Submitted by Terry Dahms - President East Central Iowa Beekeepers internet: [log in to unmask] ----------------------------------------------------------------- THE BUZZ SEPTEMBER, 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- STATE APIARISTS REPORT What beautiful fall weather we've been having! It is high time to harvest your honey. Be sure to check a little of your honey for moisture content before you extract. It should be 18.5% or less or else it may ferment and be ruined. You may send me a sample in a sealed plastic container and I'll check it with our refractometer and give you a call on the results. If the moisture level is too high then you can place your supers in a small room with a dehumidifier and/or fan running to dry out the honey. Anyone moving bees out of the state needs to contact me soon about getting a Certificate of Inspection. Get your supers off as soon as possible, so you can treat for the Varroa mite. To gain entry into most states colonies must test free of Varroa mites or be treated with an EPA-approved product for a period of time. It is getting pretty late to benefit from tracheal mite treatment because brood rearing will cease before too long. Menthol or any other tracheal mite chemical will only benefit the colony if there is a lot of brood rearing in progress at the time of treatment. In addition to mite treatments, supplemental feeding of your colonies may be necessary this time of the year. If you remove the surplus honey early and we have a good fall nectar flow from goldenrod, spanish needle or asters then you may not need to provide supplemental feed. Colonies should have 60-90 pounds of honey (not including the weight of bees, pollen, old dark comb, frames, hive bodies, bottom board and cover) to get through the winter. A heavy sugar syrup (2 parts sugar : 1 part hot water), high fructose corn syrup or frames of honey make the best fall feed. Fumadil-B or Nosema-X can be added to the syrup this fall to reduce the loss of bees or spring dwindling due to Nosema disease. State Fair attendance, the number of apiary exhibits and gross sales of honey products were down this year due to cool rainy weather. However, its still the largest event of its kind for promoting our industry in Iowa. The results of the judging of Apiary exhibits are reported on page 2. We also rely on the Fair to generate significant income for the Iowa Honey Producers Association. We are very concerned about Bob Gott who helped at the Honey Booth until he became ill and is still in the Intensive Care Unit at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines at the time of this writing. 1993 IOWA STATE FAIR RESULTS Sweepstakes Plaque Winner - Lynette Kellogg $213 1st runnerup - David Tull $211 2nd runnerup - Jesse Kellogg $100 3rd runnerup - Tim Laughlin $ 90 4th runnerup - Melissa Laughlin $ 79 Observation Hive Empty Frame 1st Place David Tull 1st Place Melissa Laughlin 2nd Place Jesse Kellogg 2nd Place Ray Tull 3rd Place Brian Powell 3rd Place Tim Laughlin 4th Place Tim Laughlin 4th Place Bill Van Roekel Cut Comb in Plastic Box White Extracted Honey 1st Place Tom Schuster 1st Place Melissa Laughlin 2nd Place Herman Bickle 2nd Place William Baker 3rd Place David Tull 3rd Place Herman Bickle 4th Place Bill Van Roekel 4th Place Matt Stewart Amber Extracted Honey Chunk Honey Combination 1st Place Ray Tull 1st Place David Tull 2nd Place David Tull 2nd Place Lynette Kellogg 3rd Place Lynette Kellogg 3rd Place Mike O'Hearn 4th Place Shane Kellogg 4th Place Lanny Buttz Plain Creamed Honey Frame of Extracting Honey 1st Place Lynette Kellogg 1st Place Tim Laughlin 2nd Place Jesse Kellogg 2nd Place Bill Van Roekel 3rd Place Lanny Buttz 3rd Place Melissa Laughlin 4th Place Bill Van Roekel 4th Place David Tull Block of Beeswax Beeswax Art (poured-mold) 1st Place Lynette Kellogg 1st Place Maxine Burns 2nd Place Maxine Burns 2nd Place Lynette Kellogg 3rd Place Tim Laughlin 3rd Place Norman Burns 4th Place David Tull 4th Place Jesse Kellogg Flavored Creamed Honey Handcrafted Beeswax Art 1st Place Lanny Buttz 1st Place Shane Kellogg 2nd Place Lynette Kellogg 2nd Place Lynette Kellogg 3rd Place Jesse Kellogg Beeswax Candles Window Display 1st Place Jesse Kellogg 1st Place David Tull 2nd Place Maxine Burns 2nd Place Lynette Kellogg 3rd Place Lynette Kellogg 4th Place Tim Laughlin White Comb Honey White Round Comb Honey 1st Place Stanley Weiser 1st Place David Tull 2nd Place Mike O'Hearn 2nd Place Ray Tull 3rd Place David Tull HONEY MONTH ACTIVITIES September is a great time to promote honey and beekeeping in your local area. Listed below are some Honey Month activities of which I am aware and are sponsored by Iowa Honey Producers and/or the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. 