File item: BUZZ0293.TXT 3/4/93 5:48PM 30696 submitted by: Terry Dahms President-East Central Iowa Beekeepers ----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BUZZ FEBRUARY, 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------- A newsletter published monthly as a cooperative effort by The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and The Iowa Honey Producers Association, 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 (515) 281-5736 IHPA MEMBERSHIP: Membership dues in the Iowa Honey Producers Assn. are $5.00/year. Use the membership form on page 9 of the BUZZ to sign up. ----------------------------------------------------------------- HEATHER POMEROY SELECTED AS THE NEW 1993 AMERICAN HONEY PRINCESS Iowa's 1992 State Honey Queen, Heather Pomeroy, was selected as the 1993 American Honey Princess by the American Beekeeping Federation at their annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri January 23rd. As a result, Heather will travel all over the U.S. this year assisting the American Honey Queen in promoting honey and beekeeping. The title of 1993 American Honey Queen was given to Tennesee's state honey queen, Gena West. PRESIDENTS MESSAGE Fellow beekeepers, its already February and another year has come and gone. Its time to file taxes again; figuring your profit, loss and deductions this time of year is not fun. Last year the ASCS's five-year state average was 83 pounds per colony. If your bees produced less than this in 1992 you may be eligible to receive disaster relief payments. The filing deadline is February 13, 1993. We hope for a better honey crop in 1993. February is also a good time to start preparing for spring. Take count of what you will need for equipment and bees. Repair and paint your old boxes. Be sure to put new foundation in your frames so that they'll be ready when its time to go through your colonies and make splits in April and May. I've talked to several beekeepers who have found some of their colonies dead. This was due to the lack of feed going into winter. So it would be wise to check your bees' food supply whenever we get some warm days in the next several weeks. I really think we will have to feed as soon as we can this spring. Our next IHPA board meeting will be March 6th. If you have any questions or want any topic brought up, please contact your district director or one of the officers to get it on the meeting agenda. - Leroy Kellogg, IHPA president IHPA BOARD MEETING HIGHLIGHTS The first meeting of the 1993 board was held December 5th in Huxley at 1:00 p.m. Eight members were in attendance. New treasurer, Bob Shepherd reported a total of $3269.33 in revenue was received at the annual meeting but all expenses had not yet been paid. Some of the IHPA funds will be transferred to a money market account in order to get a higher interest rate. Questions to be answered before the association makes a cash grant to another organization and instructions are listed below: 1. Do they need it? Did they send a written request? 2. What will it be used for? Who will spend it? 3. What will it accomplish? Are there long term benefits to the beekeeping industry or bee research, particularly as related to IHPA interests? 4. When a grant of money is sent to another organization, a request for a copy of research results and a financial report will be made in a cover letter to be sent with the check for the money. A request was made by the Honey Queen committee to pay the expenses for sending Heather Pomeroy to the American Honey Queen contest in Kansas City, January 19-23, 1993. Approval was made to spend up to $500 for the hotel, meals, transportation, registration fees, and miscellaneous expenses. Paul Goossen was appointed as chairman of the queen committee this year, with Hildegard Goossen, Bev Powell, Elaine Johnson and Bob Cox also on the committee. A discussion on the summer field day led to the suggestion that several field days be held in different areas of the state in June, July or August. Dates and places will be established at the March 6th board meeting. A motion was made by John Johnson and passed to send $100 to the Iowa Agriculture Youth Institute. Several other promotional items were referred to the promotions committee for action. Ann Garber was appointed to chair the committee again this year, if she is willing. John Johnson was appointed chairman of the state fair salesbooth committee again this year, with Arvin Foell and Walter Clark also on the committee. A suggestion was made to change some of the awards in the Cooking with Honey Division because they have