sioux for the Cooperative's first 51 years
(1921-1972).
He ran bees with his father and brother, Edward, Jr., until
1935 and then again from 1938-1941. During that time, the Browns
kept between 2,500 and 3,000 colonies. They also did the wax
rendering for the Sioux Honey Co-op for many years.
During the thirties the Browns developed the famous Brown
strain of bees that was resistant to American foulbrood. The
apiary containing these bees was located near their wax rendering
plant. These bees would rob the combs Sioux members would bring
to the plant to have melted. Therefore, the bees were exposed to
American foulbrood from many different sources. This apiary was
the source of the famous Brown genotype of bees that Dr.
Rothenbuhler and others have used in their genetic studies on
American foulbrood resistance in honey bees.
Bert attended Iowa State College at Ames where he worked with
Dr. Floyd Paddock and Frank Pellett. The Browns also cooperated
with Paddock, Pellett and others in the development of bees
resistant to American foulbrood.
Since leaving the family business in 1941, Bert has held
several responsible positions, including chief engineer at
Methodist Hospital and at Morningside College, both in Sioux City.
Yet, until recently he always operated 500 colonies, in addition
to his other responsibilites.
The Browns have always wintered their colonies in artificial
caves. They ran 200 colonies in each apiary. One hundred
colonies were kept in each cave, so two caves were constructed in
each apiary site. The caves were made in a hillside of 4x8x12
inch clay tile. Four feet of straw was placed on top of the
plywood ceiling. This straw was covered with a roof of corrugated
tin. The entry way is protected by eight feet of dirt and by
double doors to help insulate the caves.
Until recently Brown used one the two caves on his land to
winter his colonies. There are two ventilators in the top of each
cave. Bert says you must keep the humidity high and ventilate
adequately. The temperature should be kept between 38 and 42
degrees F. When the cave got too hot, Brown opened the doors to
the cave.
Iowa will miss Bert Brown!
FOR SALE: Bee equipment-14 deep supers with frames, bee veil, hat,
gloves, foundation and other miscellaneous beekeeping equipment.
Make offer! Contact Ray Hailey in New Virginia at (515) 449-3542.
FOR SALE: Uncapping tank (20-frame), 2 - 300 lb. honey storage
containers, 2-frame extractor. Call Don Keller in Ames at 232-3773.
WANTED: Quality used bottling equipment. Prefer used Maxant or
Dadant 300 lb. (bottler w/water jacket), honey pump, and 02.
filtering unit. Would like to buy as a package. (515) 253-0525.
HONEY OF A VERSE
I eat my peas with honey. I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them on my knife.
1993 IOWA STATE FAIR
State Fair is coming up soon. I hope you are thinking of
coming to the fair, to exhibit apiary products and/or help in the
honey salesbooth. Its a great oportunity to visit with other
beekeepers. Every year there is prize money unclaimed because not
enough people enter to even have six place winners in all classes.
An entry blank and description of the classes and rules are included
in this issue of THE BUZZ. The major change at the fair this year is
that we have 20 feet less space for the table displays and therefore
the tables will be smaller than in previous years. For further
information contact Bob Cox, Apiary Superintendent for details at
(515) 281-5736.
FEDERAL HONEY PROGRAM SAVED BUT CHANGED
The House Ag Committee voted to retain the honey program as is
with the following changes:
1. Reduce the loan rate to 50 cents from 53.8 cents
2. End the marketing assessment of 0.538 cents.
3. Reduce the maximum buy-back differential a producer may receive
in a year. The current law sets the limit at $125,000 for the 1994
crop and subsequent years. The change would gradually reduce this
limit down to $50,000 by 1998. (Information taken from ABF
newsletter)
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PROGRAM UPDATE - Dr. Marla Spivak
The College of Agriculture at the University recently made the
Apiculture program permanent because of the overwhelming moral and
financial support of beekeepers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and
South Dakota and Iowa. As most of you know, when unfortunate health
problems prevented Dr. Furgala from continuing his research at the
University, the College decided to hire a new Apiculturist on a
three-year appointment. Now, a little over a year later, beekeepers
and the Department of Entomology within the College have
successfully rallied to make the program permanent again.
That's good news for the beekeepers in the region. The good
news for me is that the College and Entomology department also
decided to keep me as the Apiculturist. The paper work is in
progress to change my status to a regular tenure-track appointment
without having to open another national search for a candidate. I
can't thank you enough for your support and encouragement. I hope
the research I conduct here will be as useful to you as your efforts
have been to the Apiculture program and to me.
In other news, the beekeeping short course was a huge success.