1. Honey Month Proclamation Signing Ceremony at the Governor's Office August 31. Newsreleases and photos sent to local newspapers. 2. During September a Honey Month window display will be set up at the Wallace State Office Building in Des Moines. 3. Honey Month promotional materials used at the Des Moines Botanical Center's New Cafe all month. Laminated honey posters, table tents, honey recipes, honey bee coloring books, and honey provided in squeeze bears. 4. Richard Peterson, beekeeper from Albia will have a honey booth at Old Threshers Reunion in Mt. Pleasant September 3-5. 5. Honey squeeze bears, recipe brochures, and honey posters provided for the Agriculture - Wheel of Fortune game at the Clay County Fair in Spencer September 11-18. 6. Honey Booth set up on "Celebrate Agriculture" Day at the National Cattleman's Congress in Waterloo September 18. 7. "A Taste of Honey" Day at the Des Moines Botanical Center September 25. The American Honey Princess, Heather Pomeroy of Wayland, Iowa will serve tastes of various types of honey to visitors at the Botanical Center. 8. Members of the IHPA promotional and honey queen committees are making a concentrated effort to send newsreleases and get radio and television interviews to talk about our industry during this month. DID YOU KNOW.... A group of bees is known as a grist of bees (Colloquial U.S.). - from the 1954 Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language - unabridged. (submitted by Stuart Arey of Cresco, Iowa) AFRICANIZED BEES IN ARIZONA At least nine swarms of Africanized honey bees (AHB) have been detected in southern Arizona between Tuscon and Yuma. The majority of the AHB swarms were found near the town of Sasabe and consequently, the area around Sasabe is considered to be generally infested with AHB. Africanized swarms have also been detected in Tuscon and 56 miles northeast of Yuma. USDA/APHIS officials report that the Arizona Department Agriculture is activating its State Action Plan for AHB. Under this plan, ADA will require all bees to be certified as free of AHB prior to movement out of the State. Also as a portion of the plan, the USDA/APHIS will provide technical support, training, and cooperative assistance in monitoring the movement of AHB. HONEY VERSES "A land flowing with milk and honey" (The Old Testament) "Bee Udderly Cool" Drink milk and eat honey. (Saw this sign on the side of a barn in Wisconsin - the editor.) "THE GREAT MITE PLAGUE OF 1993" (Harry Fulton, MS State Apiarist) Varroa mites have humbled some beekeepers and again showed us how little we know and how much more we need research on the practical aspects of pest management in beekeeping operations. Based on the unfortunate necessity of learning from experience, it appears that two treatments (not just one during the fall/winter) will be necessary to keep Varroa at bay in colonies. Beekeepers in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida have experienced a devastating loss of colonies this summer, in spite of having treated hives in the fall/winter with "Miticur Bee Mite Strips" according to label directions. In one case, hives were monitored by using the ether-roll technique and good control was noted. In all cases, the hives overwintered, built up a good population, and made a decent spring crop of honey. In July, when beekeepers went to remove the honey (after inspecting them just 2-3 weeks earlier) they found a big portion of them dead. The ground in and near the apiaries was covered with dead bees. The dead and dying hives contained a tremendous number of Varroa mites crawling on the frames. Pesticide kills were improbable since there were no crops in the area and the apiaries were isolated from mosquito spray programs. The only conclusion based on the evidence is that Varroa killed them. But how could that have happened the beekeepers wonder? They were treated in the winter and strips removed in February. Where did so many mites come from? The answer is really is not too hard to figure out: reinfestation! Unless your neighboring beekeepers treat, your hives will become infested; or maybe you forgot to treat a hive or two. The first thought that comes to mind is "the treatment didn't do the job!" But, where hives were monitored, it did reduce Varroa levels! This all points out that we must take Varroa