Will
Swain
opened the meeting at 6:30
Will
spoke a bit about the recent death of a
longtime member, James
Miller
of Wellman.
Will said that although no autopsy was
performed, James
did have a history of A-fib,
and apparently passed away sitting in a
chair
in his room. Will read a short piece from the
Washington
Farmer’s Market, where James
was a regular vendor, which was nicely
written and focused on
James’ character and how he will be missed.
Shawn
Webb
spoke
about how James was his mentor as he started out in beekeeping.
Others spoke of how welcoming James was and how he loved
having people visit his apiary.
Will
mentioned the possibility of doing something as a club to
commemorate
James, such as helping fund a youth scholarship in
beekeeping. The
officers will be discussing and sharing possible
options.
Andy
Joseph
(state apiarist) was our guest speaker.
Andy
opened his presentation with summary of how the past season
went with
beekeeping in Iowa. It was “a kind of a rough year for
beekeepers.” Iowa is typically one of the poorer states in the
country for winter survival and Andy suggested it is perhaps
because
we often ride the freezing line, which stresses the bees
as they move
in and out of cluster, particularly in late winter and
spring. He
quoted another beekeeper who used the phrase “if
they’re flying,
they’re dying” which illustrates the risks the bees
have of
breaking cluster and then being subject to plummeting
temperatures
and conditions. While winter can give bees and
beekeepers somewhat
of a break, it can highlight issues with hives
that are weaker.
Andy
pointed out that it was a bit of a weird anomaly that small
scale
beekeepers, on the whole, had more overwinter success than
the larger
scale beekeepers this past year, as the commercial
beekeepers have
been working their operations for years and have
a good handle on the
routines. Hives that made it through winter
were often in very good
shape. This gave people a lot of optimism,
with the nice start to
the spring, with big colonies, that it could be a
very good honey
season. Then came rains, so if people had taken
splits, perhaps to
replace lost colonies or sell some colonies, by the
time numbers
increased back up the rain came and nectar flow
came to a stop.
Those lucky enough to go ahead and super hives
early were able to
capture a good flow, though a long dearth later
decreased some of
that gain. To sum, a typical good year would
yield about 60 pounds
of honey per hive but this year many only
saw about a quarter of that. Commercial beekeepers like Eberts
only harvested about 7 pounds per hive.
Other
points Andy shared:
--Our
black locust honey is underrated and probably not marketed
as well as
it could be.
--
Commercial beekeepers manage differently, of necessity, than a
small
scale beekeeper in that they have a “three legged stool” in
that
they need to have sales of bees, sales of honey and sales of
other
bee products. They need more than honey because honey
prices are
sorely priced at just around $1.50 per pound.
--Andy
does splits by putting a queen excluder on top of a
queenright double
deep, puts several brood frames in a third box
and has the nurse bees
move up to cover them. This eventually will
be taken off as a split.
--Rain
insurance- a 50/50 gamble where the USDA pays half of the
premium and
then one has to basically pick whether they think it
will be a drier
or rainier season than average.
Norroa--
Andy
talked about this new treatment for varroa mites that
has now been
approved for use in Iowa. This is an RNAi treatment
that effectively
reduces the mite population without introducing
poisons by directly
attacking the reproductive process of the mites.
Some key points
are:
--very
promising technology; no chance of resistance to the
treatment
--treatment
is good for about 18 weeks.
--cost
currently is high: about $44 for a double deep for that 18
week
duration
--can
be used with other mite treatments and preferably after mite
numbers
are reduced by other means
Regarding
other treatment modes, Andy talked about how the
practice of not
following label directions has led to some instances
to bees becoming
resistant to the treatments. Some treatments
such as Hopguard
and oxalic acid are natural substances and it is
unlikely that bees
will develop resistance to these chemicals.
Will
Swain reminded the group that our club has an oxalic acid
vaporizer
they may reserve and use. Now is a good time to do that
with very
little brood in the hives. It is better to wait for a warmer
winter
day, in the 40s or 50s, when the bees are not in a tight
cluster.
Andy
also pointed out that Iowa has seen an abnormally larger
problem with
small hive beetles, to the point that even strong hives,
which are
typically able to fend off damage from them, have been
severely
damaged this past season. Is this an anomaly or a sign of
things to
come? Andy hypothesized that because part of their life
cycle
involves advanced larvae burying in the ground, the softer soil
from
rains this summer may have led to an increase in their
numbers. Tom
Long places
small squares of corrugated poster
board in corners of the hive.
Small hive beetles seek out the
security of the pieces which allows
the to be removed from the
hive. No bait is required.
Tom
Long
made a book recommendation: Raising
Resilient Bees:
Heritage
Techniques to Mitigate Mites, Preserve Locally Adapted
Genetics, and
Grow Your Apiary
Eric
McEwen and Joy McEwen
Will
Swain welcomed new members.
Meeting
adjourned at 8:05, followed by treats.
Thanks
to all for coming and special thanks to Andy Joseph for a nice
presentation.
Our
next meeting will be February 9th, 2026.
Thanks
as always to Rob McCain and Urban Acres Realty for
hosting!
Look
for us at Http://eastcentraliowabeekeepers.blogspot.com
and
on Facebook search for “east central Iowa beekeepers”
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Snow coming down? Time to leave the bees alone? No! This is a good time to do an oxalic acid vapor treatment, now that queens have quit or slowed down laying and the varroa are more susceptible to the vapors.
To reserve the club's oxalic acid vaporizer. Go to this link to get started.
