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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter June 2006 |
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Greetings from the President of the IHPA Dear Honey Producers: Another month has just disappeared into history. At least the storms appear to have slowed down from all the activity in April. I think that April and May seemed to have reversed themselves. The wonderful warm weather in April gave me an opportunity to get lots of work done outside and to get a head start on my garden. At least I had radishes and lettuce for the first farmers’ market May 13th. The cool weather in May has hindered the beekeeping work of installing packages, splitting and adding new queens. It was pretty cool and somewhat rainy when we did it, but they are doing well. In the month of May we added to our family. Youngest son, Mitch married Abbie on May 27th. We now have three daughters to go with our three sons. We can’t have a gathering without using honey to prepare the food. I was in charge of the mints (three colors) and our family favorite, Spring salad (both prepared with honey, of course). Granddaughter, JoAnn even had bees on her flower girl dress and she borrowed a pair of Oma’s bee earrings to go with it. It is nice to have time to regroup and relax a little by having a wedding over a long holiday weekend. At least I wasn’t the mother of the bride! It is time to invite everyone to work at the Iowa State Fair in the Iowa Honey Producers Association sales booth. The IHPA honey sales booth and honey lemonade sales booth pay for the majority of the existing programs and help keep things “buzzing” along with all the activities that need financial support for our organization. The IHPA could not run the booth without the help of all of you, the members of the organization. We need to fill approximately 200 slots with workers from 9 a. m. to 9 p.m. for 11 days. Last year 95 different people volunteered to work for 132 hours. Please consider helping to make this “A Honey of a Fair” this year. We NEED YOU. The sign-up sheet is included elsewhere in this issue of The BUZZ. Please get a list of the selected days you can work to me. Thank you for making this possible. Remember to send in the bid sheets for selling your products at the Iowa State Fair in the IHPA sales booth. Please send them to John Johnson. They need to be postmarked by the 30th of June. The bid sheet is located in this issue or on the website. Make plans to attend the IHPA Field Day. Pat has put together a great program. I don’t even have a Farmers’ market that day, so I can attend all day this year. Make sure you put July 8th on your calendar. Read all about the program in another article. Remember to invite Liz, the Iowa Honey Queen to your community activities. Her presence is a great attraction at any event. People love to meet royalty and learn about our fascinating friends, the honey bees. American Honey Princess, Teresa, is also available to help at events, if she is not traveling to other parts of the country. If you have children interested in the youth program or you want to become a mentor in the program, contact Teresa also. I certainly hope you have time to smell the flowers, enjoy the beautiful scenery of Iowa, and spend time with your family this month. I hope you need to keep lots of honey supers added to your beehives to accommodate all the nectar being gathered. Have a great month. Sincerely, Donna Brahms, IHPA President
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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