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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter March 2005 |
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Featured Beekeeper of the Month This month I interviewed Harry Hunter from Pleasant
Hill, and he is our featured beekeeper. He owns and operates Hunter
Honey. Harry tells me he started keeping bees in 1970 after a
neighbor, who had 6 colonies to pollinate an apple orchard, became
allergic and offered them to him. Harry, with the help of his
brother, worked at beekeeping while holding other jobs. Their
greatest number of colonies was 900-1000. He told me he hauled
bees to Oklahoma to split the out. His truck held 240 colonies,
and sometimes he could make 4 splits per hive before he brought
the back. In 1990 he decided to have an auction and sell out.
He marketed his honey at farmers markets and to the government.
His production peaked at 275 barrels of honey in a year. The thing
he liked the best about beekeeping was building equipment and
his 40’x80’ honey barn. Now at the age of 73 and after having 3 strokes, Harry says his future interest in beekeeping is watching Phil Meyer work his bees at his place. Harry belongs to Central Iowa Beekeepers and has the club’s annual auction at his place. This year it is in April. He is also a member of the Iowa Honey Producers. When I asked if Harry had any interesting experiences as a beekeeper, he told me on time he dug hives out of snow banks to load and take them to Oklahoma. Then there was the day he was hauling a load of 240 colonies to Garden Grove doing about 60mph. Something happened and he lost control, slid on the truck’s side, took out a couple electric poles, and somebody’s TV antennae. It was a total loss and the bees had to be destroyed. It sounds like Harry has had a few hairy experiences with his bees. Thanks for your story Harry, and keep Phil in line. Submitted by Ron Wehr Advanced beekeeping class at Spencer Spencer Iowa was the site of an advanced beekeeping
class on February 4th and 5th given by John Johnson, Bill Eickholt,
and Jim Strachan. The same format was used as before. The Clay
County Extension office did all of the advertising and preparation
for the class. The three of us taught the class. The extension
director furnished coffee and Sandy Strachan made four different
kinds of cookies made with honey to furnish at break time. One
of the class members (Marlene Boernsen) brought some muffins Saturday
morning to share at break that morning. There were 30 people in
attendance. Most of these people had taken a beginning class given
by the same three instructors over the last four years. Many of
them came to the Clay County Fair and expressed a desire for a
class of this kind. Most of them are increasing the number of
colonies they are keeping.
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