Please Welcome the Iowa
Honey Queen for 2007
Chelsa Bronnenberg!
[January]
Greeting's Iowa Beekeepers!
My name is Chelsa Bronnenberg. I was crowned at the annual IHPA
meeting held in Marshalltown. I had a great weekend, and I hope
all of you did as well. I would like to give a brief background
about myself.
I am Currently attending Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo,
with a major in nursing. I graduated in December with my LPN,
and am taking classes to be a Registered Nurse. I then plan to
transfer to the University of Iowa to continue my education to
receive my Bachelor's degree in Nursing.
I have been around beekeeping my entire life. My family owns Spring
Valley Honey Farms, and we are now in our 23rd year of business.
I have helped my family extract, bottle honey, and have also enjoyed
helping my mom make beauty products from honey and beeswax. I
have helped promote honey at farmer's markets, craft sales, and
at the Iowa State Fair.
I am excited and feel honored to represent Iowa as I continue
to learn a lot from others, and also teach people what I know.
I look forward to meeting all of you through out the year and
years to come.
If you need to contact me, or would like to have me help you at
any event please contact me. My address is 2216 Merner Avenue
Apartment 2 Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613, or by phone at (515)210-1027.
My email is Chizel2004@aol.com.
I wish all of you a Happy New Year.
Chelsa Bronnenberg
2007 Iowa Honey Queen
[February]
Hello Iowa Beekeepers!
Did any of you make New Year's resolutions? I did, but as we all
know how they always turn out, right? We never get them completely
accomplished, or maybe never even started. My goal for myself,
and all of you is to finish all the of the things that we have
been wanting to do.
I am so excited that my year as a Queen has officially started.
My family was asked to have a booth at the Home and Patio Show,
at the State Fairgrounds. What a great opportunity for me to start
out promoting beekeeping. I plan to do some demonstrations, and
answer any questions that people may have that weekend.
My school schedule is really going to allow me to get more involved
this year as a Queen. I am only part time this semester, and then
will have the summer off! I will be working occasionally, but
my main focus is being the "Queen!" I hope all of you
have something planned for me to help you with throughout this
year.
My adventures are only beginning and I can't wait to see what
is in store for all of us! I wish all of you the best of luck
with all of you future plans.
Sincerely,
Chelsa Bronnenberg
2007 Iowa Honey Queen
Beeyard Report
I returned from the AHPA Convention in Phoenix
to find that winter had arrived. Getting home turned into a bit
of an adventure. The airport in Dallas/Ft Worth iced up. That’s
the hub for American Airlines. It messed up their whole system.
I felt fortunate to get home when I did even if it was without
my luggage.
Usually, I hope the bees get a flying day every
month. This winter, we had one every week until the middle of
December. I moved my nucs up beside my steel building around Christmas
time. After I returned from Phoenix, I put them inside in the
unheated portion of the building. They are alive but I still don’t
give them much chance to survive.
I am often amazed at how long incorrect ideas
can persist in my brain. For 25 years I have thought that virgin
queens were only fertile for a few days. At the meeting, I learned
they can mate successfully for up to two weeks. They can still
mate after that but the chances of them being well mated decrease
markedly. I also didn’t realize how much sperm a queen rejects.
She may reject up to 80% of the sperm from a particular drone
but she will keep some of the sperm from every drone she mates
with and mix it in her spermatheca. This ensures diversity.
Package bees are the next project. This seems
to get a little bigger every year but it comes before everything
else gets started. I’ve got a few winter projects. There
are stacks of boxes to repair, vehicles to work on and general
planning that needs to happen. Not too bad for the most part.
The next 30 days should be pretty relaxing.
For those of you that have read “Following
the Bloom”, I met Crystal Card in Phoenix. She and Andy
are divorced now but are still partners in a 15,000 colony operation.
Remember, spring is just around the corner.
Submitted by Phil Ebert
