The Buzz Newsletter

March 2009

 

 

Page 4

HONEY BUTTER BRUNCH RING

Printed from COOKS.COM

2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. butter, softened
2 c. Bisquick
2/3 c. milk
Date-Nut Mixture (below)
2 tbsp. butter, melted
1/3 c. honey

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar, softened butter and Bisquick. Add milk, all at once and beat to a soft dough. Drop 1/2 dough into 10 separate mounds and roll into balls. Place around bottom of 9 inch ring mold. Cover with Date-Nut Mixture. Make rest of dough into 10 more balls and place in mold. Mix melted butter and honey. Pour over top. Bake 25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from mold immediately after baking.

DATE-NUT MIXTURE:

1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1/4 c. dates
1/4 c. chopped nuts
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. melted butter

Mix. 8 servings.

 

2009 Beekeeping Classes

Spencer--This will be a weekend course sometime in March. Contact Larry or Marlene Boernsen for information. 712-735-4205

We have experienced record enrollments in all of our beekeeping classes.The biggest class was at DMACC in Ankeny with a total of 34 students. Overall, we have had a total of 130 students so far with the Spencer class yet to start.

Submitted by Phil Ebert

THE BEEYARD REPORT

Vern Ramsey had some books I needed to pick up for the beekeeping classes. He could have mailed them to me but I thought it would be fun to go for a visit. Doris said I should come for lunch. I must have connected with Doris on the physic hotline. She had all of my favorite things. I thought we had beef and noodles but it turned out it was deer meat. I brought home leftovers so I got to enjoy it all over again. It was too good!!!

Here are a few things gleaned from the state apiarist report of 1949---30,000 colonies were inspected by 6 inspectors. That's close to the total number of present day colonies in Iowa. In 1949 there were around 150,000 colonies in Iowa. F.B. Paddock was in his 31st year as state apiarist. The problems were the same. Youth was needed in beekeeping. The cost of $20/hive for start up was considered prohibitive. They needed better queens, better bee pasture and spraying was a problem. Sound familiar? Prices for honey were down, also, having dipped from 20 cents down to 8 cents/lb.

Jan 22 was a flying day. There were bees and poop everywhere. I was only in a couple of yards that day. No lids were removed. I just thumped the boxes to see if there was a buzz. Following that, we had a week of pretty nice temps. By February 10, I had gotten a look at about half of our bees. Most were still heavy but if they had a box full of bees, I fed them anyway and gave them a protein patty. Our death loss at that point was between 15% and 20%. That's not the end of it. More will die but I don't think it's going to be a disaster. At a minimum we will probably lose another 10%. It could easily go higher if March is a nasty month. My rule of thumb is that the losses of February will be doubled by the end of March. The yards that have suffered losses had a lot of spotting in the hives. They were alive when the first warm days came. It looked like they flew out and never came back. This wasn't a CCD thing.

It was just weak bees. The other thing I have been seeing more and more of is dead bees that clustered near the top of the box. Lots of feed was left below them. I don't know if this is a genetic problem or the result of something else. 

The way things look can be deceptive. When the bees are spread out across the top bars, they look populous. Sometimes, that's all the bees there are. They don't go down on the frames. If you pick up the inner cover and bees are clinging to it and they are all across the top bars, the colony is okay. Other times they are on the top bars but you can't tell how deep they go. The initial appearance is good. Then you go back three weeks later and all that's left is a tiny cluster that is dead, or nearly so.

I was surprised there has been some vocal opposition from beekeepers to the new bee rule. I think it's a big improvement. With the old rule, they could spray any time they wanted once they notified you--that's if they went to the trouble to call you. Notification didn't do much good anyway. The areas surrounding beeyards will have multiple spray applications over the span of several weeks. Moving the bees out of harms way is not practical. Timing of the application is the only practical tool we have to work with. This is how we have worked with the sprayers in our area for the last several years.

Spring is almost here. I hope everyone has good-looking bees.

Submitted by Phil Ebert