Minutes from June 13, 2022

East Central Iowa Beekeepers Association

Minutes from June 13, 2022

President Joseph Klingelhutz opened the meeting by having everyone introduce themselves and talk briefly about where they’re from and how their bees are doing. Welcome new members!

Treasurer’s report: Jean stated we have $1213.57 in our account. She indicated she would take dues and donations as well. Bob Wolff mentioned he had some items for sale from a former beekeeper who passed away. You can contact Bob at 319-310-4143 for information about these items.

Secretary’s report: Jim passed around a sign-in sheet and a sheet where people could indicate if they would like to work with a mentor and those who would be willing to work as a mentor. Rachel, our bee queen, gave a report on community outreach activities she has beebnn involved with. Jim mentioned two events for Earth Day at which we had a presence and Joseph mentioned another activity at which he gave a talk about bees.

President’s report: Joseph mentioned it is important to talk with people about bees and we’d like to see our group grow.

Johnson County Fair: Joseph talked about the fair and a sign-up sheet to volunteer at the fair, July 24-27 at the Johnson County Fairgrounds. There was some discussion about having an observation hive, with Rachel saying she could possibly provide one if it wasn’t too hot for the bees.

Main Speaker: Adam Ebert of Ebert Honey

The following are some highlights of Adam’s talk. Thanks, Adam, for sharing your perspectives on your family’s adventures in the bee business.

Figure 1: Adam, his father and brother

Adam’s father began the business in 1980. He showed some photos from the early days of the business, using just a 4 frame extractor and about 20 hives near Fairfield. Over about ten years, the business grew to about 50 colonies. In 1996, they built their first building and moved the business out of the house. Once Adam began working as a professor, he worked hard with the bees and colonies expanded to about 500. Today he works solely with the bees.

Ebert Honey currently has around 1000 hives in this area and another 700-800 in central Iowa.

The business expanded from primarily selling honey to bottling honey (theirs and others), beeswax distribution, nucs and package bees, queens, bottling supplies and transporting bees to California for almond pollination. Typically, they produce around 2000 pounds of wax. Adam said it takes around 7 pounds of honey for bees to produce a pound of beeswax, so it is a costly activity for the bees. They buy wax from midwestern states and distribute it. It has gone up in price since there was a shortage of honey last year, resulting in less wax cappings. He feels this will be a good June here in Iowa with warm temperatures and adequate moisture. Due to the slow spring, he feels his colonies are about a month behind normal.

Adam says they count hive losses from peak to low, from July to April. This resulted in about 30 percent loss this past year, while in their central Iowa hives, which did not receive the same mite treatment, suffered about 80 percent loss. A bonus to that was having plenty of resources from the dead-outs to supplement the winter survival colonies.

They have stayed away from pollen since mold can be a considerable problem. Perhaps it might be a future venture for them. Similarly, comb honey is in demand but only comprises about 2% of their honey crop. The company also sells honey packaging.

One of Adam’s favorite things about beekeeping is raising his own queens, though now other aspects of the job take him away from raising queens himself. He will be hiring and training people to learn how to handle and package queens. Currently they get most of their queens from northern California.

California almond pollination: A hive needs at least 6 frames of bees but ten frames will pay a higher price. Costs are about $85 to $95 per hive for the transportation, and this has gone up with current high fuel costs. The beekeeper can earn about $150 to $225 per hive depending on the source. Ideally, about 325 to 400 hives per load is best. When they arrive in the winter in California, the bees are fed sugar water and each colony given several pounds of pollen substitute, which stimulates brood rearing so colonies increase about 25%. Bees are treated for mites at that time, then, which is easier since the hives are so close together. The last couple of years they have moved the bees to a holding areas and did splits, and with the close proximity they have been able to quickly split a lot of bees. Back in Iowa, Adam hoped to do some apple blossom pollination and build up hives to do splits but the apple blossom time was quite short.

Treatments: some have not been working as well as in the past. Apistan and checkmite were used years ago but stopped working. Apiguard is used some, though several applications are needed. He uses MAQS primarily in the fall. They test vigorously now post-treatment. In the past, oxalic acid dribble was used but now have been experimenting with extended release OA on sponges. Those treated with sponges showed much more healthy colonies.

(Thanks, Adam—great talk!)

Central Iowa Beekeepers Winter Seminar-- Paul Hain attended the meeting and gave a summary. Small hive beetles—difficult to kill, and can travel up to 200 meters from the hive. Diatomaceous earth can be spread around the base of the hive; the beetles will put a slime on the frames. Stronger colonies are better able to keep them under control. State apiarist Andy Joseph spoke about transitioning into sideline beekeeping—a step up from being a hobbyist, where the beekeeper sells honey and bee products though not on a commercial scale. Dr. Carol Fassbinder-Orth spoke on the topic of bee decline and how to recognize when a colony is failing. Mites, honey stores, are some of the things to observe. Dr. Tom Seeley spoke about how honey bee swarms and how they find their new home. Paul also spoke about the importance of water sources for the bees.

Floyd Otdoerfer-- Floyd recently had Andy Joseph inspect his 25 nucs. Basically, he looked through the nucs looking for signs of disease such as deformed wing syndrome. James Miller commented that anyone can call Andy to have colonies inspected. Floyd said it isn’t necessary to have colonies inspected every year but if you are selling bees, you should do it every several years at least. Joseph also commented on the importance of getting your bees registered.

Meeting was adjourned shortly after 8 pm

Important notice: Our membership list includes dozens of people who have not attended nor have paid dues in well over a year. We will be cutting that list down to members who have been in attendance and/or paid dues in the past two years. If this applies to you, you will no longer be receiving notices about meetings. If you wish to remain on active status as a member, please contact Jim Davis (davisjk@southslope.net) or send your dues to Jean Stallman at 11247 Scotch Grove Lane, Fairfax, Iowa 52228

Visit our FACEBOOK page by searching for east central iowa beekeeper or visit our blog at

http://eastcentraliowabeekeepers.blogspot.com

Thanks to all who attended!