Apiary Registration 2008
State Apiarist Andrew Joseph
It is time to register your apiary sites for 2007. You may again register on-line using your pin number and password from last year. Before registering you must contact the office via email andrew.joseph@iowaagriculture.gov or by phone (515) 725-1481 to let us know how many apiary sites you will have in which counties. If you don’t remember your pin number and password please contact us. If you do not have a computer or are having difficulty registering on-line you may register by calling the office. If you register in this manner you must have the following apiary information available when you call:
1. Township Name
2. Landowner Name
3. Township Number
4. Range
5. Section
6. Quarter Section
7. Number of colonies at each site
Congratulations!
Teresa and Luke Brandenburg of Russell, KS are the proud parents of Jacob Daniel Brandenburg, born at 10:22 the morning of February 27, 2008, at Central Kansas Medical Center in Great Bend, Kansas. He weighed 7 lbs., 11 1/2 oz. and was 20 inches long. Teresa was the 2005 Iowa Honey Queen, the 2006 American Honey Princess and the developer and coordinator of the Youth Scholarship program for the IHPA. If anyone would like to send congratulations to Teresa, Luke and Jacob here is their address: 18641 I70 Road, Russell, KS 67665.
THE BEEYARD REPORT
If we are lucky, the winter of snow removal is over. The water hydrant next to the horse pen is visible again. Snow is still drifted up around the loading dock but it’s starting to sink. Gary Roorda, my neighbor to the west goes up and down the road with his tractor and blade at least once a day so our gravel road is in better shape than a lot of them. The geese have been foraging in the fields. I was surprised to see snow geese mixed in with the Canadians. One day, when I was watching the geese, I discovered a bald eagle sitting in a tree in the back yard. Adam found a dead eagle lying in the ditch west of our house. We don’t know what happened to it.
We finally started to get into the bee yards at the end of February. Going down the mud roads in 4 wheel drive and low gear ate up a lot of fuel. Adam took syrup into the yards with a sled he pulled by hand. If we get another year like this one, we may have to invest in a snowmobile. Most of the yards had snow up even with the lids. The big colonies were spread out even though temps were in the low 30’s.
The death loss for our doubles isn’t too bad. They are 25% dead. Two of the yards that looked the best in the fall are mostly dead. Others, that looked less good, survived with almost no loss. The thing that really bites is that I still can’t keep singles alive. We had somewhere between 50 and 60 that we took into winter. I think we have three that have a chance to live. There was plenty of food left in the boxes. It never got warm enough for the bees to move over to it.
Adam had the opportunity to visit the emergency room at the Chariton hospital. He was feeding bees when one decided to go inside his ear. It was extremely painful. The emergency room people were a little nervous when they found out the bee was still alive but they got it extracted okay. Manley Bigalk told a similar story several years ago. If I remember the story correctly, he saved the bee in a vial of alcohol for a souvenir. I think it was costly souvenir, too.
I tried knocking heads with a horse. It didn’t seem to hurt the horse at all. I thought it had damaged my eye. After I got the blood cleaned out, I found it was okay. I looked at the cut near my eyebrow and thought maybe I should get some stitches. My next thought was that stitches would probably cost me a couple hundred dollars. I cut a little butterfly out of a band aid and pulled it together with that. It healed up nicely. The huge black eye that resulted lasted a long time
One of the big stories out of California is that Adee’s lost a lot of colonies just prior to moving into the almonds. Some stories say half, or about 40,000 colonies. Whatever the number was, it was a lot.
Getting the beekeeping class completed in Marshalltown proved to be a challenge. We held it on Tuesday night. There was a weather event every week until the last week. We canceled two classes and should have cancelled another when the wind chill was 30 below. Attendance was pretty slim that night. Every week I thought, ”It will be better next week.”
Package bee sales have been brisk. I have over 90 people on my list. I hope we get everything we ordered. It’s a major pain when we have to adjust on the fly.
Let’s all sing a spring song!!!!
Submitted by Phil Ebert