been the same for a few years. A motion was passed to add a new beeswax art class in place of the frame of cut comb honey (Class 12). We will now have four beeswax classes: 3 pound bulk, candles (molded or dipped tapers), poured mold art, and handcrafted art (not from a poured mold). A motion passed to pay mileage to and from the fair for the chairman of the state fair committee at the rate of $0.10 per mile. Discussion was held on the association selling honey at the All-Iowa Store at the State Fair. John Johnson is working with the Iowa Horticultural Society to get bids for honey to be sold at the All-Iowa store. Bob Cox led a discussion of the proposed bee law and apiary rule changes. A motion passed by a unanimous hand count to recommend that bee law and apiary rule changes be pursued in 1993 (as outlined in the handouts). Marvin Trojahn agreed to contact Senator Vande Hoef of Harris, Iowa to sponsor a bill with the bee law changes. Bob Cox will file for the apiary rules changes on behalf of the Department of Agriculture. These changes allow for more flexibility because of increased mite levels and available effective treatment options. STATE APIARIST REPORT Its surprising how much harsh weather we're having this winter in Iowa. Hopefully, the snow will serve as good insulation and a windbreak for the bees. However, the bees could use a warmer day for a cleansing flight. The tracheal mite may cause extra beekill this winter because of the higher percentage of positive samples collected last summer and the poor late season honey flow. See the article on page 7 for more details on tracheal mite samples collected last year. Plan on attending one of the beekeeping workshops in your area this spring. An interesting program is planned and its a good opportunity to meet other beekeepers in a smaller group than at the annual meeting. If you are a seasoned beekeeper, come and bring a less experienced friend along for an informative evening. See the article on pages 5 & 6 for the complete schedule. We are planning on another Honey promotion with the Des Moines Botanical Center again this year in March and April. If you would be willing to help man the booth under the dome for a few hours, contact Ann Garber, promotions committee chair, at (515) 872-2119 or give me a call at (515) 281-5736. IHPA will provide honey candy to give away and will bring in the National Honey Board's mascot, Buzzy Bear, for a visit on Easter day. IN THE BEEYARD Spacing frames in the beehive is a topic that varies with each beekeeper's viewpoint. In nature, we find combs spaced from 1 3/8, 1 1/2, 1 5/8 inches and sometimes up to two inches apart, from center to center. The 10-frame Dadant hive is built to accommodate ten frames with the 1 3/8 inch spacing. Some beekeepers use fewer frames in this size of equipment. You, as a beekeeper, should adopt the spacing which will give you the best results: the most brood and honey. Wherever wider spacing is used, there is likely to be more honey stored in the combs in the honey supers. When wider spacing is used in the brood nest, there tends to be more honey stored, more drone brood and less worker brood in the comb. Some researchers say that close spacing (1 3/8 inches) tends to encourage the rearing of more worker brood, less drone brood and the storage of less honey. If this is so, this is the way we would like to have it in the brood chamber. Finally, spacing still remains a management decision only you, as the beekeeper, can determine. - Robert L. Wells, Asst. State Apiarist VARROA GETTING NASTY IN CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK Dr. Eric Mussen reports that many California beekeepers got a surprise when their colonies collapsed last fall, apparently from damage caused by the Varroa mite. Finding a mite or two doesn't mean the colony is in immediate jeopardy, but it will require treatment sooner or later according to Mussen. Although it has been reported that colonies sometimes take several years to die after being infested with Varroa, there are exceptions. Dr. Roger Morse of Cornell University speaks of a New York beekeeper whose hives produced over 100 pounds of honey in July and August, yet were dead by late fall. Dr. Mussen describes a California beekeeper's situation, who after a good producing season, saw 75% of his colonies severely damaged or dead by Christmas. That beekeeper is no longer in business and had to sell out at submarket prices. These severe cases may be caused by drift of bees from nearby, heavily infested apiaries that were not treated. Also, the fact that mites are hidden