2008 Newsletter Collection by Missouri State Beekeepers Association

2008 Newsletter Collection Sponsored By:

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

January 2008

P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075 www.mostatebeekeepers.org

Eugene Makovec Editor

Spring Meeting to be held in Springfield March 14-15 Dr. Eric Mussen is featured speaker by Sharon Gibbons Please join the Missouri State Beekeepers Association for our annual Spring meeting, March 14-15, 2008, at The Clarion Hotel in Springfield, Missouri.We have an exciting agenda planned and we hope that all of our members will attend. Remember, communication and learning are the keys to successful beekeeping. Our primary speaker will be Dr. Eric Mussen, Extension Apiculturist at the University of California, Davis, Department of Entomology. Dr. Mussen received his B.S. in Entomology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and both an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Entomology at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. His research interests, according to the UC Davis website, include “managing honeybees and wild bees for maximum field production, while minimizing pesticide damage to pollinator populations”. Dr. Mussen edits the From the UC Apiaries newsletter, and is known for his expertise on Africanized honeybees. He was named 2006 Beekeeper of the Year by the California State Beekeepers Association, and in January 2007 was given the American Association of Professional Apiculturists’ Award for Apicultural Excellence. Among the topics on which Dr. Mussen will lecture in Springfield are the effect of CCD on California pollination, and the exciting rebuilding of the UC Davis Bee Lab with the addition of renowned queen breeder/researcher Sue Cobey. While the meeting agenda is not yet finalized, there will be workshops for newer beekeepers with help from the Ozark Beekeepers Association. This two-day meeting will be held at the: Clarion Hotel 3333 South Glenstone Ave. Springfield, MO 65804 (417)883-6550 or (800)756-7318 www.clarionhotel-spfld.com

The group room rate is $64.00 for King or Double. (Suites are available for $199 per night.) Please mention the Missouri State Beekeepers Association in order to get the special rate. The block of rooms will be held for us until March 4, 2008, or after that as available. The hotel is located at the core of the dining and retail district of Springfield. The Clarion’s “Newsroom” restaurant has a daily breakfast buffet, at nominal charge.The hotel has an outDr. Eric Mussen door heated pool and an exercise room. Rooms include irons and boards, hair dryers and in-room coffee service. Battlefield mall is located within a mile, and the world-famous Bass Pro Shop is located within two miles of the hotel. On Friday morning we would like to include a tour of the French’s Mustard plant in Springfield, where over 30 million pounds of mustard seed are processed each year.We are waiting for a reply from them. At this time we are planning on holding the Executive Board meeting on either Thursday night or Friday morning before the French’s tour. Make this meeting a mini-vacation, and take a side trip to Branson.The special hotel rate is good for Thursday night through Sunday. If you want to add more days, please let me know, and I will arrange the same rate. We thank all of you for traveling last fall to Hannibal, and now hope that you will support the Springfield location by attending. It is becoming more and more difficult and expensive to book top quality speakers and hotels. We have another good meeting scheduled, but costs have gone up with the increase in fuel costs. We face increased minimums on the food contracts for the next two meetings. If you support our banquet and lunches at the meetings, we will be able to meet the $3000 food minimum 6 required.

From the President Ken Norman

Beekeeping of Yesteryear IL assn. notes from 1903

Beginner Classes

Spring Meeting Registration 7

Honey Board News Tasty new food concepts

Local Club Information

Apitherapy News Beebread treats rare disorder

Honey Queen Report

In the Fall of 2008, we will go back to The Lodge of the Four Seasons at the Lake of the Ozarks, and in the Spring of 2009, 9 we will have a combined meeting with Kansas in Overland 11 Park, KS.

Directory of Officers

All meeting questions can be directed to Sharon Gibbons at sgibbs314@earthlink.net.

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Missouri State Beekeepers Association gram of every five years would be the ideal.

From the President by Ken Norman The holidays are behind us and we can look forward to 2008 and all the challenges that we will face in beekeeping. In 2007 we became aware of CCD and the honeybee die off that occurred with it. Just after Christmas I became aware of another Missouri beekeeper who, after checking his bees for a trip to the almonds in a few weeks, discovered a massive die-off with CCD-like symptoms. So I am going to review what has been discovered in 2007 that will help our hives to make it through 2008: Treat with Fumagillin-B, a Canadian product manufactured by Midivet Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., Alberta. This product can be found at Dadant and other bee suppliers advertising in this newsletter. It was found that colonies with CCD had nosema apis in 90% and nosema ceranae in 100% of the colonies. (Source: Bee Culture) Feed pollen patties to supplement honeybee diet when there is no more pollen to be had. Collected pollen from your local area is the best for the bees, with the new pollen replacements next.These include Mega Bee, Feed Bee and Bee Pro. Deal with inbreeding in the colonies, through a diverse queen replacement program from different parts of the country and breeders. It was Dann Purvis who brought this to our attention at the Fall 2007 meeting. Replace old comb that has become a sponge for chemicals and diseases that are present in the environment. A replacement pro-

Beekeeping Short Course Make honey in 2008!

EASTERN MISSOURI

The Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association will offer a full day course of BEEKEEPERS professional instruction and open hive demonstrations for beginners and ASSOCIATION experienced hobbyists on Saturday, February 23, 2008, at the Center of Clayton, 50 Gay Avenue, Clayton, Missouri from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.The class will cover all fundamental beekeeping topics, and is specially designed to provide everything necessary for beginners to keep bees and make honey starting in the spring of 2008.The course will include hands on follow-up sessions in March and April to help participants get started with honeybees. The Association offers beginners mentoring contacts and additional assistance. The cost is $45 individual, or $60 family.The registration packet will include a copy of Beekeeping Basics, an acclaimed, illustrated guide to beekeeping, plus magazines, catalogs and instructional handouts. Raymond A. Nabors, Ph.D., an experienced beekeeping educator and former extension entomologist, and currently Farm Director of the Heartland Ag Network, will present the course. Dr. Nabors’ presentations are noted for their stunning graphics, practical and scientific accuracy, high energy, and humor. Register by February 15, online at www.easternmobeekeepers.com or by calling 314-894-8737. The EMBA has been promoting beekeeping in the Metro St. Louis area for 69 years.

There is no doubt more that can be written on this subject and I hope that in 2008 more discoveries can be found to complement what has been learned. The Executive board still has a need for a secretary, and if you would like to nominate and/or volunteer someone for the position call Kenny Norman at 417-669-4452 or email dkennynorman@juno.com The Executive board meeting in January will be on the 26th in Columbia, Missouri. The meeting will occur from 9am to 2pm at Ryan’s restaurant, 908 I-70 Dr. SW (573-4990133). All officers and representatives from locals are invited.

DRAPER’S SUPER BEE 914 S. Street Auburn, NE 68305 Ph. (402) 274-3725 Fax: (402) 274-3128

January 2008

Page 3

Tasty ideas set to be unveiled by Honey Board Firestone, Colorado (November 2007) New fruits of the National Honey Boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (NHB) applied science program are ripe for the picking. In 2005, NHB began developing industrial formulas for food concepts using honey as the primary or defining ingredient. The formulas are made available to any food manufacturer interested in adding a natural extension to their product line. Past projects have included a solid honey and honey balsamic vinegar. Now three new products are ready for a grand unveiling. Honey Moo, a milk modifier, uses the clean pure taste of honey to bring chocolate or strawberry flavor to milk.These products are part of a larger campaign to move kids away from soft drinks and toward healthier dairy products. Honey Glaze contains 65% honey and is available in three varieties -- Honey Dijon, Chipotle Honey and Chili Garlic Honey.The glazes are an easy way to marinate meat for the grill or stir-fry, and they also make a great dipping sauce. The final products capitalize on the fast-growing drink segment -a kiwi-lime soda and peach oolong tea, both flavored with honey. New product concepts developed by a commodity board have a unique set of advantages. NHB has in-depth knowledge of consumer attitudes toward honey, as well as the technical aspects of formulating with honey. What a private company might find most valuable is that NHB already has invested in making bench-top samples with preliminary formulations. However, full-scale production, product identity, packaging and distribution would be the responsibility of the manufacturer or marketing entity. Baking sales kit ready for honey suppliers The NHB has launched a new sales tool for honey suppliers: The Baking Sales Kit. One simple package now compiles technical research and consumer surveys on using honey in baking.The kit also gives instructions on substitutions and how to compensate for the browning and enzymatic effects of using honey. The Baking Sales Kit is free to any honey company with bakery clients.This marketing

effort is part of a goal to increase honey consumption in the processed foods market, which is estimated at 45% of the total U.S. honey market. To request a copy or copies of the Baking Sales Kit, contact Charlotte Jordan at 303-776-2337 or charlotte@nhb.org. The National Honey Board conducts research, advertising and promotion programs to help maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets for honey.The Boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work, funded by an assessment of one cent per pound on domestic and imported honey, is designed to expand the awareness and use of honey by consumers, the foodservice industry and food manufacturers.

Heartland Honey and Beekeeping Supplies 19201 South Clare Road Spring Hill, KS 66061 913-856-8356 www.heartlandhoney.com

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

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Apitherapy News ... Pollen/honey mixture helps child born with rare chromosomal abnormality Journal of the American Apitherapy Society Volume 14, No. 3 September 2007 by Priscilla Coe

The benefits of beebread for T.J. An apitherapy case history of a child born with a rare chromosomal abnormality by Priscilla Coe Donald Downs, a long-time apitherapist in Wellington, Ohio, and member of the AAS board, has, at several AAS conferences, presented a brief case history on his work with T.J. Born with a virtually unknown genetic abnormality,T.J. was given a brief life expectancy. Beebread was introduced into formula via his feeding tube at age two by his maternal grandmother, Angie Gebhart Bittner. A distinct turning point for the better was noted almost immediately in his overall health. Since then, his only sustenance has been formula with the addition of beebread or honey, and his vitality and capabilities have steadily improved. Today, as T.J. approaches his sixth birthday, his grandmother notes the unimaginable strides her grandson has made, especially considering that no hope was given at birth, and she credits the hive products 100 percent.The following is a transcript of an interview with Angie in July 2007. My grandson,Todd Jason—who we call T.J.—was born on October 30, 2001. He weighed five pounds, nine ounces, and was 19 inches in length. My daughter, who was age 17 at his birth, had a normal delivery after a 38-week pregnancy, and everything looked fine at first. T.J. did have a few characteristics that might be associated with a Down syndrome child, but not many. Within a few hours after his birth, though, we knew something was wrong, but no one could figure out what. It took three months to identify that T.J. had an extra chromosome 2 (1), making him very original.The exact diagnosis from a doctor specializing in genetics was that he had both a triplicated and a duplicated segment of chromosome 2. It is normal to have one chromosome 2, which is a pair with a chromosome from each parent, but T.J. had three. He also had additional complications at birth. A terrible crisis occurred on Christmas Eve, when T.J. was not quite two months old. He had been assessed with overall “failure to thrive” (2) and was having severe respiratory problems. Doctors at our local hospital,Altman Hospital, in Canton, Ohio, said we had to decide if we would let T.J. go, meaning taking him off the vent he was on and letting him die, or if we wanted to put a “trach” (tracheotomy tube) in his windpipe to make breathing possible. Our entire family was in agreement to go with the trach. T.J. was moved to Akron Children’s Hospital 70 miles away. A crew came down to incubate him, and it was a night of horror. He then had three surgeries on January 5, 2002: One was to put in a Nissian tube to deal with reflux, the second was to put in the trach, and the third was to put a Mickey feeding tube in his stomach. Over the next year and a half he was in the hospital a lot, though he otherwise lived at home with us. During this period he essentially died five times and I, personally, did a type of CPR on him—not compression on his heart,

