The Buzz Newsletter

Page 11

Featured Beekeeper of the Month

This month our featured beekeeper is Maggie Van Roekel. She is one of 8 youth participating in the Youth Beekeeping Partnership Program sponsored by the Iowa Honey Producers Association. Maggie is the daughter of Marianne and Marty Van Roekel and lives at 1164 Hwy 22, Wellman, Iowa 52356. Maggie has two younger brothers and one younger sister. Her parents are involved in operating the family business, Reha Greenhouses, near Wellman. Maggie attends Mid Prarie Middle School and is in the 8th grade. She is involved in band, choir, track, basketball, volleyball and future problem solvers. She is a member of the Limecreek Limelights 4-H club in Washington County and shows livestock, agriculture, and home economics projects at the county fair. This year she showed goats and sheep at the Washington County Fair as well as the Iowa State Fair. She plans to go to Iowa State University and major in a science or agriculture field.

(left to right) Marty, Maggie, and Ron Van Roekel checking on the bees.

Maggie and her father took the beekeeping class at Kirkwood Community College in Washington, Iowa and I, Ron Wehr, am their mentor. Maggie says she wanted to learn to keep bees because her family rented hives for pollination of their pumpkin patch and she liked watching the bees. She is even planning to get her brother involved in the project and increase to 5 or 6 colonies. Marty is her chauffeur and has two colonies. Maggie says so far she has not been stung. She has built and painted her hive, fed and taken good care of her bees. The colony is very strong and should make it though the winter. She is doing a great job with her first summer experience at keeping bees. I’ll be interested to see her produce her own honey next year. Thanks for our story Maggie.

Submitted by Ron Wehr

Questions and Answers
on Beekeeping

Q. What are the indications of a failing queen within the colony?
A. The first signs are that of irregular brood. Over areas of brood there will be one sealed cell surrounded by several empty cells. There will likely be additional cells expanded to drone size and hundreds of drones already hatched.

Q. Without seeing the queen, how do you determine if the eggs being laid are those of laying workers?
A. First, you will note that the eggs being laid are not deep within the bottom of the cells and possibly three of four eggs along the walls of the cells. That is the work of laying workers. They are unfertile eggs and will hatch only drones.

Q. What about colonies of bees becoming disoriented and disappearing?
A. It was obvious from the time it was first reported of the extremely heavy losses of bee colonies throughout the country that it was likely do to stress on colonies and the environment. Stress, may and possibly include many factors. The constant movement of colonies may be a factor, plus the environment. Honeybees are the first to detect and be affected by bad air and water. Along with all that, a major factor for the problem could be the diet that is forced upon the bees. Apparently 99% of colonies in the U.S. are fed supplement food. None of such foods furnish the bees with the perfect diet as does honey. Soon after beekeepers began feeding Isomerose (corn syrup) to colonies. Bob Meloy, chemist for Sioux Honey, said that a major portion of it was junk to the bees. Cane or beet sugar is also fed when establishing new colonies on foundation. Corn sugar syrup should never be used. In the 1940’s, we were told that bees hatched on sugar syrup lived ten days less than those raised on honey. Back in the 1940’s, tons of sugar were fed to bees. Beekeepers became the Sugar Industries best customers. Fifty-eight years of beekeeping without buying any supplement food is good proof it can be done successfully without the expense and problems of supplemental feeding.
All the various chemicals that have been used to control mites certainly have taken its toll on the bees too. Bees cannot survive unless the mites are controlled and it is difficult for them to survive all the treatments of various chemicals.

Submitted by Glen L. Stanley
Iowa State Apiarist, Emeritus