serious (as the worst pest to honey bees known in the world). Beekeepers must spend time visiting apiaries and monitoring Varroa population levels using the ether-roll or the soapy water technique. Strips must stay in the hives at least six weeks to get good control because at any one time only 10% of the mites are outside the brood cells. (Editor's note: In Iowa, if levels of Varroa exceed 10 mites in a 300-bee ether-roll test, then another treatment is necessary even if bees were treated the previous fall or spring.) FEDERAL DISASTER RELIEF NOTICE (from Dan Cooper, St. Horticulturist) Follow the procedures listed below for crop losses in 1993: 1. Notify the County ASCS office of failed plantings, prevented plantings or reduced yields. 2. Application for Disaster Credit may be filed if you have either a failed or prevented planting. On reduced yields, the harvest will have to be completed prior to filing for assistance. 3. Gather records. If you sell directly to consumers, it is very important to keep the sales records. If this is not done, verifying your losses will be more difficult. If you sell on the wholesale market, keep warehouse receipts. 4. Those who have lost buildings and equipment in flooded areas, contact FEMA offices set up and the SBA if you anticipate applying for disaster loans. This is only for non-crop damage. MITICUR STRIPS WITHDRAWN FROM THE MARKET Hoechst-Roussel Agrivet Company is instructing all beekeepers to stop using Miticur (amitraz) miticide strips packaged in bags of 30 strips as a precautionary measure. Hoechst-Roussel had requested in January of this year that beekeepers stop using Miticur strips packaged in bags of 300 strips. This request was made in response to reports of possible adverse reactions in bees following application of Miticur. Hoechst-Roussel is taking the additional precautionary measure of asking beekeepers not to use strips from bags of 30 strips because the company's investigations have not identified the cause of the reactions which allegedly resulted from the 300-strip package. A letter from Hoechst-Roussel and a reimbursement form for unopened packages of 30 have been sent to all beekeepers who are listed as having bought Miticur miticide in 30-strip packages. Hoechst-Roussel asks that beekeepers who may have purchased Miticur on behalf of other apiaries (beekeepers) advise those apiaries (beekeepers) of this latest precautionary measure from Hoechst-Roussel. Beekeepers who have any questions about Miticur packaged in 30-strip bags may call Hoechst-Roussel at 1-800-723-6516. Inquiries about Miticur strips from packages of 300's should be directed to NOR-AM Chemical Company at (302) 892-3000. Hoechst-Roussel Agri-Vet Company is part of the Life Sciences Group of Hoechst Celanese Corporation of Somerville, N.J., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hoechst AG of Frankfurt, Germany. NEW HONEY RECIPE CARDS FOR SCHOOLS The National Honey Board has developed new bulk honey recipes for noncommercial foodservice operators such as schools, business and industry cafeterias and colleges. The recipes are printed on cards which feature other ideas for using honey and usage tips. Recipes include Honey-Lemon Butter for baked fish or chicken, Honey Tomato Sauce for open-faced sandwiches, a pear and honey dessert and Honey-Orange Peanut Butter Spread. Recipe cards are available on request from the National Honey Board. HONEY BOARD INVITES BEEKEEPERS TO FALL MEETING The National Honey Board will meet in Phoenix, Arizona on October 6 - 9. This meeting will include the National Honey Board's Nominations Committee with representatives from across the country. The Nominations Committee meets once a year to select new candidates for the Board. All interested beekeepers are invited to attend this meeting. Please contact Tina Tindall at the National Honey Board office (303) 776-2337 to make arrangements. HONEY BOARD PROMPTS REVISED STANDARDS FOR HONEY EXPORTS TO MIDDLE EAST The Gulf Standards for Honey have been revised. The previous standards were non-tariff trade barriers which restricted entrance of U.S. honey into the Saudi Arabian market. The new standards lower the diastase enzyme level from 8 to 3 and increases the standard for HMF from 40mg/kg to 80 mg/kg. This revision was initiated following a technical seminar conducted by the National Honey Board on May 25, 1992. The National Honey Board, the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service and the Saudi Arabia Standards Cooperation Program conducted a technical