and protected in capped brood cells may mean there was a serious undercount of those mites found on adults. The technology to determine when a Varroa infestation reaches a treatable level by any detection method currently in use is not well developed. Detection results may vary and are dependent on bee/mite population dynamics. For example, in the fall, Dr. Morse says, with little or no brood, you are more likely to find mites on adults, whereas in the spring it will be easier to find mites in brood. Practical experience by the Florida Division of Plant Industry indicates that when 20 mites in a ether roll of approximately 300 bees are found, a colony should be treated with Apistan strips. However, Dr. Harvey Cromroy of the Entomology-Nematology Department, University of Florida, believes more than five mites is a treatable level. Dr. Morse concludes finding 30 or 40 per hundred bees (by the ether roll method) is serious and the colony may be beyond saving. The ability to correlate ether roll data with other detection methods is not presently available. (Information taken from the Florida apiculture newsletter, "APIS", edited by Tom Sanford, Extension Apiculturist, University of Florida) BEEKEEPING COURSES IN RAPID CITY Beekeeping courses for beekeepers in the central U.S. will be taught at Western Dakota Vocational-Technical Institute in Rapid City, South Dakota this winter and spring. The courses will be taught by Dr. Charles P. Milne, Jr. Dr. Milne has over 20 years of beekeeping experience, has taught beekeeping at Washington State University, and is now a commercial beekeeper. Three different weekend short courses will be offered for beekeepers in the central states area. The dates are February 20-21, March 6-7, and March 20-21. The weekend schedule allows for travel to Rapid City on Friday, and a mixer is planned for those arriving early. The instruction will take place Saturday 8-12 noon, 1-4, 7-9; free time Sunday morning; and last session 1-4 p.m. on Sunday. Attending all short courses will provide beekeepers with a broad knowledge base on beekeeping. The first short course provides essential information on the honey bee and the colony, and some beekeeping basics. The second short course emphasizes colony management. The third short course discusses hive products, queen rearing, diseases, and the Africanized honey bee. Any single short course can be taken independently. For further information on the courses, contact Dr. Milne at (605) 393-0049 or Kelley Osborn or Jerry Johnsen at Western Dakota Vo-Tech at (605) 394-4034. BEEKEEPING WORKSHOP IN MASON CITY The Apiary Bureau in cooperation with ISU Extension Service will be presenting a beekeeping workshop at the Extension Office in Mason City on two Thursday nights, February 18th and 25th. The program will be presented by Leo Stattelman, beekeeper from Clear Lake, and Apiary staff of the Iowa Department of Agriculture. For more information, call the local extension office or the State Apiarist at (515) 281-5736. SCHEDULE THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18 6:30 p.m. Registration 7:00 p.m. Getting Started with Bees & Spring Colony Management 8:00 p.m. Break (Bring your favorite honey treat to share) 8:10 p.m. Honey Harvest, Preparing Colonies for Winter and Marketing the Crop. 9:00 p.m. Adjourn THURSDAY FEBRUARY 25 6:30 p.m. Registration 7:00 p.m. Races of Bees and Their Characteristics 7:30 p.m. Urban Beekeeping: Its Joys and Trials 8:10 p.m. Break 8:20 p.m. Disease & Parasite Diagnosis & Treatment 9:00 p.m. Adjourn FOR SALE: 48 colonies, supers and extracting equipment for 100-150 colonies. 20-frame stainless extractor with variable speed control. Stainless cappings melter and chain uncapper. CONTACT: Ron Silliman (515) 989-0161 FOR SALE: Package bees. Pick up at Aurora (near Manchester) April 12th. Shipped with Apistan strips. 2-lb. package $23.50 Contact: Douglas Child in Aurora, IA (319) 634-3682. AUCTION: Central Iowa Beekeepers Annual Auction to be held in April. Looking for quality bees and beekeeping equipment for sale. Contact: Margaret Hala, 1988 Vine Ave., Marshalltown 50158 phone: (515) 752-2981. REMINDER: DISCOUNT ON NEW EDITION OF THE HIVE AND THE HONEY BEE IHPA members can purchase a copy of the new Hive and Honey Bee for $27 if we can get at least 8 orders (regular price $36). DEADLINE: To order, contact Walter Clark before February 15th at P.O. Box 30008, Des Moines, IA 50310 phone: (515) 253-0525. WANTED: Your favorite honey recipes. Plans are to explore publishing a new honey cookbook with your favorite recipes, and excellent recipes