September is Honey Month
Here it is September and this is supposed to be
honey month. Now I don’t know what else the month of September
represents. Hopefully someone make an appointment with Governor
Vilsack and had him sign a proclamation declaring September the
official Honey Month in Iowa. Even if it is the middle of the
month when you are reading this make a sign and put it up next
to your honey where you sell it whether it is at a farmers market,
health food store or a grocery store. A little extra advertising
always increases sales.
The 150 Iowa State Fair has come and gone. The
entries in the apiary department were well below normal and were
a disgrace for such a year when the fair had such national attention
as being the second best event for family entertainment. Why the
fair entry department set the deadline for entries three weeks
earlier this year than it has been in the past 30 to 50 years
is one of the best kept secrets by the manager of the entry department.
If you are one of the people like me that missed the early deadline
date, I suggest that you write to the Iowa State Fair Board a
letter stating your displeasure with the change and ask that the
deadline for Apiary entries be change to August 1st of each year
from now to eternity. From what I saw on the news there were large
crowds at the fair the first several days. I am not surprised
as the weather was really nice; not to cool and not hot. The newspaper
showed an increase of attendance at the fair this year. I just
hope the sales at the honey booth were up in comparison to the
attendance over last year.
The Clay Count Fair is either in full swing or
over by now depending on when the Buzz is printed and mailed.
After five years of Jim Strachan and John Johnson doing beginning
beekeeping classes at Spencer it is paying off by the number of
people keeping bees in the northwest part of the state. The last
I heard there is a possibility of a new local bee club being formed
in that part of the state and they take over the operation of
the Clay County Fair. Now that is what I call success for all
of the effort that Jim and John and others have put into getting
people to keep bees and by the Iowa Honey Producers for promoting
honey at that fair. I wouldn’t be surprise to find Honey
Lemonade for sale at that fair in a year or two. I remember when
that area of the state was where the most bees were operated.
In the last twenty years there has been a good fifteen to twenty
beekeepers that operated from 500 to a couple of thousand hives
of bees have gone out of business.
You should have removed all of your honey by now and hopefully
have it all extracted and stored until you either sell it wholesale
or retail. Mite treatments should have been on by the first of
September and any weak hives combined with a strong hive for winter
if you are over wintering your bees. Don’t think that putting
two weak hives together will make one strong hive. Look at the
brood pattern and the queen in any weak colony that you have and
you will probably find a poor pattern of brood and a failing queen.
Pinch her head off and dump the bees out in front of a strong
colony and put the brood on top of a strong hive above a queen
excluder. In three weeks you can then remove the hive body after
all of the brood has hatched and take it in for the winter and
store it until spring. You can then use it to make a divide or
put a package of bees in for next year. Speaking of package bees,
remember you have to order your packages in January or February
to be on the top of the receiving list for shipment when you want
them instead of ordering packages when you should be putting them
in the hives. The same goes of ordering Queens. Order now for
next spring delivery. You will probably have to call the breeder
for prices, as I am sure they haven’t set their 2005 prices
on packages and Queens at this time. You may want to try a different
breed of bee next year to see if it will produce more honey than
the breed you have been using or if it is gentler or builds up
earlier in the spring. If you are over wintering your bees remember
that a hive of bees in two deep hive bodies needs to weigh approximately
110 to 120 pounds by Oct. 1st to survive an Iowa winter. If it
isn’t that heavy you will need to feed it with either 55%
fructose corn syrup or a ratio of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water
or add enough full frames of honey. Be sure that you have put
mouse guards on your hives by now or you will soon have a lot
of work to do next spring replacing combs and bees also. A one-inch
sheet of Styrofoam insulation place on top of the inner cover
of your hives under the outer telescoping lid will help your bees
to maintain a higher temperature so they can move to food easier
in the winter. Two hives placed side-by-side and wrapped with
tarpaper also helps to keep both hives warm and to use what heat
is available from the sun on a sunny day during winter.
I don’t know of any other farming activity that is more
labor intensive as beekeeping. I also don’t know of any
other farming activity that is more satisfying than beekeeping.
To go out to the bee yard and observe the bees coming in loaded
with nectar in the summer and to see them come in with a load
of pollen in the fall and try to figure what plant they maybe
working. Go near the hives in the late fall and smell the aster
nectar that the bees are bringing in when frost has killed all
other plants and the hive has a smell similar to vinegar. Uncapping
a frame of honey and smell the mint aroma that is given off from
the honey made from creeping charley that is such a nuisance to
someone that wants their yard to be weed free. If you find anything
that is more enjoyable than beekeeping as a farming activity I
would like to know what you think it could be. Just write about
it and send the article to the editor of the Buzz.
Have a great fall from the Old Man