but mouth to trach, rather than mouth to mouth. His immunity was very low and he couldn’t go out in public. Even a small amount of exercise would wear him out. He lived on formula. I had trained as a Professional Nursing Assistant and was given custody of him. Prior to meeting Donald Downs, I had an experience that set the stage for my openness to apitherapy. A woman with MS called, asking me about bee stings. She was being treated by Donald but had to drive an hour to get to his house. I told her I would get back to her, but didn’t know anything about bee venom treatments. Right after that, I saw that Donald was speaking to our local beekeepers’ group. My husband, Rick, and I keep bees and currently have about 130 hives. I’d always had the feeling there was something else you could do with bees besides producing honey. We were busy with our apiary, but I told Rick I felt strongly that we needed to go to the lecture. As it turned out, we stayed and talked with Donald afterward for an hour and a half. I then started going to the bee sting sessions at his house and continued for about three months. One day I couldn’t get a babysitter and took T.J. with me. Donald suggested we give T.J. a small amount of beebread.The first day I tried it, when T.J. was two years old, I put one teaspoon of beebread in with the formula in his feeding tube. I had resistance from the nurses who were helping, but nevertheless continued to give T.J. this amount of beebread every day. Within a week and a half, his bowels improved (he had been taking MiraLAX), he had more energy, and he developed a “glow” that people commented on. Donald came down a few months later and noticed that while T.J. had been ghost-white in the past, he now had good complexion. He had also put on weight, and was pushing himself up from a blanket on the floor. I never questioned giving T.J. the beebread. After three or four months the doctors saw that T.J. was getting stronger, he was less asthmatic, and his lungs had never been so clear. They finally asked me what was going on. Previously, he had been in the hospital for anywhere from a few days to over a week with his asthma attacks, and this improved tremendously after we began with the beebread. The trach was removed from T.J.’s throat when he was four years old, and the hole healed. Removing the trach was a very important decision I came to through prayer. I continued on with the beebread until fairly recently, when I decided to give T.J. one tablespoon of honey per day in the feeding tube instead of the beebread. I am not aware of any changes in his medicines. Looking back, a lot has happened that we were told would never happen. At his birth, the doctors told us T.J. would not live past four and a half months.We were told he would never sit up. Now he can sit up by himself for a few minutes, though he is otherwise in a wheelchair. His height and weight are normal for his age. He can go out in public now and has been in a preschool for children with special needs since age three. His teachers have commented on his steady improvement. T.J. can’t walk on his own, but he can stand up and walk a bit when we hold his hands. He mostly smiles, though he does speak with a vocabulary of a few words. If you could look at him and see inside his eyes, you would realize he is much smarter than you might think at first. His sleep is normal, and I would say he has normal, healthy instincts overall and continues to grow and develop.A few weeks ago we were at a

continued on page 5

January 2008

Page 5

Beebread used to treat chromosomal disease continued from page 4 Mexican restaurant and T.J. reached for my glass of iced tea, opened his mouth, and tilted his head back. I knew he wanted a sip, which I gave him. This was a first—he had learned how to swallow. In the past he wouldn’t let us put anything in his mouth, and didn’t even want to have his teeth brushed. Another fairly recent development is that he has learned to cry. T.J. never cried as an infant. In fact, it seemed as if he didn’t know personal pain. He had never reacted to surgeries or when he hurt himself. He now has two younger brothers. Starting about two years ago, he started to cry when he saw his brothers cry. Now he cries on his own, sometimes for his advantage, such as when he wants us to come to his room at night. Overall, he is a very happy child and loves to be around adults and children. He loves country music and nature sounds. I made him a tape of sounds from the beehive -- which we completely wore out! I would say that apitherapy provided a 100 percent turning point in T.J.’s life. The honey and pollen supported T.J. with nutrition he wasn’t getting and improved his use of oxygen. With all this, my husband and I have now both become apitherapists. We have treated as many as 35 people at a time with bee stings for conditions such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and shingles. I’ve always felt that the bees are very spiritual and that they can offer us much more than we even know about now.

Notes: 1) Chromosome 2 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome, one copy inherited from each parent. Chromosome 2 is the second largest human chromosome, spanning more than 243 million base pairs (the building material of DNA) and representing almost 8 percent of the total DNA in cells. Source: www.ghr.nlm.nih.gov 2) Failure to thrive is a medical term that denotes poor weight gain and physical growth failure over an extended period of time in infancy. Source: www.wikipedia.org Donald Downs can be reached at (440) 647-2483, or 20475 Pitts Road, Wellington, OH 44090. Priscilla Coe is a beekeeper in Sonoma, California, who works in food public relations in San Francisco. She is a longtime student of many aspects of holistic healing and has attended a number of AAS and international apitherapy conferences. Contact her at priscillacoe@earthlink.net or P.O. Box 1267, Sonoma, CA 95476.

Some observations about chromosomes by Theo Cherbuliez, M.D. T.J.’s condition has been diagnosed as the result of a chromosome abnormality. Chromosome helixes—the repository and a determinant of who we are and how we function—come in equal pairs; the separation of these pairs is part of the mechanism of reproduction. Normally when the pairs separate, each strand detaches from the other, and the result is an exact copy of each one. Then each strand duplicates itself, and the reproduction of the chromosome is accomplished. Sometimes, however, the separation of the two strands is incomplete: a fragment of one of the helixes does not separate from its equal, instead remaining with its strand of origin.The result is the creation of two slightly unequal pairs. One helix has a little piece missing, and the

other has a double version of that same piece. Typically this creates anomalies—a person may be especially gifted in a particular area, or may have certain deficiencies. In T.J.’s case both strands of chromosome 2 have pieces that did not separate.This is highly unusual—unique, in fact, if the diagnosis is correct.An accident of chromosome duplication of this magnitude is generally incompatible with living, and we are told that T.J. “died” five times. This inspirational account revealed the grandmother’s love and commitment expressed in the extraordinary amount of effort she devoted to keep little T.J. not only alive but also growing. Equally important is the role of apitherapy -- a natural set of remedies -- in correcting an “error of nature.” In effect, we have observed a partly documented representation of the role of apitherapy in grave cases, for which traditional medicine offered no treatment.

Beebread in apitherapy by Priscilla Coe Beebread is an extremely nourishing tonic made of pollen and honey that roughly simulates the beebread made by honeybees in the hive. Its high lactic acid content supports healthy digestion, which is a foundation of good health. The lactic acid also can be converted to glucose, glucose being the main source of energy used throughout the body. The production of beebread in the hive is not fully understood. Approximately one-quarter of the mature bees in a hive collect only pollen, one-quarter forage only for nectar, and roughly half forage for both pollen and nectar.Therefore, it is estimated that half of the pollen brought back to the hive has been mixed with nectar. The remainder of the pollen brought back to the hive has been mixed with some of the honey that the bees took with them as an energy source on their flights to obtain the pollen.The bees tightly pack these pellets -- each containing millions of pollen grains—along with saliva, into the worker cells until they are three-fourths full. Having previously cleaned and lined these cells with a thin layer of propolis, the bees then seal the beebread “silo” with a thin layer of propolis to prevent the development of bacteria and fungi. To make beebread for apitherapy purposes, the typical ratio is one to one, honey to pollen, though some people prefer additional honey for a more liquid consistency.This is mixed in a sterile glass container and then left for a few weeks to ferment. It is ideal to use fresh, not dried, pollen; as pollen dries, its vitality and nutrients are adversely affected. Fresh pollen has a moisture content of 10–20%, while dried pollen’s is 4-6%. Vetaley Stashenko notes that when the pollen is moistened with honey, the pollen’s lactic bacteria, with the aid of the pollen’s high protein content, quickly produce large amounts of lactic acid.The pH level of fresh pollen is approximately 7.2; in one-week-old beebread it drops to 3.5-4.2. He further notes that preparing beebread is more efficient without oxygen, and therefore recommends that the jar be covered tightly and that the contents not be stirred after the initial blending. After the several-week fermentation period, beebread should be stored in the refrigerator. Theoretically, it can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer for as long as five years, though over time the amount of protein, sugar, and other acids will decline. Therefore, it is best to make beebread in small quantities and consume it within a few months.

Page 6

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Beekeeping of Yesteryear A look back at the literature of the last century Presence of Drones and Swarming What follows is an excerpt from the Third Annual Report of the Illinois State Bee-Keeper’s Association, published by American Bee Journal Print, Chicago, IL.The Report is a 163-page paperback book, the bulk of which details minutes of the group’s 18th annual convention of November 17-18, 1903 at the State House in Springfield. Question from the audience: “Does the presence of a large number of drones tend to intensify the swarming tendency or impulse?” Pres.York: How many think it does? Six. Pres. York: How many think the drones don’t make any difference as to the swarming tendency? One.

year for swarming.. The two things don’t always bear the same ratio. Mr. Hutchinson says that if it wasn’t for the swarming you wouldn’t have any drones. The two things are not always in proportion. Mr. Starkey: I noted that drones would tend to increase swarming, but by doing so I meant this:That instead of drones, if the same amount of labor had been extended in producing workers we would still have had the same amount of swarming tendency. I don’t believe that the presence of drones would increase it any more than the workers themselves. However, I believe that it would be an advantage to the colony in point of the value to the honey-producer if these drones had been prevented.