from the State Fair and other honey cooking events. Type or print them on a 3x5 index card with your name. SEND TO: Paul F. Goossen, RR 5 Box 198, Mt. Pleasant, IA 52641. CALENDAR OF EVENTS FEBRUARY 18 & 25 Beekeeping Workshop 6:30 p.m. at Cerro Gordo County Extension Office, 2023 S. Federal, Mason City, Iowa. MARCH 1 & 8 Beekeeping Workshop 6:30 p.m. at Pottawattamie County Extension Office, 2719 E. Highway 6, Council Bluffs, Iowa. MARCH 15 & 22 Beekeeping Workshop 6:30 p.m. at Indian Creek Nature Center, 6665 Otis Road S., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. APRIL 5 & 12 Beekeeping Workshop 6:30 p.m. at Putnam Museum, 1717 West 12th, Davenport, Iowa. IOWA HONEY QUEEN PROGRAM Wanted - Beekeepers who are willing to work and have a vision of future possibilities. You must be willing to invest time, effort and a personal interest in another person without expecting to see a dollar in return (at least, in the short run). But you will be investing in the lives of young people and the future of the honey industry. Do not expect to receive a "thank you" for your efforts, but you will receive a sense of having served for the good of others. The assignment is to encourage, sponsor and educate young ladies to be honey queens to represent the honey industry in your community, in Iowa and even, in the United States, if you do your job well. If you decide to accept the assignment, you can identify an interested young lady, age 10-16 years old, sponsor her and we, as the honey queen committee, will give you some help and guidance. Hopefully, we could have a number of local queens as candidates for the state title and hold a special honey queen seminar for them, covering: 1.) basic beekeeping, 2.) uses of honey, and 3.) public speaking. What a wonderful way to help a young person develop invaluable leadership and public relations skills! What a wonderful way to bait a hive and catch a swarm of honey sales in the future! To do this, we will need to be willing to look beyond our immediate, individual interests to tomorrow and other people. Thus the saying, "One sows and another reaps" is true. After all, it is also true that we have benefited from others also ("I sent you to reap that for which you have not worked. Other have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of their labor". If anyone understands this principle, it should be the beekeeper, as he gathers the bees' honey and comtemplates this principle in other areas of life. - Paul F. Goossen, Chairman, Honey Queen Committee ----------------------------------------------------------------- FOR SALE: "Honey Bee Diseases and Pests" booklet by Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA). Good color photos on the subject. 17 pages - $1.75 @ Contact Bob Cox at (515) 281-5736. ----------------------------------------------------------------- TRACHEAL MITE INFESTATION IN IOWA The laboratory test results for tracheal mites is listed in the table below: 1.) the number of samples tested, 2.) the number of infested apiaries and 3.) the number of beekeepers with infested apiaries for 1989-1992 in Iowa. The percentage of apiaries and beekeepers with infested bees is shown in the next table. The level remained fairly constant around 30% for the first three years. However, in 1992 it increased, with 75% of the samples infested and 81% of the beekeepers having at least one infested apiary. This may not be a fair sampling because of the small sample size, therefore, this may not be an actual increase. Also listed in the second table is the percentage of infested apiaries that exceeded the 15% allowable mite infestation level. This percentage seems to have been lower during 1990 and 1991, but up again in 1992. These 30 beekeepers with infested colonies were required to treat for the tracheal mite because their apiary(s) posed a threat to neighboring apiaries. If this apparent increase in tracheal mite infestation is real, we may see a larger than normal winterkill this spring. However, if the infested apiaries were treated in a way that resulted in lower mites levels before winter, then the mite may have little effect on wintering loss this year. In order to better evaluate the health of Iowa's honey bee population, a larger number of random bee samples should be collected and examined in 1993. If you would help, we could get samples from most of Iowa's 99 counties and from a larger number of beekeepers, perhaps 250-300 samples total. Contact the state apiarist's office to get instructions on how to collect the samples. We need random samples, rather than only samples