The Beeyard Report
It's September-- the time of the year when I wonder how I am going
to make it all happen on time. We have to get the honey off and
extracted, check for mites, treat if necessary, feed all the colonies
up to 120# and, finally, wrap up the yards that are exposed. All
the while, I have to keep up with my route. Anthony had 30 barrels
done before he left for college. I've only gotten nine more done
since he left. The State Fair took some time and we have a couple
of other shows we go to. They are good money makers but there
are a lot of other things I could be doing during that time.
We have gotten a good late flow here so we still have a lot of
boxes in the yards. Some years we have most of them stripped by
now. One of our yards is thirty-five miles from home and Adam
stripped it in late August. We thought everything was done. I
was in there a week or so later to test for mites. I saw bees
hanging out on almost every colony. I thought, "I really
should super these back". It never happened . When I returned
to the yard on September 15th it looked like about half of the
colonies had swarmed.
Taylors, who operate around Prairie City, have had an even better
fall than we did. Their crop was looking extremely short but now
looks like it will be somewhere around 30 barrels which would
be about a 100# average. I don't have a very good feel for how
much I have left in the yards but am guessing I will wind up with
an average around 75#. I am always amazed at how much difference
25 miles can make or, sometimes, even two miles. We had a really
good June in most of our yards but nothing much happened around
Prairie City, Now, in the fall, the positions are reversed. When
it's not happening, I always ask myself, "What is wrong with
the bees?". Usually, the answer is "Nothing". Sometimes
the nectar just isn't out there even though things look good to
the human eye.
I haven't seen many Varroa mites. I have tested about half of
my yards. We take an ether roll or put in a sticky board for every
five colonies in the yard. The most I have gotten on an ether
roll is eight and most of them are only one or two. I also take
fifty bees from these colonies and then sample about one-third
of these for tracheal mites. Adam found one colony that had crashed
from Varroa when he was taking off honey at the end of August.
This immediately raised a red flag and I retested the yard but
still didn't find many mites in the other colonies. If this trend
continues, I am not going to use any strips until spring. I am
sure we will have colonies that will perish but I want to concentrate
my treatments on bees that I know are going to be alive.
The bees that we moved back to the Skunk River for the late soybean
bloom have done absolutely nothing. In contrast, the lame colonies
that we left behind in the other locations have filled out quite
nicely. It's just impossible to predict the flow.
Adam and Eric are both at Iowa State this year. Adam is commuting
from Sully. Alex helps when I need him but he is involved with
his own projects. My new bottler(the human operator) is working
out quite well. I hope to get him into extracting soon.
Submitted by Phil Ebert
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From the Iowa State Fair
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Patty Judge(center) takes
a moment for a picture with Laura Westercamp(left), East Central
Iowa Honey Queen, and Jeralyn Westercamp(right), a winner in the
AG Calendar Art Contest.