Over 60 people enrolled (including beekeepers from Wisconsin, North
Dakota, Iowa, and Indiana!), so we offered it twice to ensure the
class size was small enough to offer individual attention. Everyone
tried their hand at grafting larvae and all were successful, thanks
to the patience and positive attitude of Abbie Zeltzer who came up
from Arizona to help out. Gary Reuter and I wrote a manual for the
course. It includes construction designs for special queen rearing
equipment, step-by-step instructions and discussions on breeding and
timing of queen rearing in northern regions. We will offer the
course again next April -- please plan to attend.
I received a small (but important) grant from the National
Science Foundation to conduct research on hygienic behavior in bees.
The money will allow me to hire Rebecca Melton, my new graduate
student, as a Research Assistant. We will concentrate our efforts
this summer on breeding bees for hygienic behavior and testing the
relationship of this behavior to resistance to chalkbrood and varroa
mites.
THREE BREEDERS SELECTED TO PROPAGATE MITE-RESISTANT QUEENS
WASHINGTON, June 7--Three honey bee breeders have been
selected to propagate new Yugoslavian bees that have resistance
to two damaging mites, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
announced.
The Yugoslavian bees, Apis mellifera carnica, are the first
insects that USDA's Agricultural Research Service has ever
released for breeding, said Thomas Rinderer, who heads the
agency's Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The three companies will maintain the Yugoslavian bee stock
and sell breeder queens to queen producers, Rinderer said. The
lab will send about 40 queens to each company--Hybri-Bees, Inc.
in Florida; Taber's Honey Bee Genetics in California and John
Klapac & Co. in Maryland. They were selected by a Stock Release
Panael comprised of ARS and industry representives.
Rinderer said the three will rear breeder queens that can
pass along resistance to varroa and tracheal mites. "?These
queens will be sold to queen breeders. We've already had more
than 100 queen breeders express interest in buying them,"
Rinderer said.
The Yugoslavian bee --designated ARS-Y-C-1-- have been under
study since 1984 in a joint project between ARS scientists and
research in the former Yugoslavia. The bees were first
quarantined in this country in 1989 and later reared for field
tests before being released to the three breeders.
The bees are twice as resistant to varroa mites as
susceptible domestic bees, but would still require some chemicals
to control severe outbreaks of varroa mites, Rinderer said. But
the Yugoslavian bees are so resistant to tracheal mites that
chemical controls for that pest probably would not be needed. He
estimated that the resistant stock could save beekeepers $2 per
colony in tracheal mites treatments.
Three chemicals are registered to control the mites:
menthol and Miticur strips for tracheal mites, and Apistan for
varroa. A fourth chemical, formic acid is pending approval for
use against both mites.
Queen breeders interested in buying breeder queens of the
new stock can contact the companies at the following addresses:
Hybri-Bees, Inc., 471 N. Lee Street, LaBelle, FL 33935;
Taber's Honey Bee Genetics, P.O. Box 1672, Vacaville, CA 95696;
and John Klapac & Co., 5016 Shookstown Road, Frederick, MD 21702.
HONEY OF A VERSE
Taste and see that the LORD is good! (Psalm 34:8)
How sweet are Your (God's) words to my taste,
Sweeter than HONEY to my mouth. (Psalm 119:103)
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
JULY
11 Scott County Beekeepers Picnic 12:30 p.m. at Duck
Creek Park in Davenport. Meet down by the shelters.
AUGUST
19-29 Iowa State Fair - Apiary Booth on 2nd Floor of the
Agriculture Building. Sign-up sheet on last page.
SEPTEMBER
10-11 Laplanders Honey Conference 6:30 p.m. Friday and
Honey-Walnut Bake-off on Saturday at the Inn of the
Six-toed Cat, Allerton, Iowa.
18 Central Iowa Beekeepers Meeting & Fall Field Day. Noon
until 6:00 p.m. Topics: Overwintering & Disease
Prevention. Evening meal will be catered. More
details coming in the next issue of THE BUZZ.
25 "Taste of Honey" Day at Des Moines Botanical Center
27-28 American Bee Research Conference, College Station, TX
OCTOBER
9 IHPA Fall Field Day 1:00 p.m. at Doug Schmitz's Honey
House in Defiance, Iowa. More details later.
NOVEMBER
5 & 6 Annual Meeting of the Iowa Honey Producers Association
Starlight Vilage Best Western Motel in Ames, Iowa.
HONEY MONTH MEDIA KITS AND RECIPES AVAILABLE NOW!
September was declared National Honey Month by Mike Espy,
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
National Honey Month press kits are available for beekeepers
from the National Honey Board. The National Honey Board also has de
developed recipes for restaurants. The recipes are printed on cards w
with full color photos. Recipe cards are also available on request.
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