from weak colonies likely to be infested with the mites. NEW LABELING LAWS FOR HONEY Although honey may have the image of being an unprocessed natural product, it too will be required to provide nutrition information on its' label in accordance with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. Honey is traditionally processed to 145 F for 30 minutes to kill yeasts and prevent fermentation. This heating process is included in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) definition of a processed food and requires adherence to the new labelling regulations. According to the proposed regulations, the serving size for honey is one tablespoon, which will serve as the basis for the nutrition information on the label. The proposed regulations also stipulate that the honey industry use a simplified nutrition label which lists just calories, total fat, total carbohydrates (sugar), protein and sodium. This nutrition information can be provided in column or in paragraph form. Please note that 60 calories is listed as the appropriate value for honey using USDA calculation of 3.68 calories per gram of honey. Honey contains 17.3 grams of carbohydrate resulting in 53.66 calories per serving size. This number is rounded to 50 calories, the nearest 10 calorie increment. Grams of carbohydrate are expressed to the nearest gram, making the carbohydrate declaration 17 grams. Exemptions to this proposed labeling law include a small business exemption; bulk foods shipped for processing, repacking or labelling; foods in packages with less than 12 square inches of label space, provided that nutrition information is supplied at point of sale*; and food for institutional use if nutrition information is provided directly to these institutions. *(If this exemption is used, a company cannot make any nutritional claim on its' label. Additionally, FDA knows of no reason why firms could not provide nutrition information on placards in a clear and conspicuous way at the point of sale.) This information was provided by Richard Sullivan of the National Honey Packers and Dealers Assn. from Focus on Value-added Agricultural Products, Vol 1 #11 Kansas State University Cooperative Extension Service Sept/Oct 1992. For example, in column form, the In paragraph form, the label would label would appear as shown: appear as follows: Nutrition Information Per Serving Nutrition Information Per Serving Serving size: 1 Tbsp. (21 g.) Serving size: 1 Tbsp. (21 g.) Servings per container: xx Servings per container: xx Calories 60 PER SERVING: 50 calories, 0 g total Total fat 0 g fat, 17 g.total carbohydrate (17 g. Total carbohydrates 17 g sugars), 0 g. protein, 0 mg. sodium Sugars 17 g (Percent of DV and Daily Reference Protein 0 g Value must be inserted in this Sodium 0 g paragraph). (Additional columns may be required to show percentage of DV and Daily Reference Value (DRV). 1993 IOWA HONEY PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP DUES: Iowa Honey Producers Association $ 5.00 $_________ American Honey Producers 1-50 colonies $20.00 $_________ 51-500 colonies $75.00 $_________ American Beekeeping Federation-Minimum $20.00 $_________ First time [] Renewal [] (Check one) SUBSCRIPTIONS: American Bee Journal One Year $15.60* $11.70 $_________ Two Years $28.96* $21.72 $_________ First time [] Renewal [] (Check one) Gleanings In Bee Culture One Year $15.00* $11.25 $_________ Two Years $28.00* $21.50 $_________ First time [] Renewal [] (Check one) QTY BOOKS 1-9 10 or more ____ Large Honey Recipe Book $3.00 $ 2.50 $_________ ____ Small Honey Recipe Book $1.00 $ 0.65 $_________ ____ Honey Pamphlet $0.03 Same $_________ =============== == TOTAL $_________ *PRICE YOU WOULD PAY FOR MAGAZINE IF YOU DID NOT BELONG TO IHPA CHECK PAYABLE TO: IOWA HONEY PRODUCERS ASSN. SEND CHECK TO: Robert E. Shepherd, Jr. 917 N. Iowa Washington, IA 52353 (319) 653-4888 NAME______________________________________________________________ __ ADDRESS:__________________________________________________________ __ CITY:____________________STATE_________________ZIP________________ __ PHONE(____)_______________________________________________________ __ NO. OF COLONIES_______________ 12/22/92 No. of No. of pos. No. of pos. Year samples apiaries beekeepers tested 1989 208 64 41 1990 258 74 51 1991 113 37 23 1992 60 45 30 % of apiaries % of beekeepers % apiaries Year positive positive above allowable level 1989 31 29 60 1990 29 32 46 1991 33 30 41 1992 75 81 51 --THE BUZZ-- Apiary Bureau IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND LAND STEWARDSHIP Wallace Building Des Moines, IA 50319