 |
Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter September 2006 |
 |
|
The Buzz – September 2006 As many of you know, the Iowa Honey Producer’s Association manages a booth in the Agricultural Building at the Iowa State Fair. On lookers were able to try various samples of creamed honey, roll foundation candles, “ooo” and “ahh” at the observation hives, and of course cool, off with an icy cup of honey lemonade. But that wasn’t all; when I wasn’t talking to visitors at the booth, I did a few interviews and gave some presentations. I was asked to do live interviews with radio stations WHO as well as WOW who were covering all of the fair’s excitement. I even had the chance, with the other Honey Queens, to do a short interview for channel 8 during their live coverage of the fair. This was an excellent opportunity to promote beekeeping and honey to the thousands of listeners and nightly news watchers. I also gave several presentations over different aspects. One presentation, “Busy as Bees”, covered the life cycles of bees while the other presentation, “More Than Just a Sweet Treat”, went over the nutritional value of honey. Following that, Teresa and I also introduced four delicious and simple recipes to an audience. Standing in three inch heels and hearing that I “must be as sweet as honey” does have its peeks besides the unlimited supply of honey lemonade. I ran into many friends I hadn’t seen in awhile and made new ones along the way. It was by far a beneficial experience; even through all the havoc of state fair life, I still managed to see the famous butter cow, the industrial building, and one of my favorite singers in concert! National honey month is upon us and the fun is only just beginning. On the weekend of the 9th, I will be attending the Clay County Fair in western Iowa. If you didn’t already know, it is the biggest county fair in Iowa. I will be there for a day to meet and greet and show what beekeeping and honey has to offer. Also, Honey Fest is approaching fast. I encourage you to attend this event which will be held on a Sunday afternoon in Cedar Rapids. It will be a fun filled day with many activities planned. I hope to see you there! Feel free to contact me at anytime either by my cell phone: 319 – 269 – 7212 OR by email at elizabeth-macken@uiowa.edu and I will be glad to help out in anyway that I can. Sincerely,
I would like to thank Bob Wolff, Jean Wiedenheft, Dave Ervin, Kurt Melander, Duane Bower and Caitlin Holden for their help in reconstructing the escape routes for the observation beehives in the Agriculture Building at the Iowa State Fair. They volunteered several hours on Saturday, July 8th, for this project. Thanks also to Bill Hare and the maintenance staff at the Fairground for their work on the outside windows (they do not have to be removed now) and connecting tubing to the hives. Thanks to Larry Spina for letting us borrow his mannequin and hive again this year. It provided a very good teaching tool to help answer questions about bees and beekeeping. Thanks to Donna Brahms, the Iowa Honey Producer’s Association, and all of the volunteers for all of the hard work and long hours you spent at the booth in the Agricultural Building. We had a lot of entries in this year’s Fair. Congratulations to all who won ribbons. Comments were made on the score sheet for most of the classes this year to help identify why an entry may not have placed. Sometimes a small change can make the difference between getting a ribbon or not. The Sweepstakes winner was Donna & Mike Brahms and they will receive the Sweepstakes Plaque at the annual meeting of the Iowa Honey Producers Association in November. David Laughlin received the C. F. Koehnen Award for his observation beehive, Class 1. Patricia Stewart won the Dadant Award for her entry of White Extracted Honey, Class 4. The B & L Plastics Award for 12-oz. plastic bears, Class 9, was given to Melissa Laughlin. The Drapers Award for Frame of Extracting Honey, Class 12, was given to Marlene Mogle. Donna & Mike Brahms were awarded the Herman Bickle Award for Beeswax Art, Class 15. The A. I. Root Award went to Alex Ebert for his Beeswax Candle, Class 19. The Iowa Honey Producers Association also gave an Award for observation hives with a marked queen, Class 1. First place winners for the other classes were: Class 2-Phil Meyer; Class 3-Donna & Mike Brahms; Class 5- Patricia Stewart; Class 6- Mark Tintjer; Class 7- Tim Laughlin; Class 10- Patricia Stewart; Class 11- Pat Randol, Black Berry creamed honey; Class 13- Melissa Laughlin; Class 14- Mark Tintjer; Class 16- Donna & Mike Brahms; Class 17- Alex Ebert; Class 18- Alex Ebert; Class 20- Curt & Connie Bronnenberg; Class 21- Curt & Connie Bronnenberg; Class 22- David Laughlin; and Class 23- David Laughlin. Class 24 did not have any entries. I hope your harvest is good this year and will bee seeing you next year at the 2007 Iowa State Fair. Melanie Bower
|
|
|
 |