Dr. Miller: If you suffer a large number of drones in your apiary you will have more swarming, and I believe if you allow a large Mr. Wilcox: How many think the swarming propensity tends to amount of drone-comb in your hives you will have more swarmincrease the number of drones? Sixteen. ing for it. One of the means to help cut down swarming is to allow Mr. Whitney: I asked that question. On examining as little drone-comb as possible to remain in the bee-hives I found a large number of drone-combs. I I believe if you hives. never had so much swarming in my life among my a large Mr. Longsdon: You may put a drone-comb into a bees. I had 31 colonies to start the season with and allow very small colony, but the colony that doesn’t show I had 54 swarms. I thought I knew how to keep down amount of droneany tendency at the time of swarming, and immediswarms. I increased, gave them plenty of room, cut comb in your hives ately, almost, if other conditions are favorable, that out queen-cells and did everything I could do, and colony will swarm. I know it is the change of the you will have more yet they swarmed, and I never saw so many drones drone-combs that does it. I believe the drones have swarming for it. as I had. a very great amount to do as regards the swarming Mr. Moore: I would like to ask in this connection, of bees. when you control the production of drones by workers, can you Mr.Whitney: I attempted to prevent swarming by cutting queenthereby solve the swarming question? cells. I had a hive-box that I would put the queen in, and turn it in Dr. Miller: No, you can’t do it; and I would like to say to Mr. front of the hive so the swarm couldn’t get back, and they would Whitney that he will find that there will be years when he will have all cluster in that box, and I cut the queen-cells out. They would exactly the same amount of drone-comb in his hives, and possibly work for some time; and perhaps put in a case or two of honey with the same amount of drones, and he will have swarming more and then swarm. I had one swarm come out with 200 or 300 bees, than other years. With quite a number the last season was an and I made them a hive and they are a good colony of bees today; unusual one for swarming. It has been one of the worst years for but there was only about 200 or 300 bees in the whole swarm, so swarming that I ever knew. I know I spoke of it more than once. you see what I produced with the queen. She gathered 200 or 300 There seemed to be a scarcity of drones, the smallest number of bees and they swarmed out in a cracker-box. I merely mention drones I ever had was this year, yet I think it was about the worst that as the tendency of swarming in my yard, as one bee against four. Dr. Miller: A single bee never swarms. Mr.York: That’s so; I believe they have to get married first! Mr. Duby: I don’t believe a large or small number of drones has anything to do with it. I have had colonies that swarmed three times, and they had but very few drones, and I have seen lots of drones and have had no swarming. Mr. Hutchinson: Mr. Aspinwall is now working with a nonswarming hive. I believe he spent $1,000 in making wooden combs and his idea was that the bees wouldn’t rear drones, and he was going to get rid of swarming that way, but the bees swarmed just the same with those wooden combs.

Missouri State Beekeepers Association Spring 2008 Meeting Registration Form NAME_______________________________________________________ ADDRESS____________________________________________________ CITY___________________STATE_________ZIP+4_________________ PHONE________________________E-MAIL ____________________________

Pre-Registration Fees: Registration must be received by FEBRUARY 29, 2008 Member

$20.00 X_____= __________

Family Member -- Must have paid 2008 dues as a family member

$30.00

Non-member -- per person

$30.00 X _____= ___________

___________

Registrations made after FEBRUARY 29, 2008 Member

$25.00 X ______=___________

Non-member (No family discount on late registrations)

$35.00 X ______= ___________

Friday Night Banquet: Beekeeper of the Year Since it is Lent, we will offer Mango Salmon; please indicate your choice. ($25.00 x _____) = Regular dinner is Bourbon Street Sirloin (10 oz. sirloin with sweet bourbon glaze) Adult - $25.00 per person ($25.00 x _____) = Child - $12.00/child under 12 ($12.00 x _____) =

_______ _______

Saturday Lunch: Smoked Pulled Pork on Kaiser Roll Adult - $13.50/person Child - $7.50/child under 12

_______ _______

($13.50 x _____) = ($ 7.50 x _____) =

Membership 2008 Missouri State Beekeepers Assn. Individual: Renewal New Membership 2008 Missouri State Beekeepers Assn. Family: Renewal New

_______

$15.00_______ $20.00_______

Queen fund donation

Donation $___________

Meeting fund donation

Donation $___________ Total $___________

Please make checks payable to: MO State Beekeepers Assn. Send to Pam Brown, 1407 Sneak Rd., Foristell, MO 63348. If you pre-register and then cannot attend, your registration fee will be considered a

donation and no refunds will be made. If you pay for meals and we are able to sell them you will be refunded for those.

January 2008

Page 9

Local Club Information Beekeepers Association of the Ozarks 4th Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. The Library Center, 4653 S. Campbell, Springfield www.ozarksbeekeepers.org

Boone Regional Beekeepers Association 3rd Sunday of odd months, 1:00 p.m., University Outreach and Extension Office, Rt. UU, Columbia Contact Art Gelder 573-474-8837

Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association 2nd Wednesday of each month, 7:00 p.m., Powder Valley Nature Center 11715 Craigwold Rd., Kirkwood Bob Sears, President 314-479-9517 http://easternmobeekeepers.googlepages.com/

Gasconade County Beekeepers Association 2nd Sunday of month, 7pm, Progressive Bank of Owensville Contact Rodney Angell 573-764-2922 bee143@fidnet.com

Jackson Area Beekeepers 4th Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. First Pres. of Jackson, 206 E.Washington Contact Grant Gillard 573-243-6568 gillard5@charter.net

Jefferson County Beekeepers Association

Missouri Valley Beekeepers Association 3rd Monday of each month, 7:00 p.m. Scenic Regional Library, Union Contact Rodney Angell 573-764-2922 bee143@fidnet.com

Parkland Beekeepers 3rd Tuesday of each month, 108 Harrison, Farmington Contact Gene Wood 573-431-1436

South Central Missouri Beekeepers Association Steve Teeple, President

417-261-2210

Southern Missouri Beekeepers of Monett (“MOBees”) 3rd Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. Monett High School VO-AG Building Robert Sperandio, President 417-235-6959

Southwest Beekeepers Association 1st Tuesday of each month Neosho High School FFA Building Contact Herb Spencer 417-472-7743

Is your club missing? Send your information to: editor@mostatebeekeepers.org

2nd Tuesday of each month, 7:30 p.m., Hwy B & 21 Jefferson County Extension Center, Hillsboro Contact Scott Moser 636-285-7295

Joplin Area Beekeepers Last Thursday of each month, SW MO Bank Annex (7th and Duquesne) Contact Howard Thompson 417-781-0578

Mid Missouri Beekeepers 3rd Sunday of each month, Bank of Salem, Salem Mel Williams, President

Midwestern Beekeepers Association 3rd Wednesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. YMCA, 10301 E. 350 Hwy, Raytown Cecil Sweeney, President 913-856-8356

THE HAWLEY HONEY COMPANY 220 North Elm Iola, KS 66749 620-365-5956 (After 8 pm 620-365-7919) White clover honey strained in 5-gallon buckets. We will pack it in your jars for an extra fee. Bee Equipment - New and Used - Used Extractors Corn syrup, sugar syrup and SUGAR Bees -- Frames of brood Call for prices. Can deliver to Kansas City, Joplin or Butler, MO

FOR SALE:

PACKAGE BEES For pickup in Lynnville, IA or Hamilton, IL. 2# and 3# packages from C.F. Koehnen and Sons. Your choice of Carniolan or Italian queens. Delivery in early April. Contact Phil Ebert 641-527-2639 or e-mail

ehoney37@netins.net

WEAVER’S FAMOUS QUEENS And Package Bees

Buckfast & All-American OVER 120 YEARS OF SERVICE THE R WEAVER APIARIES, INC. 16495 C.R. 319, NAVASOTA, TX 77868 Phone (936) 825-2333 FAX (936) 825-3642 EMAIL: rweaver@rweaver.com WEBSITE: www.rweaver.com

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Page 10

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NOTE: If you belong to a local association, please pay your state dues through your local club. State Association Dues (Check only one box) Adult Membership

$15.00

Amount Enclosed $

Family Membership

$20.00

Make check payable to: Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Student Membership

$5.00

Mail to: P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075

Magazine Discounts: Discounts are available for MSBA members to two beekeeping magazines. You may use their order forms and mail them yourself to the publishers as shown below:

$21.00

$38.00

January 2008 Honey Queen Report by Lori Guthals Hello Beekeepers! I hope everyone is ready for the Holidays! I know I sure am, but there is one thing I am not ready for and that is the weather! You know the ice, snow and cold wind blowing in your face! Doing chores outside just isn’t as much fun in the winter, but I guess somebody’s got to do it, right? Speaking of getting work done, I have been working really hard getting ready for Nationals! As mentioned before, I will be competing in the national queen contest this January in Sacramento, California. My mother and I leave the first week of January and we are both very excited! In preparation, I have been working on my scrapbook, preparing a marketing presentation and getting ready to do a few more honey promotions at elementary schools in my area. It will be here before we know it and so I am doing my best to be as ready as possible, so I may bring home the title of American Honey Queen to Missouri! Wish me luck! Well, it’s that time, when I must let you go, but as always, I would like to say that as this year’s Honey Queen, I’m here to serve you! If you have a fair, festival, meeting or activity you would like me to attend, please contact Joyce Justice, Honey Queen Director, so she may relay the message to me. Her address is located in the column to the right, and on the MSBA website. Again, I thank you for this amazing opportunity and I look forward to promoting all aspects of honey throughout the new year! Finally, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays. God bless! Sincerely, Lori Guthals

Four-frame nucs for sale. Young 2008 queens. Ready early to mid May. No frame swap. $75.00 each, you pick up (Cedar Hill area). Contact Scott Moser 636-285-7295.

Page 11 Directory of Officers President: Ken Norman 417-669-4452 3634 Shiloh Church Road, Marionville, MO 65705 president@mostatebeekeepers.org Vice President: Scott Moser 636-285-7295 6600 Davis Lane, Cedar Hill, MO 63016 vicepresident@mostatebeekeepers.org Secretary: Paul Harris 417-890-1008 3876 South State Hwy J, Springfield, MO 65809 secretary@mostatebeekeepers.org Treasurer: Ron Vivian 816-690-7516 443 Fricke Road, Bates City, MO 64011-8280 treasurer@mostatebeekeepers.org Past-President: Monte Richardson 660-826-4917 1405 S. Prospect Ave., Sedalia, MO 65301 pastpresident@mostatebeekeepers.org Western Area Director: Glenn Davis 816-690-8007 4618 Highway Z, Bates City, MO 64011 westdir@mostatebeekeepers.org Southern Area Director: Marlin Trout 417-830-7749 20445 Lawrence 2070, Ash Grove, MO 65604 southwdir@mostatebeekeepers.org Eastern Area Director: Steve Harris 636-946-5520 1224 Sherbrooke Road, St. Charles, MO 63303 eastdir@mostatebeekeepers.org Southeastern Area Director: Ray Batton 573-686-4888 3032 N. 14th St., Poplar Bluff, MO 63901 southedir@mostatebeekeepers.org Program Chairperson: Sharon Gibbons 636-394-5395 314 Quinnmoor Dr., Ballwin, MO 63011 sgibbs314@earthlink.net Newsletter Editor: Eugene Makovec 314-965-4631 643 Pearl Ave., Kirkwood, MO 63122 editor@mostatebeekeepers.org Auxilliary Treasurer: Dolores Vivian 816-690-7516 443 Fricke Road, Bates City, MO 64011-8280 H1ybee@aol.com Queen Chairperson: Joyce Justice 816-358-3893 P.O. Box 16566, Raytown, MO 64133-0566 queenchair@mostatebeekeepers.org State Fair Chairman: Dean Sanders cell 816-456-4683 37804 Old Pink Hill Road, Oak Grove, MO 64075 Assist. Prof. Entomology/Extension Spec.: Dr. Richard Houseman 1-87 Agricultural Building, University of MissouriColumbia, Columbia, MO 65211

Missouri State Beekeepers Association P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075 www.mostatebeekeepers.org

Does this remind you of your beeyard? Plan now to replace those deadouts with nucs or package bees from one of the many advertisers within this issue.

