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Greetings from the President of the IHPA

Dear Honey Producers:

As I write this article millions of things are racing around in my head. Mike and I are leaving for Germany in seven days and I have several things to get done before we leave. One of them is to get some seeds in the ground for our garden so that it can get growing before we get back and the farmers' markets start. Last year I had the early garden planted on April 4th. Boy, what a difference a year makes!

The packages that we started a couple weeks ago are looking really good, but they could use some warm weather, less wind, some more pollen and new flower buds to get them really going. I can't believe that we received measurable snow fall on April 11th and 12th! Make sure that you are checking your hives and keeping feed for them until this weather straightens out.

I checked the apiary registration site a few days ago and am really disappointed that more people haven't taken advantage of it. I guess I am not going to worry about the beehives in Iowa getting sprayed and I guess it will mean less work for me in the long run. I have attended meetings with the aerial sprayers and officials from IDALS to try to work on the pesticide spraying problem and we are seeking for some very workable solutions, but apparently according to the number of apiary registrations, the beekeepers of Iowa aren't interested in protecting themselves and their colonies. Contact Andy Joseph to get your hives registered!

At the last IHPA board meeting it was brought to our attention that not all beekeepers understand that when we invite them to have the Iowa Honey Queen help with promotions that it means any kind of promotion, large or small. Do, however, realize that 300 beekeepers can't ask Diane to come to a store promotion, farmers' market, town celebration, parade or event all on the same day. Contact her early if you would like her to help you with any kind of honey promotion. She is here to help the Iowa beekeepers promote honey. To contact Honey Queen Diane Jurchen: (712) 779-0540 or
dianejurchen@hotmail.com

You will find in this issue the bid sheet for theIHPA Iowa State Fair sales products. Please send in your bids to John Johnson by June 30th for consideration. The IHPA will have a continuing beekeeping presentation every day during the fair at 2:00 p.m. in the new Animal Learning Center this year in addition to the stage presentations in the Ag building, the IHPA sales booth and Apiary exhibits. It is going to be another busy August from the 7th until the 17th in Des Moines at the Iowa State Fair, U Gotta Love It! Please consider helping in the sales booth. The sign-up sheet will be included in next month's issue. I already have some people signed up. If you do have a date that you wish to work, let me know and I can get it on the list.

Don't forget about the exciting queen rearing field day planned for June 14th in Perry at Curt and Connie Bronnenberg's Spring Valley Honey Farms. You will find the information and registration form in this issue. Plan to attend for fellowship, expert tips on rearing queens, and great food!

The Iowa Honey Producers Association has t-shirts available for sale. They make great sales tools at farmers' markets, craft shows, town celebrations or just to wear. We will have them available at the field day.

Mike and Andy were on the radio Sunday morning April 13th talking about Iowa Beekeeping. I had to miss most of the interview because I was driving to church at the time. You can check out the talk radio station from your computer. The contact information is:
http://highway6insightcubed.com for the radio blog. They have some very informative interviews of special interest to people living on acreages and small farms. The show is called Highway 6, Your Road to the Country.

May is a critical time for watching colonies so that they don't swarm. Let's hope that when you read this, the weather has become more typical and a nectar flow should be taking place. Make sure that enough honey supers are on the hives so that the colony of honey bees won't swarm. Some swarming is naturally going to happen, but if we act positively and quickly to the situations at hand, maybe we can avert a lot of swarming and the bees will be carrying in lots of sweet nectar to become a bumper crop of honey!

By the time you get this issue of THE BUZZ, Mike and I will have journeyed back home. I am sure that we will have lots of pictures and if you are interested, let us know, I am sure we can share them with you! It will be great to see oldest son, Shawn, Meladee and grandsons, Vincent and Michael. They went to Germany a year ago. Emails and phone calls just aren't quite the same as visiting face to face. I just hope the weeds won't have taken over our garden. Maybe son, Steve, will keep an eye on things and even use the tiller or a hoe to combat the weeds. ( He helped prepare the soil and plant the early part of the garden on April 16th.) That is another story, small grandkids aren't a lot of help in the garden. They happen to walk and dig in the wrong parts of the planted garden. We always leave some room for them, but it is never where they want to be. Oh well, we had fun "working" together. Our helpers were Zane who is 18 months (he likes to taste the dirt), Jack is 2 and JoAnn is 4. We did get it done!

Think Spring! Let's hope we soon have the sweet smell of fruit trees blooming and the buzzing of honey bees as they go about their daily collections of pollen and nectar.
Sincerely,

Donna Brahms, IHPA President