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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter January 2008 |
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THE BEEYARD REPORT It's December. There's not much to write about. I'm in the regeneration mode. All I have to worry about in December is taking care of my delivery route and getting the yard rent out. Yard rent gets to be time consuming. Adam got a grant from the Garst Foundation to study in the U.K. over the winter. He left right after the annual meeting and will return February 18th. He is researching his thesis which is on 19th century English beekeeping. We finalized our building plans today (Dec 14th). We won't actually have anything underway until early spring. We're going to add 40' on to the honey house. What a difference a year makes. At the end of November last year, it was warm and we were still looking at bees. Most of them still had brood. This year it is just nasty. Snow arrived to cover up the ice. Now, we have rain and ice on top of the snow. I have to use the four wheel drive pickup to get up and down the driveway. We may have a real winter. At least, I don't have to go out if it's bad. I can really sleep on the overcast mornings. I'm just now getting my tanks empty and the extracting line cleaned up. The other year end project is getting my books up to date. Every year I work hard getting the bees winterized but seldom get around to doing anything about the house. The windows need a lot of work. At least, we got the two worst ones replaced last winter. I'll coast into January and take in the national meeting. After that, it will be time to start booking package bees. There are a lot of boxes to be fixed and plans to be made. I'll take in some basketball games and work at getting the honey sold that we are not going to bottle. There are 96 barrels in the warehouse right now. Some weeks after the tornado, I discovered I had some broken rafters in the honey house. There was also a hole in the roof in a rather obscure location. Once we get past the first of the year and the days begin to noticeably lengthen, I feel like it's a downhill run to spring. I remember reading a James Michener book in high school titled "The Fires of Spring". I remember nothing of the book except the title but I always think of it as spring draws closer. I hope everyone had a nice holiday season. Submitted by Phil Ebert
Honey makes medical comeback Potent type used as antibiotic amid fears of drug-resistant superbugs TRENTON, New Jersey - Amid growing concern over drug-resistant superbugs and nonhealing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature's original antibiotic — honey — is making a comeback. More than 4,000 years after Egyptians began applying honey to wounds, Derma Sciences Inc., a New Jersey company that makes medicated and other advanced wound care products, began selling the first honey-based dressing this fall after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Called Medihoney, it is made from a highly absorbent seaweed-based material, saturated with manuka honey, a particularly potent type that experts say kills germs and speeds healing. Also called Leptospermum honey, manuka honey comes from hives of bees that collect nectar from manuka and jelly bushes in Australia and New Zealand. Comvita, which controls about 75 percent of the world's manuka honey supply, sells similar products under its own name in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, where such products have been popular for over a decade. "The reason that Medihoney is so exciting is that antibiotics are becoming ineffective at fighting pathogens," said Derma Sciences CEO Ed Quilty. Healing wounds Honey dressings and gels, as well as tubes of manuka honey, have been gaining in popularity overseas, fueled by scientific reports on their medical benefits and occasional ( continued on Page 7 )
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