The Buzz Newsletter

January 2006

 

 

Page 3

Featured Beekeeper of the
Month

This month our featured beekeeper is Curt Bronnenberg. He and his wife Connie live at Perry, Iowa. Their business is Spring Valley Honey Farms.

Curt says his father started keeping bees when he was 15 and soon started working for a commercial beekeeper named John Jessup. Eventually he bought the business. So Curt has been around bees all his life starting out with 100 hives in 1989 and eventually through buying out smaller beekeepers and splitting his own hives has built the numbers to 2000.

Until about 10 years ago Curt says he sold all his honey in 55 gallon drums. Then about 1995 he started bottling and sells about 30% of his honey in jars and buckets. Connie has developed a hand lotion made with honey and a lotion bar made with beeswax that has added a couple new products to sell as well as honey.

Curt says he enjoys being involved with beekeeping because it is a subject that almost always sparks an interest when you tell people what you do for a living. It’s also gratifying to provide a product that is healthy and tastes delicious. Curt tells me he is now in the process of completing a new building for his extracting and bottling and hopes to include a showroom.

A member of IHPA, Curt is a past president and historian. He is also a member of the board filling a seat vacated by past president Tim Loughlin.

Pollination has become a big contributor to Curt’s income. He has 100 hives going to local apple orchards and 175 hives going into melon fields in Eastern Iowa. In the fall he goes through his entire operation to find the strong hives to send to California for almond pollination. He says the hives need to be very strong and very well fed. The brokers and growers require strong healthy hives to be sure they will provide adequate pollination.

Great story Curt, it was worth the wait.

Submitted by Ron Wehr

 

By-Laws of the Iowa Honey Producers Association

One of the items mentioned at the business meeting during the Annual Meeting was a request for copies of the By-Laws of the IHPA. They are available upon request. Please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to me and I will see that you get a copy. The postage needs to be 63 cents. Thanks for your interest in the IHPA.

Donna Brahms, 65071 720th Street, Cumberland, IA 50843

 

The IHPA District Map

This mapoutlines the six IHPA districts. On the back of the Buzz is a listing of each of the IHPA District Officers. If you are interested in starting beekeeping or just have some questions, the district officers and IHPA board members can get you pointed in the right direction.