seminar in Saudi Arabia to deliver information on U.S. honey standards, quality control and testing procedures. Attendees included Saudi Arabian government officials, Gulf Cooperation Council country representatives and key Saudi Arabian trade representatives. "There was resistance and opposition to changing the standard from the other major global honey exporters to Saudi Arabia" said Bob Smith, executive director from the National Honey Board. "However, Saudi Arabia was anxious to allow quality U.S. honey in the market." This revision represents expanded opportunities for U.S. honey exporters to the gulf states, said Smith. ***************************************************************** DADANT BEE SUPPLY DEALER specializing in providing supplies for the hobbyist and small sideline beekeeper. AUTUMN APIARIES, INC. - GORDON & BEVERLY POWELL 4012 - 54TH STREET DES MOINES, IA. 50310 PHONE (515) 278-1762 ***************************************************************** (ADVERTISEMENTS) CALENDAR OF EVENTS SEPTEMBER 10-11 Laplanders Honey Conference 6:30 p.m. Friday and Honey-Walnut Classic on Saturday at the Inn of the Six-toed Cat, Allerton, Iowa. 13 Eastcentral Iowa Beekeepers Assn. meeting 7:00 p.m. Montgomery Hall at the Johnson County Fairgrounds in Iowa City. 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. Honey Booth at the National Cattleman's Congress in Waterloo, Iowa 23 Scott County Beekeepers Assn. meeting 7:30 p.m. at Riefes Restaurant, 1417 W. Locust, Davenport For more info. contact: Jo Whitwood (319) 263-0992. 25 "Taste of Honey" Day at Des Moines Botanical Center 27-28 American Bee Research Conference, College Station, TX OCTOBER 2 IHPA Honey Queen Committee meeting. 10:00 a.m. at John & Elaine Johnson home in Ames. IHPA Board Meeting. 1:00 p.m. at Royal Cafe in Huxley 9 IHPA Fall Field Day 1:00 p.m. at Doug Schmitz's Honey House in Defiance, Iowa. See map on back cover. NOVEMBER 5 & 6 Annual Meeting of the Iowa Honey Producers Association Starlight Village Best Western Motel in Ames, Iowa. DECEMBER 2-4 Upper Midwest and Minnesota Beekeepers Meeting in Bloomington, MN. For more details see article in the August BUZZ or Contact Marla Spivak at (612) 624-4798 or Darrel Rufer at (612) 658-4645. FOR SALE: 35 Drums of White Honey. Contact: Tim Killeen, Carson, Iowa (402) 551-0973. WANTED: Good light honey in 55-gallon drums. Also looking for a good bee blower. Contact Curtis Barnhart, Monticello, Iowa Phone: (319) 465-3941. WANTED: Beekeeper to place colonies on our land in Northwest Iowa near Manson. Contact: Gayle Moline at Moline Brothers Turkey Farm, 1645 Shelby Avenue, Manson, IA 50563 Phone: (712) 469-2297. FOR SALE: 2800 colony outfit on pallets in central Iowa. All or part. Call (515) 332-1042. WEATHER FACTORS AFFECTING THE HONEY CROP Weather affects the secretion of nectar and also bee flight. Correlations between weather factors and honey yields have been indefinite because the factors are complex and interrelated. Sugar is manufactured by the action of sunlight on leaves. (This is the ultimate source of our food, fiber and much of our power). Healthy, vigorous plants produce more nectar than stunted plants. Certain plant nutrients influence nectar secretion. With plenty of moisture available, it appears that maximum hours of intense sunlight is best for nectar secretion in most important honey plants. Adequate water available to the plant is correlated with nectar secretion. The most favorable amount of rain varies with the soil type. Temperature has a marked influence on plant growth and nectar secretion. Honey flow may be influenced by temperature at the time of flowering and also by the effect of temperature pattern on plant growth throughout the season. Warm days and cool nights favor secretion of nectar as long as the nights are not too cool. Scale records indicate best results in clover areas at the temperatures of 80 to 90 degrees. High humidity makes more dilute nectar but apparently does not affect the amount of sugar produced. Bees must do more work to make honey from dilute nectar. Temperatures below 50 degrees or above 100, high wind, rain and threatened storm keep bees in the hive. The amount and concentration of nectar influences the number of bee visits to plants. This in turn affects pollination, for example bees prefer apple blossoms to pears as apple nectar is more concentrated. Tests indicate that the breeding of plants for high nectar secretions has practical possibilities. (Information compiled by Dewey Caron) (ADVERTISEMENT)