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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter February 2006 |
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Greetings from the President of the IHPA Dear Honey Producers: As I sit at the computer composing this article, the honey bees are flying fast and furious to the water in the backyard. They are searching for food, water and taking cleansing flights. They have been out flying the past two weeks when the weather is warm and not too windy. Make sure you check your hives and feed the bees as needed. This has been another unusual winter and the stores of honey are being used up quickly. It is a very critical time of year for our hives. Do your part and provide the necessary food for them to make sure they will survive the rest of the winter. CONGRATULATIONS, TERESA!! Teresa called us Saturday evening as we were returning home from the Central Iowa Beekeepers Assn. meeting in Marshalltown to let us know that she had been chosen as the 2006 American Honey Princess. We are very excited for her and know that she will do an awesome job representing the honey industry as a spokesperson. Thanks go to Regina for the help and guidance she has given to Teresa over the past year. Hope both women enjoyed the trip to Louisville. I'm sure we will hear more of the details later. I know this is a beekeeping article, but we always get asked about our family when we are at meetings. Here is a quick update. As of January 12th, 2006, Mitch is out of the Army. His belongings are enroute to Cumberland and should arrive around the 24th. I'm sure there is going to be a big adjustment period. He has been in the Army since 1997. Shawn is stationed in Kuwait and doing convoy recovery into Iraq driving a wrecker to recover broken equipment. His wife, Meladee and sons, Michael and Vincent moved to Massena over Chrismas vacation from Fort Sill, Oklahoma. It is great having them close by. Another big adjustment. Steve, Emma, JoAnn(2 years) and Jack(3 months) helped me move Meladee and the boys along with my sister, Cindy. What an experience! Please remember that we still have lots of troops deployed all over the world and keep them in your thoughts and prayers. There is still time to get some winter work done before Spring gets here for real. Clean up your hive bodies, install any new foundation that you need, paint and do a general inventory of what is going to be needed for the new season. Now is also a great time to read any magazine articles that you missed over the busy summer. Plan to attend the joint meeting of the Missouri and Kansas beekeepers to be held on March 3rd and 4th in Kansas City to get lots of ideas and even pick up any ordered equipment from the vendors that will be attending. I'm quite sure that Draper's and Mid-Con will be in attendance. See the article on the meeting in another section of the BUZZ edition. The IHPA officers and board of directors are working hard to get several new programs going for the benefit of our membership. We will keep you posted on the outcome. We are working on several proposals. These things take time, but we hope they will be of great service to our members. Keep checking the bees for food. They use up
so much this kind of weather. Let's see if we can help them all
that we can.
The Buzz Newsletter Submissions Please send submissions, classified ads, and photos
to Alex W. Ebert by email to TheBuzz@ABuzzAboutBees.com The Buzz is a monthly newsletter published by the Iowa Honey Producers Association which is an affiliate of the Iowa State Horticultural Society. IHPA Membership is only $10 annually. To join IHPA and receive your complimentary member subscription to The Buzz Newsletter, please contact:
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