This newsletter is published six times per year, in odd months. Submissions are due by the 15th of the month prior to publication. The email edition is in color, and contains hyperlinks and bonus back-page material, while the print version is in black-and-white. If you are a member currently receiving the printed newsletter and you wish to upgrade, just send an email to editor@mostatebeekeepers.org with â&#x20AC;&#x153;email newsletterâ&#x20AC;? in the subject line. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll reply with confirmation, and add you to my list. Business card size $15.00 Half page $50.00 Advertising rates are as follows: Quarter page $35.00 Full page $100.00 Classified Ads: Advertise one to three beekeeping-related items in a one-line ad at no charge.This service is for non-commercial MSBA members only, and is limited to one ad per item per calendar year. Honey Trading Post: This is a free service to members wishing to buy or sell honey on a wholesale basis. Just email or call the editor with contact information and whether you are buying or selling. Pricing is between the interested parties.

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

March 2008

P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075 www.mostatebeekeepers.org

Eugene Makovec Editor

New Honey Products Hit the Market Honey Drop, Balsamic Honey Vinegar both draw on Honey Board Research For the past two years, the National Honey Board has worked to increase honey consumption by identifying and formulating promising honey-based products through its Applied Science program. NHB recently experienced sweet success when two product prototypes, solid honey and honey balsamic vinegar, were launched in the marketplace.

behalf of the U.S. honey industry to optimize the utility of the various forms and styles of honey. The board then prospected for food manufacturers willing to move the concept from ideation to the store shelves and connected with Rowe. The rest of the story is honey history!

Honey Drop™

The Honey Drop™ comes in two flavors, pure honey and pure honey and lemon, and is packed for both retail and foodservice sales. The Honey Drop™ has a shelf life of one year and contains no artificial coloring, flavoring or preservatives. For more information, visit www.NoStickyFingers.com.

In January, Island Abbey Foods Ltd. introduced the Honey Drop™, the first 100% pure, solid honey product. The Honey Drop™ is an individual serving of dried honey without any additives or binding agents, making it a neat and convenient sweetener for hot beverages. An inventor and entrepreneur, Island Abbey’s John Rowe independently conceived the concept of solid honey in the 1990’s. Rowe researched a natural, dried honey product and discovered none existed. Believing such a product would be a convenient form of honey with broad consumer appeal, Rowe began developing production methods. Separately, prompted by growing interest from food manufacturers in dried honey, NHB initiated development of a solid honey concept on

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: From the President Ken Norman

Learning From Dance Language 3 Computer servers made more efficient Apitherapy News 4 Honey outperforms cough suppressant

Balsamic Honey Vinegar Honey Ridge Farms, a honey products manufacturer, introduced Balsamic Honey Vinegar to specialty food buyers at the Fancy Food Show in San Diego, CA, in January.The sulfite-free product is made exclusively from honey in a classical fermentation process, and is based on a product prototype

Join Us in Springfield March 14-15 Dr. Eric Mussen is featured speaker It’s not too late to sign up, but you’d better hurry! The hotel is holding a block of rooms until March 4, and on an availability basis after that. Registration information can be found on page 5 of this newsletter.

6-7

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from the experts and share ideas with beekeepers from around the state.

Local Club Information

Pre-registration pricing has passed, but it’s still possible to sign up.

Membership Application

Honey Queen Report Lori Guthals

Note from the Honey Chair Joyce Justice

Directory of Officers

Spring Meeting Registration Spring Meeting Agenda Plus vendor and speaker info

continued on page 4

Our primary speaker will be Dr. Eric Mussen, Extension Apiculturist at the University of California, Davis, Department of EntomologyFor more about Dr. Mussen and our other speakers, as well as our complete meeting agenda, turn to page 7. The meeting will take place at the Clarion

Hotel, at the core of the dining and retail district of Springfield. The group room rate is $64.00 for King or Double. (Suites are available for $199 per night.) Please mention the Missouri State Beekeepers Association in order to get the special rate. Clarion Hotel 3333 South Glenstone Ave. Springfield, MO 65804 (417)883-6550 or (800)756-7318 The Clarion’s “Newsroom” restaurant has a daily breakfast buffet, at nominal charge.The hotel has an outdoor heated pool and an exercise room. Rooms include irons and boards, hair dryers and in-room coffee service. Battlefield Mall is located within a mile, and the world-famous Bass Pro Shop is within two miles of the hotel.

Page 2

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

From the President by Ken Norman Swarm intelligence After reading from the following article on swarm intelligence on the National Geographic website -http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature5/index.html -- I have concluded that we have a model for more effectiveness in dealing with beekeeping issues throughout Missouri.

“On a small, breezy island off the southern coast of Maine, Thomas Seeley, a biologist at Cornell University, has been looking into the uncanny ability of honeybees to make good decisions. With as many as 50,000 workers in a single hive, honeybees have evolved ways to work through individual differences of opinion to do what’s best for the colony. If only people could be as effective in boardrooms, church committees, and town meetings, Seeley says, we could avoid problems making decisions in our own lives. “During the past decade, Seeley, Kirk Visscher of the University of California, Riverside, and others have been studying colonies of honeybees (Apis mellifera) to see how they choose a new home. In late spring, when a hive gets too crowded, a colony normally splits, and the queen, some drones, and about half the workers fly a short distance to cluster on a tree branch.There the bees bivouac while a small percentage of them go searching for new real estate. Ideally, the site will be a cavity in a tree, well off the ground, with a small entrance hole facing south, and lots of room inside for brood and honey. Once a colony selects a site, it usually won’t move again, so it has to make the right choice. “To find out how, Seeley’s team applied paint dots and tiny plastic tags to identify all 4,000 bees in each of several small swarms that they ferried to Appledore Island, home of the Shoals Marine Laboratory.There, in a series of experiments, they released each swarm to locate nest boxes they’d placed on one side of the half-mile-long (one kilometer) island, which has plenty of shrubs but almost no trees or other places for nests. “In one test they put out five nest boxes, four that weren’t quite big enough and one that was just about perfect. Scout bees soon appeared at all five.When they returned to the swarm, each performed a waggle dance urging other scouts to go have a look. (These dances include a code giving directions to a box’s location.) The strength of each dance reflected the scout’s enthusiasm for the site. After a while, dozens of scouts were dancing their little feet off, some for one site, some for another, and a small cloud of bees was buzzing around each box. “The decisive moment didn’t take place in the main cluster of bees, but out at the boxes, where scouts were building up. As soon as the number of scouts visible near the entrance to a box reached about 15 -- a threshold confirmed by other experiments -- the bees at that box sensed that a quorum had been reached, and they returned to the swarm with the news. “‘It was a race,’ Seeley says.‘Which site was going to build up 15 bees first?’ “Scouts from the chosen box then spread through the swarm, signaling that it was time to move. Once all the bees had warmed up, they lifted off for their new home, which, to no one’s surprise, turned out to be the

best of the five boxes. “The bees’ rules for decision-making -seek a diversity of options, encourage a free competition among ideas, and use an effective mechanism to narrow choices -- so impressed Seeley that he now uses them at Cornell as chairman of his department.” I know that was a long quote but it was needed to understand my thoughts on how to be more effective in decision making. The Missouri State Beekeepers Association has done a lot of work in developing tools for beekeepers throughout the state. These include an excellent newsletter, brochures, outstanding speakers at the State meetings and changing locations for meetings to make it possible for beekeepers throughout the state to attend. What we need now to be effective as an organization is input from local associations as to how the state organization can aid them in reaching beekeepers in their own areas. The locals are the 15 honeybees that report back to the cluster, which will change the direction of the Missouri State Beekeepers Association.This needs to be done at the Executive Board meetings, and the Board agenda has a place for it under Membership. You will notice at the March 2008 state meeting that there is a program on dealing with bears, which was brought up because of bear attacks near the Southern Missouri Beekeepers of Monet area. If the locals can’t send a representative to the Executive Board meeting, then email and/or phone your thoughts to the Director in your region, who can be found on page 11 of this newsletter. By the State association receiving input from the locals, I believe it will be more effective in dealing with the needs of beekeepers throughout Missouri. I will finish with one more quote from the previous article:

“‘I’ve applied what I’ve learned from the bees to run faculty meetings,’ [Dr. Seeley] says. To avoid going into a meeting with his mind made up, hearing only what he wants to hear, and pressuring people to conform, Seeley asks his group to identify all the possibilities, kick their ideas around for a while, then vote by secret ballot.‘It’s exactly what the swarm bees do, which gives a group time to let the best ideas emerge and win. People are usually quite amenable to that’.”

March 2008

Page 3

Bee strategy helps servers run more sweetly Honeybees maximize efficiency with dance communication November 16, 2007 http://www.physorg.com/news114437696.html Honeybees somehow manage to efficiently collect a lot of nectar with limited resources and no central command — after all, the queen bee is too busy laying eggs to oversee something as mundane as where the best nectar can be found on any given morning. According to new research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the swarm intelligence of these amazingly organized bees can also be used to improve the efficiency of Internet servers faced with similar challenges. A bee dance-inspired communications system developed by Georgia Tech helps Internet servers that would normally be devoted solely to one task move between tasks as needed, reducing the chances that a Web site could be overwhelmed with requests and lock out potential users and customers. Compared with the way server banks are commonly run, the honeybee method typically improves service by four to 25 percent in tests based on real Internet traffic. The research was published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. After studying the efficiency of honeybees, Craig Tovey, a professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, realized through conversations with Sunil Nakrani, a computer science colleague visiting from the University of Oxford, that bees and servers had strikingly similar barriers to efficiency. “I studied bees for years, waiting for the right application,” Tovey said.“When you work with biomimetics (the study of how biological principles can be applied to design and engineering), you have to look for a close analogy between two systems — never a superficial one. And this definitely fit the bill.” The more Tovey and Nakrani discussed bees and servers, the surer they became that somehow the bees’ strategies for allocating limited resources in an unpredictable and constantly changing environment could be applied to Internet servers. Honeybees have a limited number of workers at any given time to fly out to flowers, collect nectar, return to the hive and repeat until the nectar source is depleted. Sometimes, there’s an abundance of nectar to be collected; at other times nectar is scarce. The bees’ environment is constantly changing — some flower patches occasionally yield much better nectar than others, the seasons shift and rainy days make nectar collection difficult. So how do the bees manage to keep a steady flow of nectar coming into the hive? Internet servers, which provide the computing power necessary to run Web sites, typically have a set number of servers devoted to a certain Web site or client.When users access a Web site, the servers provide computing power

until all the requests to access and use the site have been fulfilled. Sometimes there are a lot of requests to access a site (for instance, a clothing company’s retail site after a particularly effective television ad during a popular sporting event) and sometimes there are very few. Predicting demand for Web sites, including whether a user will access a video clip or initiate a purchase, is extremely difficult in a fickle Internet landscape, and servers are frequently overloaded and later become completely inactive at random. Bees tackle their resource allocation problem (i.e. a limited number of bees and unpredictable demand on their time and desired location) with a seamless system driven by “dances.” Here’s how it works: The scout bees leave the hive in search of nectar. Once they’ve found a promising spot, they return to the hive “dance floor” and perform a dance. The direction of the dance tells the waiting forager bees which direction to fly, the number of waggle turns conveys the distance to the flower patch; and the length conveys the sweetness of the nectar. The forager bees then dance behind the scouts until they learn the right steps (and the particulars about the nectar), forming a bobbing conga line of sorts. Then they fly out to collect the nectar detailed in the dance.As long as there’s still nectar to be found, the bees that return continue the dance. Other forager bees continue to fly toward the source until the dancing slowly tapers off or a new bee returns with a more appealing dance routine. (“Hey, the nectar over here is even better!”) While all that dancing may not sound like a model of efficiency, it’s actually optimal for the unpredictable nectar world the bees inhabit, Tovey said. The system allows the bees to seamlessly shift from one nectar source to a more promising nectar source based on upto-the-minute conditions.All this without a clear leader or central command to slow the decision making process. “But the bees aren’t performing a computation or strategy, they ARE the computation,” Tovey added. Internet servers, on the other hand, are theoretically optimized for “normal” conditions, which are frequently challenged by fickle human nature. By assigning certain servers to a certain Web site, Internet hosts are establishing a system that works well under normal conditions and poorly under conditions that strain demand. When demand for one site swells, many servers sit idly by as the assigned servers reach capacity and begin shifting potential users to a lengthening queue that tries their patience and turns away potential customers. Tovey and Nakrani set to work translating the bee strategy for these idle Internet servers.They developed a virtual “dance floor” for a network of servers.When one server receives a user request for a certain Web site, an internal advertisement (standing in a little less colorfully for the dance) is placed on the dance floor to attract any available servers. The ad’s duration depends on the demand on the site and how much revenue its users may generate. The longer an ad remains on the dance floor, the more power available servers devote to serving the Web site requests advertised.

