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Apiary Department Updates

Funding
Hi everyone. I talked to Maury Wills last week in regards to funding for the Apiary Department especially with the New State Apiarist. Maury felt that if we could all contact the legislators and ask that they increase the funds for the Apiarist Department to $120,000 or more it would give enough to keep the other field inspectors and provide funds for rebuilding the Apiary Department as you know when Patty Judge dismissed Bob Cox all of the resources that Bob had were thrown away or just plain disappeared. Please write you representatives and ask for this funding and also ask other beekeepers to do likewise even if they are not members of the IHPA.

Submitted by Gordon Powell

New State Apiarist
Andrew (he wants to be called Andy) Joseph is now at the Iowa Dept. of Ag. Ankeny Laboratory Facility. I met him this morning and seems like he will be a good person for the job of State Apiarist. He mentioned he would like to attend the Beekeeper Club meetings in the State so he can meet with fellow beekeepers. Ron Wehr has already asked about Andy coming to the Southeast Iowa Beekeepers and I will give him Andy's phone number to set it up.

Andy's address and phone number at the laboratory are:

Andrew Joseph
State Apiarist
IDALS, Ankeny Laboratory Facility
2230 S. Ankeny Blvd.
Ankeny, IA 50023
515-725-1481

Submitted by Melanie Bower

Featured Beekeeper of the Month

This month our featured beekeeper is another participant in the Youth Beekeeping Partnership Program sponsored by the Iowa Honey Producers Association. He is Isaac Sedlmayr, the son of Mark and Brenda Sedlmayr and lives at 1665 Quail Ave, Afton, Iowa. Isaac has an older brother in college, his mother is a nurse and his father works for the DNR. He is in the 9th grade at Creston High School, plays soccer and just got involved in the FFA program where he is involved in selling foods and planting trees.

In the future he plans to go into the military and then a job with the DNR. He says he plans to keep working with bees, but doesn’t think he will ever make that his full time job. Pat Randol is Isaac’s mentor and Isaac helped at the State Fair Honey Producers booth. Here is the story he sent me.

We have five hives now. One from a swarm that we captured at our neighbors, one from the Iowa Honey Producers, one hive from the bees that my dad and I got out of the floor of a house in Creston, one hive that my mom and dad and I cut out of a tree that some farmers cut out of a fence line and one hive off our land that was in a wood duck box. We have about 80 pounds of honey in our first year that we plan to sell. My dad and I have spent a lot of time on building our hives ourselves, only buying the foundation and the wood to make the hive bodies.

We have been around in our community doing various jobs so a lot of people here know that we are beekeepers. I have learned a lot of things since I first started beekeeping with the Iowa Honey Producers. My mom, dad, and I have made a hobby out of bees. What inspired me to become a beekeeper was when I first went to the State Fair and my parents showed me the bees. Ever since then I always have to go up and see the bees. I would always stand and look until we had to leave. My dad was very allergic to bees though so I thought that I would never get to become a beekeeper and I would always have to go to the State Fair and look at the bees instead of in my back yard. When I started I went up to Winterset, Iowa to a class with some others to learn how to keep bees and it has been fun ever since I first got my bees. I hope to continue beekeeping in the future. I really want to thank the Iowa Honey Producers for giving me the chance to get into beekeeping.

Good luck with your bees Isaac.

Submitted by Ron Wehr