The Buzz Newsletter

March 2007

 

 

Page 3

Greetings from the President of the IHPA

Dear Honey Producers,
Winter is hanging on. While I write this, it is very cold, extremely windy and the snow is blowing creating blizzard conditions. When you read this, I certainly hope the weather has changed. The ground hog is predicting an early spring. I am ready.

Honey bees and the plight of beekeeping has been in the news quite often recently. Mike and I were driving home on Sunday evening, Feb. 11th when The Apprentice featured honey bees and Sue Bee Honey. The drive from Denver was uneventful. The International Mead Festival was great as usual. Dr. Marion Ellis was one of the speakers. Mike and I attended his session and were pleasantly surprised when he mentioned that during his presentation we might recognize some of the items. He had featured a display of our beeswax items. No matter how many seminars that we attend, we always learn something new. It was a great weekend, wonderful tasting meads and nice company.

The Des Moines Register also featured an article on honey bees and the mystery ailment ravaging the nation’s bees. The article appeared in the Monday, February 12th edition. It outlines the plight of beekeepers that face the “colony collapse disorder”. Originally the mysterious ailment was coined as ”fall dwindle disease.” Pollination is in jeopardy. The National Honey Board is spending money on research for CCD as it is being called now. The CCD group and Bee Alert Technology are asking beekeepers’ assistance in reporting instances of honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder and narrowing down management practices and environmental factors that might be common to these losses. Beekeepers can assist with this effort by participating in the National Bee Loss Survey as www.beesurvey.com. Please report any losses you have to this survey site. We need all the help that we can get on this one.
The national TV news and Iowa TV news stations have reported on the Colony Collapse Disorder and the devastation that is happening to the honey bee colonies and to beekeeping. I caught several reports saying that pollination might suffer because of the loss of honey bees. We have been saying this for years, but if it gets us some publicity, I’m all for it. It causes people to think and ask questions. I spoke to the Waukee Garden Club last week and was asked lots of questions about the situation.

I spoke to the Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers at their convention in Marshalltown the end of January. Some of you might get a call for some pollination work this spring. The growers were interested in information about how honey bees work and about their job in pollination. It was a good meeting. Margaret Hala manned a booth for the IHPA there also.

I received a phone call from Dick Blake. Dick lives by Shenandoah in southwest Iowa. He attended the American Honey Producers Convention and was concerned about the Colony Collapse Disorder. He was going out to one of his yards to check his hives the morning he called and if he didn’t call me back, the hives were ok. I haven’t heard back, so that must mean that at least that yard was surviving. Let’s hope the rest of us will fare so well.

Our membership has been requested to make sure that we send in the Ag census questionnaire for honey bees and beekeeping in Iowa. The request is made from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). We all need to send these figures in so that we get an accurate counting and can use the figures to get funding for the Apiary Department within IDALS (Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship). They are asking for our support and for me to stress the importance of this survey. Between January 30th and March 31st the NASS, Iowa Field Office will contact farmers throughout the state by mail or phone to complete the survey. Producers will be asked to provide data on their farm operating costs, capital improvements, assets, and debts for agricultural production, as well as farm-related income, government payments, off-farm income and operator, and household characteristics. This information is used not just by the USDA and Congress, but also by producer groups, Iowa State University, agribusinesses, and others who make the decisions that shape the future of Iowa’s agriculture. That’s why participation in ARMS(Agricultural Resource Management Survey) is so important. Producer participation in ARMS ensures that decisions affecting farmers, their families, their businesses and their communities are based on the facts, straight from the source. ARMS is USDA’s primary source of information on the production practices, resource use, and economic well-being of America’s farm households. ARMS gives U.S. farmers the opportunity to set the record straight about the issues that affect them- and to ensure that policies and programs are based on accurate, real-world data that comes straight from the producers themselves. Please complete the survey.

Remember to register your hives. Maury Wills from IDALS is submitting an article [Page 2, Apiary Registration 2007] concerning the particulars for this year’s registration. If you don’t register your hives, there is no recourse for you if you get damage from pesticide spraying.

Think spring. Spring into action as soon as the weather permits. Be ready to work your hives. Make plans to feed bees, install packages or split hives. Good luck on the over-wintering of your colonies.

Sincerely,
Donna Brahms, IHPA President