Page 4

Missouri State Beekeepers Association Apitherapy News ... NHB-funded study finds honey an effective cough treatment for children

Honey has been used as a home remedy for centuries to help alleviate some of the symptoms associated with the common cold. Now researchers have found through a recent study that honey proves a better option for childhood cough than over-the-counter medicines. Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine recently published a study, funded by NHB, comparing honey to overthe-counter medicines for relief of upper respiratory infection symptoms, such as cough. Providing a safe alternative for children more than 12 months old, honey out-performed the cough medicine in offering a better night’s sleep and reducing cough severity. In the study, the researchers enrolled 105 children between the ages of two and 18 at a single university-affiliated physician practice site. On the first night of the study, children received no treatment. Parents answered five questions about their child’s cough and sleep quality as well as about their own sleep quality. On the second night, children received either honey, artificial

New honey-based products reach market continued from page 1

originally developed by the National Honey Board. The development of this new product began in the summer of 2006 when Honey Ridge Farms’ Leeanne Goetz saw NHB’s information about the honey balsamic vinegar concept. Goetz then embarked on more research and faced marketing challenges. According to Goetz, the payoff was well worth the effort. “The Balsamic Honey Vinegar makes an ideal addition to Honey Ridge Farms’ existing line of gourmet specialty honeys, while providing the consumer with healthier alternatives to what is currently on the market,” Goetz said. For more information about Honey Ridge Farms Balsamic Honey Vinegar, visit www.honeyridgefarms.com. For more information about the NHB Applied Science program and other new honey product prototypes, contact Charlotte Jordan at charlotte@nhb.org

honey-flavored dextromethorphan (DM) or no treatment about a half hour prior to going to bed. Parents answered the same five questions the following morning. Across the board, parents rated honey as significantly better than DM or no treatment for symptomatic relief of their child’s nighttime cough and sleep difficulty. In a few cases, parents did report mild side effects with the honey treatment, such as hyperactivity. Ian Paul, M.D., M.Sc., a pediatritian, researcher and associate professor of pediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Children’s Hospital, said, “Additional studies should certainly be considered, but we hope that medical professionals will consider the positive potential of honey as a treatment given the lack of proven efficacy, expense and potential for adverse effects associated with the use of DM.” The study results were published by Penn State College of Medicine researchers, led by Dr. Paul, in the December 2007 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.The study results have received considerable press coverage in media outlets throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.honey.com.

March 2008

Page 5

Missouri State Beekeepers Association Spring 2008 Meeting Registration Form NAME ADDRESS CITY PHONE

STATE

ZIP+4

E-MAIL

Member

$20.00 x ______ =________

Family Member (must have paid 2008 dues as a family member)

$30.00 x ______ =________

Non-member (per person)

$30.00 x ______ =________

Registrations made after FEBRUARY 29, 2008 Member

$25.00 x ______ =________

Non-member (no family discount on late registrations)

$35.00 x ______ =________

Friday Night Banquet: Beekeeper of the Year Since it is Lent, we will offer a choice of: Mango Salmon or Bourbon Street Sirloin (10 oz with sweet bourbon glaze). Please indicate choice. ADULT

($25.00 x ______) =________

CHILD (under 12)

($12.00 x ______) =________

ADULT

($13.50 x ______) =________

CHILD (under 12)

($7.50 x ______) =________

Membership 2008 MO State Beekeepers Individual

Renewal

New

$15.00

$________

Membership 2008 MO State Beekeepers Family

Renewal

New

$20.00

$________

Saturday Lunch: Smoked pulled pork on kaiser roll

Queen Fund donation

Donation $________

Meeting Fund donation

Donation $________ TOTAL

$________

Please make checks payable to: MO State Beekeepers Association. Send to Pam Brown, 1407 Sneak Rd., Foristell, MO 63348. If you pre-register and then cannot attend, your registration fee will be considered a donation and no refunds will be made. If you pay for meals and we are able to sell them you will be refunded for those.

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Page 6

2008 Spring Meeting Agenda Friday, March 14 8:30-???

8:30-12:00

Executive Board Meeting Meeting is open to all attendees, but a must for all officers and board members. A representative from each local association should also be there. Set-up for Vendors in Ballroom 4 Tour Bass Pro Outdoor World on your own. Wonders of Wildlife is closed for major renovations.

Agenda 12:00-1:00

Registration open: Reception area outside Ballroom 4

1:00-1:15

Announcements from President Ken Norman

1:15-2:15

Dealing with the “new” Nosema ceranae -- origin, comparison to Nosema apis, diagnosis and treatments Dr. Eric Mussen

2:20-3:00

Best ways to requeen your hive

3:00-3:30

Break

3:30-4:30

Keeping your honey safe with proper sanitation procedures Inspector, Missouri Department of Health

4:30

Silence of the Bees PBS program from last October on DVD

6:30 PM

Beekeeper of the Year Banquet: Ballrooms 2 and 3

Panel of beekeepers Craig Farmer, Food Processing

Dinner menu: Bourbon Street Sirloin, served with garden salad, vegetables, tea or coffee and dessert (Optional: Mango Salmon for Lenten observance) Presentation by Queen Lori Guthals

Support our Meeting Vendors As of press time, the following vendors had confirmed plans to attend the meeting.You can save on shipping costs by placing orders with these vendors ahead of time to be picked up during the meeting. Femme Osage Apiary (Ian and Pam Brown) Handcrafted woodenware and other supplies 636-398-5014 femmeosage1@aol.com Bee Soft & Natural (Carol Wade) Soaps, candles, cosmetics 417-253-4315 www.beesoftandnatural.com sales@beesoftandnatural.com

DRAPER’S SUPER BEE 914 S. Street Auburn, NE 68305 Ph. (402) 274-3725 Fax: (402) 274-3128

Draper’s Super Bee* (Larry and Brenda Draper) All Beekeeping Supplies 402-274-3725 Heartland Honey* (Joli Winer and Cecil Sweeney) All beekeeping supplies www.heartlandhoney.com 913-856-8356 *See ad in this issue

Heartland Honey and Beekeeping Supplies 19201 South Clare Road Spring Hill, KS 66061 913-856-8356 www.heartlandhoney.com

March 2008

Page 7

2008 Spring Meeting Agenda (continued) Saturday, March 15 7:30-8:00 8:00-8:15

Registration Welcome and Announcements by Ken Norman

8:15-8:35

Greetings from Queen Chairperson Joyce Justice and 2008 Queen Lori Guthals. Recounting of Lori’s trip to Sacramento to compete in the American Honey Queen contest. Bring silent auction items as a donation to support the queen program. Auction items will be set up inside Ballrooms 2 and 3

8:40-9:45

Declining honeybee health, CCD and Pesticides

9:45-10:00

AHB Traps

10:0-10:30

Break and Raffle prize drawing

10:30-11:45

Bears in Missouri: Effect on beekeepers of Conservation

12:00-1:00

Lunch: Ballrooms 2 and 3

Dr. Eric Mussen

Collin Wamsley, State Entomologist, Missouri James Dixon, Wildlife Specialist, Missouri Department

Smoked pulled pork on kaiser roll 1:00-2:15

Do you know what you are putting into your body? Using products from the beehive to better your health Carol Wade

2:15-3:15

What do bees eat? A look at honey plants, pollination and honeybee nutrition

3:15

Break — End of Silent Auction. Raffle prize drawing

4:00

Annual Business Meeting, Election of Officers

Dr. Eric Mussen

More door prizes

About our Speakers: Dr. Eric Mussen is an Extension Apiculturist at the University of California, Davis Department of Entymology’s “Harry H. Laidlaw, Jr., Honeybee Research Facility”.This facility is in the process of being rebuilt with help from California beekeepers. Sue Cobey has recently been added to the staff. Dr. Mussen received his B.S. in Entomology at the University of Massachusetts,Amherst, and both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Entomology at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include managing honeybees and wild bees for maximum field production, while minimizing pesticide damage to pollinator populations. Dr. Mussen is known for his expertise on Africanized honeybees. He was named 2006 Beekeeper of the Year by the California State Beekeepers Association, and in January of 2007 was given the American Association of Professional Apiculturists’ award for Apicultural Excellence. James Dixon is a wildlife specialist with the Missouri Department of Conservation Southwest Region. His specialty is bears. Craig Farmer is the food processing inspector for the Missouri Department of Health. Carol Wade owns her own business called Bee Soft and Natural, and lives in the Springfield area.

