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THE BEEYARD REPORT

I seem to have a brain cramp. I've having trouble getting the words to come. Nothing out of the ordinary has happened. We have been through all of our yards and are starting back on the second trip. We were lucky twice. We were better organized in the fall. We got our mite treatments in early. This gave the bees a chance to raise a lot of bees after mite treatments. We had a good fall which meant we had brood into November. Now, we have had a good March. The bees are starting to brood up. Losses are holding at 20%. When we get a poor March, the bees don't raise much brood. The colonies continue to go downhill.

I found that I had miscounted one of the yards. I recorded it as only having fifteen left alive. The reality was 25. We lost about 30% of the new colonies I started last fall. Most of the ones that died didn't have enough bees. I should have united some of them but I got greedy.

I commented last month that some of the bees had clustered too high. I have found there was a reason for this. There was a wad of dead bees on the bottom board. They had been dead a long time. That was the bulk of the original cluster. The remaining bees moved to the top as bees like to do. I go through all the dead ones in the yards to check for foulbrood scale before I load them on the truck. It takes a long time.

The yards that are alive don't require nearly as much time.

I have made some progress on my winter jobs. I've patched a lot of boxes and culled a lot of combs. Boxes are made up for splits. I have sorted the lids and bottoms that were stacked up outside the building. Half of that stuff went onto the burn pile. The Swinger is ready to go. I finally got some rock into the new parking area next to the new addition. I don't have the headlights fixed on the flatbed yet. The plug on the light switch was burned up but replacing it didn't fix the problem. I've got to get a new dimmer switch now. I need to knock some pallets together, also. I enjoyed teaching the bee class in Marshalltown but I was glad when it was over. It was starting to jam me up. I gave the class a test this year. Some of the answers to the questions were surprising.

I was coming home from my delivery route a couple of weeks ago. The pickup engine began to rattle as I was leaving Des Moines. It was obviously a pulley noise. I decided to keep going. I was pulling out of the Hy Vee parking lot in Grinnell when it shucked the belt. It was 15 miles to home. Should I make a run for home or drive down to the Ford Garage, which was only 2 miles away? I overcame my urge to go home and took it to the garage. It proved to be a good move. They fixed it the next day. It only took them an hour and a half. I would have spent longer than that running for parts.

Adam is writing the conclusion to his PhD paper. He will defend in April. Assuming this will go well, he has accepted a position as history professor at Mt Mercy College in Cedar Rapids. He is planning to do something with bees but I see downsizing in my future. The fall is really hard. It's difficult to make it all happen on time. If I'm late with mite treatments, the bees are as good as dead. Eric, my number two son, will graduate from the University of Iowa this spring. I don't know where he is at in his quest for grad school. Anthony isn't positive he is going to have a job next fall. He is teaching in Colorado Springs-----budget woes.

Honey prices fell around the first of the year but are on the rise again. Our store sales have been really good even with the depressed economy. It's hard to tell where things are headed. Let's hope for the best. All we can do is take care of our own little nitch.

Submitted by Phil Ebert

The Buzz Newsletter

I would just like to comment on your online newsletter. I try to go over it every month, and would like to attend one of the meeting/classes on the bees sometime when I have the time. I have learned so much about bees, the help they do for the production of produce, also the great need for them.

I have a farm located NE of Des Moines with a small personal orchard of about 60 fruit trees and lots of flowers , thanks to my wife and mother for the latter part. Last year I contacted one of your members about maybe starting a small hive to help with the pollination of the fruit trees, I wasn't getting as much produce as I thought I should be or wanted. They gave me some numbers for some local beekeepers, who if I wasn't inclined to get a hive started; they might be interested in bringing hives out. I contacted a gentlemen who was interested and came out and was very helpful and was not only interested but said it was a prime spot.

This gentleman placed 13 hives here on the farm, let’s just say that I definitely saw a difference in the production of produce of the fruit trees, in fact it was branch breaking difference. I have learned a lot about pruning trees now and limiting the production.

In short I would just like to say thank you to all the beekeepers out there. I know it’s a money making business, but it does a whole lot of good for others also. It takes a lot of time to take care of them critters; the honey the keeper shared with us was really quite good also.

The newsletter has been very informative, gives a whole new out look to the bees as a whole, still don't like wasp/hornets though. I think if other farmers would get interested in having bees in would be a good thing as a whole. In fact I have gotten a friend of mine interested in starting a family orchard also and he is planning on either getting bees or locating a beekeeper also.

Gene Beals

Collins, IA