March 2008

Page 9

Local Club Information Beekeepers Association of the Ozarks 4th Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. The Library Center, 4653 S. Campbell, Springfield www.ozarksbeekeepers.org

Boone Regional Beekeepers Association 3rd Sunday of odd months, 1:00 p.m., Columbia Insurance Group, 2102 Whitegate Dr. (back door), Columbia Contact Art Gelder 573-474-8837

Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association 2nd Wednesday of each month, 7:00 p.m., Powder Valley Nature Center 11715 Craigwold Rd., Kirkwood Bob Sears, President 314-479-9517 www.easternmobeekeepers.com

Gasconade County Beekeepers Association 2nd Sunday of month, 7pm, Progressive Bank of Owensville Contact Rodney Angell 573-764-2922 bee143@fidnet.com

Jackson Area Beekeepers 4th Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. First Pres. of Jackson, 206 E.Washington Contact Grant Gillard 573-243-6568 gillard5@charter.net

Jefferson County Beekeepers Association 2nd Tuesday of each month, 7:30 p.m., Hwy B & 21 Jefferson County Extension Center, Hillsboro Contact Scott Moser 636-285-7295

Joplin Area Beekeepers Last Thursday of each month, SW MO Bank Annex (7th and Duquesne) Contact Howard Thompson 417-781-0587

Mid Missouri Beekeepers 3rd Sunday of each month, Bank of Salem, Salem Mel Williams, President

Midwestern Beekeepers Association 3rd Wednesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. YMCA, 10301 E. 350 Hwy, Raytown Cecil Sweeney, President 913-856-8356

Mississippi Valley Beekeepers Association Last Tuesday of Month in Quincy, IL Contact Debi Bridgman 573-439-5228

Missouri Valley Beekeepers Association 3rd Monday of each month, 7:00 p.m. Scenic Regional Library, Union Contact Rodney Angell 573-764-2922 bee143@fidnet.com

Parkland Beekeepers 3rd Tuesday of each month, 108 Harrison, Farmington Contact Gene Wood 573-431-1436

South Central Missouri Beekeepers Association Steve Teeple, President

417-261-2210

Southern Missouri Beekeepers of Monett (“MOBees”) 3rd Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. Monett High School VO-AG Building Robert Sperandio, President 417-235-6959

Southwest Beekeepers Association 1st Tuesday of each month Neosho High School FFA Building Contact Herb Spencer 417-472-7743

Is your club missing? Send your information to: editor@mostatebeekeepers.org

FOR SALE:

WEAVER’S FAMOUS QUEENS

PACKAGE BEES

And Package Bees

For pickup in Lynnville, IA or Hamilton, IL. 2# and 3# packages from C.F. Koehnen and Sons. Your choice of Carniolan or Italian queens. Delivery in early April. Contact Phil Ebert 641-527-2639 or e-mail

Buckfast & All-American

ehoney37@netins.net

OVER 120 YEARS OF SERVICE THE R WEAVER APIARIES, INC. 16495 C.R. 319, NAVASOTA, TX 77868 Phone (936) 825-2333 FAX (936) 825-3642 EMAIL: rweaver@rweaver.com WEBSITE: www.rweaver.com

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Page 10

MSBA Membership Application Name

*Check here to receive your newsletter via email. This saves us roughly $10.00 per year in printing and mailing costs.

Spouseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Name Address City/State/Zip Phone Number

Email*

NOTE: If you belong to a local association, please pay your state dues through your local club. State Association Dues (Check only one box) Adult Membership

$15.00

Amount Enclosed $

Family Membership

$20.00

Make check payable to: Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Student Membership

$5.00

Mail to: P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075

Magazine Discounts: Discounts are available for MSBA members to two beekeeping magazines. You may use their order forms and mail them yourself to the publishers as shown below:

$21.00

$38.00

March 2008 Honey Queen Report by Lori Guthals Hello Beekeepers! I hope this article finds everyone well! I am doing good, very busy, but good! Both school and the weather seem to be full speed ahead! Not that it has stopped me, but I must admit I am travelling much slower because of it! Since the beginning of the year, like I said, I have been very busy. At the start of January, my mother and I had the pleasure of travelling to Sacramento, California, so I could compete in the National Honey Queen Contest.This was definitely an experience as this week long contest was very fast paced and kept us girls on our toes. I met some really great people and worked very hard to represent our state well. Unfortunately, I didn’t come out on top, but I sure learned a lot and had a great time doing it! I would really like to thank all the Missouri Beekeepers for allowing me this privilege and experience I won’t ever forget! Thank you all! I will be sure to give you all a more detailed description of my trip at the upcoming Spring Meeting in Springfield, Missouri. I will also have my scrapbook there for display. As always, I would like to say as this year’s Honey Queen, I look forward to serving you! If you have a fair, festival, meeting or activity you would like me to attend, please contact Joyce Justice, Honey Queen Chairperson, so she may relay the message on to me. Her address is located in the column to the right, and on the association website. Again, I thank you for this amazing opportunity and I look forward to promoting all aspects of honey throughout the New Year! God bless! Lori Guthals

Report from the Queen Chair by Joyce D. Justice As the MSBA’s new Queen Chairperson, my goal is to focus on more cooperation from our local clubs. Please start now to look at the possible queen candidates you have in your local club. It would be fun to have a queen in your local club and encourage her to go for state queen and then national. This would be the ideal. There will be queen applications, requirements and rules available at our Spring Meeting in Springfield. Please take a set back to your local club and help us get a queen that knows about the importance of honey production. During the banquet at the Spring Meeting, our current queen, Lori Guthals, will give us a summary of her experiences in Sacramento in the competition for the National Honey Queen. A thanks goes out to Lori for making the effort to compete and show that we have a lot going for us in Missouri. Please remember to bring items for the silent auction. The money from the auction goes into the Auxiliary for the queen fund. Joyce

Page 11 Directory of Officers President: Ken Norman 417-669-4452 3634 Shiloh Church Road, Marionville, MO 65705 president@mostatebeekeepers.org Vice President: Scott Moser 636-285-7295 6600 Davis Lane, Cedar Hill, MO 63016 vicepresident@mostatebeekeepers.org Secretary: OPEN (Volunteers welcome!) secretary@mostatebeekeepers.org Treasurer: Ron Vivian 816-690-7516 443 Fricke Road, Bates City, MO 64011-8280 treasurer@mostatebeekeepers.org Past-President: Monte Richardson 660-826-4917 1405 S. Prospect Ave., Sedalia, MO 65301 pastpresident@mostatebeekeepers.org Western Area Director: Glenn Davis 816-690-8007 4618 Highway Z, Bates City, MO 64011 westdir@mostatebeekeepers.org Southern Area Director: Marlin Trout 417-830-7749 20445 Lawrence 2070, Ash Grove, MO 65604 southwdir@mostatebeekeepers.org Eastern Area Director: Steve Harris 636-946-5520 1224 Sherbrooke Road, St. Charles, MO 63303 eastdir@mostatebeekeepers.org Southeastern Area Director: Ray Batton 573-686-4888 3032 N. 14th St., Poplar Bluff, MO 63901 southedir@mostatebeekeepers.org Program Chairperson: Sharon Gibbons 636-394-5395 314 Quinnmoor Dr., Ballwin, MO 63011 sgibbs314@earthlink.net Newsletter Editor: Eugene Makovec 314-965-4631 643 Pearl Ave., Kirkwood, MO 63122 editor@mostatebeekeepers.org Auxiliary Treasurer: Dolores Vivian 816-690-7516 443 Fricke Road, Bates City, MO 64011-8280 H1ybee@aol.com Queen Chairperson: Joyce Justice 816-358-3893 P.O. Box 16566, Raytown, MO 64133-0566 queenchair@mostatebeekeepers.org State Fair Chairman: Dean Sanders cell 816-456-4683 37804 Old Pink Hill Road, Oak Grove, MO 64075 Assist. Prof. Entomology/Extension Spec.: Dr. Richard Houseman 1-87 Agricultural Building, University of MissouriColumbia, Columbia, MO 65211

Missouri State Beekeepers Association P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075 www.mostatebeekeepers.org

As the sun sets on another Missouri winter, new life springs forth in beehives throughout the state.Whether your goal is getting started as a hobbyist, or improving on last year’s honey production, our annual Spring Meeting is the perfect place to get the education you need. Springfield is also a great place to purchase supplies for the coming year. Call ahead to any of our exhibiting vendors (listed on page 6) and place an order to be picked up at the meeting.You’ll save the cost of shipping, and support our loyal vendors in the process. This newsletter is published six times per year, in odd months. Submissions are due by the 15th of the month prior to publication. The email edition is in color, and contains hyperlinks and bonus back-page material, while the print version is in black-and-white. If you are a member currently receiving the printed newsletter and you wish to upgrade, just send an email to editor@mostatebeekeepers.org with “email newsletter” in the subject line. I’ll reply with confirmation, and add you to my list. Business card size $15.00 Half page $50.00 Advertising rates are as follows: Quarter page $35.00 Full page $100.00 Classified Ads: Advertise one to three beekeeping-related items in a one-line ad at no charge.This service is for non-commercial MSBA members only, and is limited to one ad per item per calendar year. Honey Trading Post: This is a free service to members wishing to buy or sell honey on a wholesale basis. Just email or call the editor with contact information and whether you are buying or selling. Pricing is between the interested parties.

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

May 2008

P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075 www.mostatebeekeepers.org

Eugene Makovec Editor

Beekeepers gather in Springfield for annual Spring Meeting Eric Mussen entertains, informs on a variety of topics Over 100 beekeepers showed up in Springfield the weekend of March 14-15. They were there to hobnob with their peers, to stock up on supplies from attending vendors and, of course, to learn from nationally known bee researcher Eric Mussen, Ph.D. Dr. Mussen, Extension Apiculturist at the University of California, Davis, is an expert on pollination, honey production and Africanized bees. Both personable and informative, Dr. Mussen used a dry wit and a wealth of knowledge to educate attendees on a variety of topics:

Nosema Nosema apis likely came to America in the 1600s with European settlers, though it was first identified and named in 1911 and not studied extensively until the 1950s. Spores of this tiny, unicellular fungus live on combs within the hive. They are swallowed by adult bees, germinate in the midgut and infect digestive cells in the gut wall. Once a spore has been mostly consumed by these cells, it bursts and releases more spores. This process takes See page 3

The vanishing bee by Robert B.Willson and D.E.Wheeler Collier’s, May 1, 1948 Ask any average man, even an average farmer, what he knows about bees, and he’ll probably say that they’re little bugs that make honey and beeswax and don’t like to be annoyed. Maybe he’ll know, vaguely, about the bees and the flowers. Well, it’s time he learned a little more, especially if he is concerned with the production of food crops, for the fact is that these little stingers are among the most important of earth’s inhabitants.They are the primary key to soil fertility and agricultural prosperity; upon them depends whether we shall continue to be the best-fed people in the world, with surpluses to divide among less fortunate countries. With some assistance from other insects and birds, and even from slugs and snails, bees pollinate some fifty agricultural crops, including most of our familiar fruits and flowers as well as the clovers, the alfalfa and the other legume plants which provide forage and fodder for cattle and hogs. Without bees a great many of the foods we take for granted and have every day, including beef and most of the pork, would gradually disappear from the American table. Our present system of agriculture, based on crop rotation, whereby once in every three or four years a crop of clover or alfalfa is grown to restore fertility and physical fitness to the soil, would be impossible.There would be few if any seeds. And such a disaster is not inconceivable, for there is a serious shortage of bees in this country, both of the domesticated honeybees and of such wild species as bumblebees, mason bees and carpenter bees, the so-called soliSee “Beekeeping of Yesteryear”, page 4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: From the President Ken Norman

AHB Swarm Traps

Upcoming Meetings

Beekeeping of Yesteryear 4 Collier’s Disappearing Bees, 1948

Local Club Information

Support our Vendors List of meeting donors

Honey Tradin’ Post

Queen Chair Report

Beekeeper of the Year Dean Sanders

Directory of Officers

Milton Wright, 1929-2008

Debra Rabinovich of Clayton carries the two packages of Minnesota Hygienics that signal her official start in beekeeping. Dozens of new beekeepers picked up a total of 80 packages at the Eastern Association’s Package Bee Installation Demo on April 26 in Creve Coeur. This followed February’s wildly successful beginner’s workshop, attended by close to 150 neophytes. Many of these have gotten started with nucleus colonies procured via the club. -- photo by Eugene Makovec

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Missouri State Beekeepers Association

From the President by Ken Norman The Deseret (UT) News reported Tuesday April 22, 2008:“Honeybee keepers in the Beehive State are experiencing heavy losses this spring, with bees in entire hives dying — jeopardizing crops that rely on bees for pollination, from almonds to cotton to strawberries.” They continue in the report that Utah is experiencing CCD, or Colony Collapse Disorder. This spring in Missouri we have just a few beekeepers that have experienced large losses but most have not had it nearly as bad as last spring, from what I gathered at the spring meeting in Springfield.Which is a good note to begin this year on. The continued rain in southwest Missouri is bringing the swarm calls sooner. I had an opportunity to do a TV spot on Channels 10 and 27 here in Springfield, dealing with bee swarms and how the public can call the local associations to deal with swarms, and the need for beekeepers to be the first people to call in the case of bee problems. Feedback from the public seems to be positive although I didn’t know that Channel 21 (PBS) had done a show about the Africanized honeybee and brought out the “killer bee” label on honeybee swarms. So I have received calls like this: “I have thousands of bees near my rose bushes flying everywhere around the roses acting funny and I am afraid to go out because they may be killer bees, please help me now.” So as you can see by this quote, it will be good for all beekeepers to keep a positive spin on the need for bees and the fact that swarms are a natural process for honeybees to go through in their life cycle, and that beekeepers are the first line of defense in taking care of them. Another training opportunity I was able to be involved in was teaching a few classes on queen rearing at the Southern Missouri Beekeepers of Monett association. It would benefit all beekeepers in Missouri to move to another level of education in keeping bees. I know we teach a lot of beginner courses in beekeeping, but moving to that next level of queen rearing would help in saving the stock that does well here in Missouri. I was grafting a stock of bees that had survived several years in the wild without treatment, and in that way was extending those genetics to another generation. I did the grafting on the 30-plus cells for the club and placed them in the cell builder, and then let the club members practice their grafting on the rest of the cells. It didn’t take long for each member to accomplish the grafting without rolling the larvae; some had to cut some of the wax away to see the

graft, but all were able to accomplish the task.We used the Chinese grafting tool, and a 00 paintbrush was the easiest tool to use for the graft. I will be checking the cells today (April 26) to see how they are coming along, and will be placing them April 29. I have had several calls for queens, as there seems to be a shortage right now from the major queen producers or a lack of foresight from new beekeepers to get their orders in sooner. In fact, the above-mentioned cells, if they make it, have been sold already. I notice a new Missouri author on different beekeeping aspects, Grant Gillard from Jackson, Missouri; I was able to read his e-book “Making plastic foundation work for you (and your bees)”. It was very informative and I will try to use his thoughts to get my bees to work plastic better. He has another e-book, “Beekeeping with 25 hives”, which I have just started and hope to finish. The preview of these books can be seen at http://25hives.homestead.com and http://makingplasticframeswork.homestead.com. I would like to see more Missouri beekeepers put forth their work and thoughts for all of us to learn from.We have a lot of outstanding beekeepers who can contribute a lot to the education of beekeepers here. The executive board will be meeting at 9 a.m. on June 28, 2008 at Ryan’s restaurant in Springfield, MO.The restaurant is located at 1950 E. Kearney, which is a block east of Glenstone.

May 2008

Page 3

Meeting topics include Nosema, honeybee nutrition, GMOs continued from page1 from six to 10 days, and the host bee dies about two weeks from the initial ingestion. Infected bees lose the ability to digest food, and live only 22-44 percent of the normal lifespan. (Queens, while rarely affected, will die about 30 days from infection.) Infected nurse bees cannot produce brood food, affecting the hive’s brood production. The most common symptom is dysentery, which is also the means by which the disease spreads. In winter, affected bees sometimes defecate in the hive, and spores are ingested by workers cleaning up the mess. Nosema apis is strongest in the hive from March to May, then all but disappears until October or November. It can explain early queen supersedure or failure of a colony to build up in Spring.

showed the presence of insecticides in the pollens and combs of both CCD and non-CCD colonies. Ditto for miticides. And Imidacloprid was hardly found in any samples, at any level. Genetically Modified Organisms There are three types of these currently used in crops: Roundup Ready: These crops are impervious to the common Monsanto herbicide. Roundup Ready crops include soybeans, canola, alfalfa and cotton. Bacillus thuringiensis: Bt is a naturally occurring bacterial disease of certain insects. It has long been used in insecticide sprays for such pests as European corn borers, alfalfa caterpillars and potato beetles, and has more recently been added to the genetic codes of crops to inhibit these pests.

Nosema ceranae is thought to have afflicted Apis cerana, the Asian honeybee, for many years, though it was first identified in 1996. It was found in European honeybees (Apis mellifera) in 2004, and is thought by many to play some role in Colony Collapse Disorder. Spores have been found in honeybee samples dating to 1995.

Enzymes have been added to crops to attack the digestive systems of caterpillars. (These were specifically tested on honeybee adults and larvae before their use.)

Nosema ceranae differs from Nosema apis in that its host succumbs in only about eight days, and nurse bees are more heavily affected.

What do bees eat?

Control of Nosema depends first and foremost on keeping bees healthy and fed a wide variety of pollens. Beyond that, there are methods of controlling Nosema spores: Fumagillin is a tried and tested control. It can be applied in the Fall and/or Spring.While it does not affect spores in the hive, it can prevent growth of the organism in medicated bees. Fed in sugar syrup, this medicine reaches 98 percent of bees in 48 hours. But Fall application should be done once the hive has adequate stores for winter, as additional feeding can dilute the medication.

According to Dr. Mussen, none of the genetically modified organisms currently used have been shown to cause harm to honeybees. Pollen: Bees are attracted to pollens by taste, which is not necessarily indicative of nutrition. Alfalfa pollen, for example, is very nutritious but does not taste all that great, while dandelion pollen is just the opposite. Corn pollen, like most wind-borne pollens, tastes good but is low in protein; it does, however, contain a needed sterol, 24-methylcholesterol, which is also supplied by canola pollen. Honeybees require the same 10 essential amino acids as humans. Pollens contain proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals, sterols and carbohydrates. Different pollens contain different mixtures of these, so bees need many types of pollen for proper nutrition. Spring fruit and nut trees provide the most reliable balance of pollen for bee nutrition.

Heating combs to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours will kill Nosema spores. Careful, though -130 degrees melts beeswax.

Nectar: Good honey plants bloom long enough to provide plenty of nectar, and supply large per-flower quantities.

Glacial Acetic Acid fumes can be used to sterilize combs. Colony Collapse Disorder We still don’t have definitive answers, but here are some things Dr. Mussen discussed:

Dr. Eric Mussen talks with meeting attendees during a break between sessions. Mussen repeatedly urged members to take advantage of his expertise, saying, “Your organization paid a lot of money to get me here.”

Some of the early culprits do not appear to be at fault, as least not by themselves. Nosema ceranae and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) were both around before CCD. Australia has IAPV but not CCD, and no Varroa mites to date.

Some aspects of CCD suggest a contagious pathogen: The problem appears to spread out from a focal point; new colonies placed on recent dead-outs succumb in similar fashion; and combs can apparently be decontaminated via irradiation or glacial acetic acid fumigation. Insecticides do not jump out as an obvious culprit either. Testing has

The sugar content of nectar goes up as the temperature warms and moisture evaporates. Bees may not work a crop early in the morning for that reason.

Nectar quantity per flower depends on soil moisture.Too little and it’s non-existent; too much and it’s too dilute. Bees will store honeydew, but cannot overwinter on it.This substance is actually tree sap which has been digested by aphids and had its protein removed. Bees store it as honey, but since it hasn’t gone through plant nectaries it contains long-chain carbohydrates, which are indigestible by honeybees.

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Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Beekeeping

Yesteryear

A look back at the literature of the last century Continued from page 1

tary bees which will not live in man-made hives.The lack of wild bees is particularly serious, as it can only be made up, in a hurry, by an enormous increase in honeybee production. Two years ago the Department of Agriculture initiated the first program for a considerable jump in the national bee population, calling upon the beekeeper, the legume seed grower, the orchardist and the farmer to cooperate in solving the problem. They were urged to develop more colonies, to keep the bees healthy, and to direct and control their work of pollination by the proper placement of mobile hives. Many sections of the country reported that more bees were at work than ever before, but in general the goals were not reached, largely because materials for building hives were scarce.

“The decline in seed production is serious in those crops that require insect pollination. Utah at one time was our principal alfalfa-seed producing state. In its best year, 1925, Utah produced almost 25,000,000 pounds of alfalfa seed. This figure has dropped steadily until the current annual production is less than 4,000,000 pounds. Red clover and other legumes are in the same plight. A good stand of red clover in almost any locality carries enough blossoms to produce 10 or 11 bushels of seed per acre. But the average production for the country is only 0.9 of a bushel. Pollination is inadequate, to say the least, and the most immediate remedy is through the intelligent use of honeybees.” Dr. Hambleton and other experts are urging farmers and growers to follow the successful example set by many orchardists, who now insure bountiful crops by bringing in beekeepers during blossomtime. For this service, which gives orchards the fullest possible pollination, they pay four to eight dollars per hive. Since beehives can be moved about without injury or distress to the bees, this system could be used almost everywhere in the country.

The number of bees required to maintain American agriculture at a high level of production is astronomical.There are some 500,000 beekeepers in the United States, and the Department of Agriculture has asked them, for 1948, to try to increase the number Nickel candy of colonies to 6,087,000. Since the population of a colony may run as high as 80,000 insects, that many colonies would mean more than 400,000,000,000 bees buzzing about the countryside. Every state in the Union needs more bees; some should have as many as 12,000 additional colonies. The need is especially great where legume plants are grown; the department recommends a colony of bees for each acre of clover or alfalfa. For a real bumper crop of seed three colonies are required.

bars containing honey and almonds have had a huge sale and consequently increased the use for honey.

Our depleted meat supply If the people of this country are to eat the meat they want and expect, our depleted herds of cattle must be built up to at least the 85,000,000 that filled our pasture and feed lots in 1945. That would be some 8,000,000 more than we had last year, when the per capita consumption of beef and other meats rose to an all-time high.To do this we must have more feed for the cattle, and for that we must have more legume plant seeds. At the moment, this seed production is so low that world requirements cannot be met in from five to ten years. Agricultural experts are devoting much time and thought to stepping up seed production.The government is trying to do it with money. In 1947 Uncle Sam paid legume crop producers a bonus of $3.50 an acre, with a limit of $70 per farm. In 1948 there will be price supports for alfalfa, crimson clover and other legume crops. These cash handouts will encourage farmers to plant more land in legume crops, but won’t increase the yield of seeds per acre. Only more intensive pollination can do that. Scientists working on cloverseed production at Ohio State University recently completed a threeyear experiment in which they used two fields of clover, one pollinated by great numbers of honeybees and the other allowed to grow with almost no insect pollination. The field worked by the bees produced 1,500 percent more seeds than the other. Dr. James I. Hambleton, head of the Division of Bee Culture of the Dept. of Agriculture, says:

Many large growers have begun to bring in bees when their fields are in bloom, and a few have gone the system one better by establishing apiaries of their own. In every instance where this has been done seed production has increased enormously. But the average farmer is always a little slow to adopt innovations.

It was less than 200 years ago that a German botanist, Joseph G. Kolreuter, who was engaged in hybridization experiments, discovered the priceless service rendered to flowering plants by pollinating insects. To the farmer this service has always been free, and he has accepted it as his natural due. It is still difficult to convince most farmers that for every dollar the beekeeper makes on honey the bees perform at least $50 worth of service to agriculture. The situation which could very easily result in beeless agriculture for the United States and thereby drastically lower our standards of living is not the fault of the bees.They are still the same industrious, prolific little creatures that they have always been. Man himself is to blame. With characteristic shortsightedness he and his boasted agricultural progress have upset one of nature’s prime balances, and if we are to maintain our abundant way of life it must be restored. Up to some thirty years ago the balance between farm products and pollination by insects was undisturbed. Then came World War I and an increase in population, followed by an expanding national appetite and mounting exports of grain and animal products. To supply the huge quantities of farm products needed, cultivation of large new tracts of land was necessary. Forests were cut down and the land plowed. Fence rows on farms that had sheltered wildlife were ripped out by the mile, and millions of acres of wood lots were cleared, leaving vast areas on which machines operated to plant and harvest crops beyond all precedent. Invention and “clean cultivation” were the new magic, destined to bring multiplied production. Nobody doubted that American energy and ingenuity could meet the pressure of a hungry and fast-growing population, and even provide surpluses.

May 2008 Beekeeping

Page 5

Yesteryear

continued from previous page Farmers defeat their own ends But pollination, the foundation of our best and most-liked foods, was either forgotten or taken for granted. It had always happened as surely as the sun had always risen; therefore it would continue to happen. So the farmer doubled, tripled and quadrupled his planting, and at the same time continued to destroy the basic means of a full crop return.

pollination. Also, this is the reason why it is possible for a beekeeper to produce different kinds of honey: clover, orange, buckwheat, etc.To gather a pound of pollen, the bees from one hive must visit more than 8,000,000 flowers, and may gather as much as 65 pounds in a single season. The life span of a bee is about six weeks. At the end of that time she has literally worked herself to death.

The new “clean cultivation” wiped out the nesting places of the wild bees and the other insect pollinators; they were made homeless and left to die, which they did by the millions.The work of destruction was further carried on by forest and brush fires, many of them man-set to clear land for planting, and by the nationwide construction of automobile roads and residential developments.

The first honeybees to gather pollen and nectar from American flowers were brought to this country by English colonists who settled in New England in the early years of the 17th century, probably in the 1630s.These were German black bees, which were supplanted, about the middle of the 19th century, by Italian bees, the cleanest, the most industrious and the gentlest of all honey makers.

Within the past few years, the pollinators have had to fight against a To the Indians of the Northwest the honeybee was known as “the new enemy. Countless billions of honeybees, wild bees and other white man’s fly”; they believed that the bees led the pioneers on their insects which helped in the task of pollination have murdered by the conquest of the West.What happened was that swarms of honeybees wholesale and careless use of powerful insecticides.These poisonous escaped into the great forests that covered most of the eastern dusts and sprays, often scattered from airplanes over wide areas, kill seaboard, and there lived wild until lured into hives again by the advancing white man. By 1800 they had been seen well beyond the the good as well as the bad insects. The Dept. of Agriculture reports that in 1947 DDT and 2-4-D, Isle of Wight disease Mississippi, and the settlers were not far behind. both of them certain death to bees, were more wideAboriginal beekeeping methods ... broke out in theIsle ly used than ever before. Before honeybees were brought here the necessary It becomes increasingly apparent that these lethal of Wight in 1906, and pollination was taken care of by native wild bees and sweeps in our fields and orchards will have to be con- ever since then has other insects, which were numerous enough to insure trolled and regulated if the beekeeper and the seedcrops of beans and the few other vegetables been destroying hon- good grower are to succeed in their efforts to increase used by the Indians.The wind pollinated the corn, the bee population and legume crop production. Several eybees in Europe. red man’s grain staple, and there was no need of bees states have already taken action to control the use of for his meat, for which he depended upon buffalo, poisons but federal action may eventually be necessary. It doesn’t deer, bear, small game and birds. He ate the honey of the wild bees make much sense for scientists of the Bee Culture Laboratory at whenever he found it, but there was never a great deal. A few tribes, Beltsville, MD, to work on diseases of the bee while wholesale poison- mostly in the Southwest, succeeded in hiving a few varieties of bees ing of the insects is going on at the same time. in hollow logs with clay-plugged ends. Hives of this sort can still be With its wild assistant pollinators dwindling almost to the vanishing found in Mexico, where the Indians keep a species of stingless wild point, the country is now dependent upon the honeybee for about 85 bee for a dribble of honey. percent of the necessary pollination. And only the honeybee would have a chance to succeed at such a gigantic task, for no other insect pollinator lends itself to the manipulation of man, multiplies so prodigiously, is so well organized and industrious, and lays up such quantities of honey that it can be kept for profit.

A beeless agriculture in the U.S. may seem unthinkable, but experts are worried by the threatened extinction of wild bees and other pollinating insects. They are also fearful of the terrible plague known as Isle of Wight disease, which broke out in the Isle of Wight in 1906, and ever since then has been destroying honeybees in Europe.

The bumblebee, next best pollinator, is a happy-go-lucky insect who will have nothing to do with man and his hives and lays up a paltry quantity of honey.A bumblebee queen is considered prolific if she has a few hundred descendents at the end of the season, whereas a queen honeybee, busily laying her quota of some 3,500 eggs a day over a period of weeks, may have a hundred thousand.

And suppose we do not succeed in building up our colonies to the point where there are enough bees to handle the big job of pollination? What would happen? What would we have to eat in the United States? Well, the bill of fare would be sadly limited. We’d have wheat and corn and other grains that are pollinated by the wind, a few vegetables like spinach and potatoes, fish, and some mutton and lamb. Bees are needed to pollinate grass for sheep. But there would be almost no fruit.

Fortunately for man, of all the flower-visiting insects the honeybee is best equipped to preside at the “marriage of the flowers”. Her body and legs are covered with hairs, some stiff, some featherlike, to which the pollen clings. It has been estimated that a honeybee’s body can carry 100,000 grains of pollen. She has special “pollen baskets” on her hind legs, and her primary task is to fill these for home use, but a lot of the pollen is distributed as the bee buzzes among the flowers. Like the bumblebee (and no other insect) she confines herself to a single species of blossom on a trip, thus bringing about a maximum of

Briefly, the American menu would be something like that of China, where the food is that of a beeless agriculture – and which gets along on fish, rice and mullet, with pork or fowl or a bowl of soybeans for a feast. Compared with what we have now, it would be a dull diet, lacking variety and zest, and containing a minimum of the proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins that help make an active, progressive people.

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Page 6

1-800-233-2899

To some, it’s a hobby. To others, it’s heritage.

If you teach your children about the Bees, The Birds will come easy.

Walter T. Kelley Co. 84 years strong and growing Support our meeting vendors The following is a list of vendors who, without fail, come through for the Missouri State Beekeepers Association by contributing goods to the general meetings to be used as raffle and door prizes.You are encouraged to support the following vendors when making your beekeeping supply purchases. In addition, thank them for the merchandise that they donate. (More contact information is available on our website.) American Beekeeping Federation 918-427-4233 www.abfnet.org

Glory Bee Foods 800-456-7923 www.glorybeefoods.com

Rossman Apiaries 800-333-7677 www.gabees.com

B&B Honey Farm 800-342-4811 www.bbhoneyfarms.com

H&R Apiaries 912-427-7311

Western Bee Supplies 800-548-8440 www.westernbee.com

Betterbee, Inc. 518-695-9802 www.betterbee.com

Hardeman Apiaries 912-583-2710 Lapps Bee Supply 800-321-1960

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm 800-233-7929 www.brushymountainbeefarm.com

National Honey Board www.honey.com

Dadant and Sons 888-922-1293 www.dadant.com

Olivarez Honey Bees 530-865-0298 www.ohbees.com

Draper’s Super Bee 402-274-3725

Mann Lake Ltd. 218-675-6688 www.mannlakeltd.com

Garden City Plastics 816-862-8703 www.ppc3.com Gardner’s Apiary/Spell Bee 912-367-9352

Root Publishing 800-289-7668 www.rootcandles.com

Femme Osage Apiary 636-398-5014 Femmeosage1@aol.com Sailor Plastic Company 800-380-7429 www.sailorplastics.com The Speedy Bee P.O. Box 998 Jessup, GA 61598 Walter T. Kelley Company 800-233-2899 www.kelleybees.com Heartland Honey 913-856-8356 www.heartlandhoney.com

May 2008

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Upcoming meetings

Heartland Honey and Beekeeping Supplies 19201 South Clare Road Spring Hill, KS 66061 913-856-8356 www.heartlandhoney.com

Fall 2008 Date: Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2008 Location: Lake Ozark, Lodge of the Four Seasons Speakers: Marion Ellis, Professor and Extension Apiculture Specialist, Department of Entomology, University of Nebraska

Spring 2009 Joint Meeting with Kansas Honey Producers Date: March 6-7, 2009 Location: Overland Park, KS, Marriott

Catching Africanized swarms

Speakers: Clarence Kollison, Extension Service Entomologist and head of Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University; Jennifer Berry, Apicultural Research Coordinator and Lab Manager, University of Georgia.

THE HAWLEY HONEY COMPANY 220 North Elm Iola, KS 66749 620-365-5956 (After 8 pm 620-365-7919)

State Entomologist Collin Wamsley displays a trap designed to catch Africanized Honey Bee swarms. The trap is available through the Department of Agriculture. Mr. Wamsley can be contacted at collin.wamsley@mda.mo.gov.

White clover honey strained in 5-gallon buckets. We will pack it in your jars for an extra fee. Bee Equipment - New and Used - Used Extractors Corn syrup, sugar syrup and SUGAR Bees -- Frames of brood Call for prices. Can deliver to Kansas City, Joplin or Butler, MO

Dean Sanders named 2007 Beekeeper of the Year State fair volunteerism cited by Scott Moser The 2007 Beekeeper of the Year award goes to Dean Sanders. The announcement was made by Vice President Scott Moser at the Annual Beekeeper of the Year Banquet on March 14. Dean was recognized for his hard work and dedication to the Missouri State Beekeepers Association booth at the Missouri State Fair. Dean has worked for several years at the State Fair, but after the passing of Don Reinkemeyer, Dean found himself totally in charge of the booth. Dean did an outstanding job with the fair last year considering the adversities he faced. Hot weather, poor attendance, a shortage of help, and freezer problems were just some of the obstacles he had to overcome. He spent countless hours at the booth, selling products and discussing bees. In his characteristic fashion, Dean took all of the problems in stride, and still managed to have a wonderful presence at the State Fair. Throughout the fair, he kept a positive and upbeat mood, despite the problems that arose. For his dedication to the Missouri State Fair, and his work with the Missouri State Beekeepers, Dean earned the honor 2007 Beekeeper of the Year.

May 2008

Page 9

Local club information Beekeepers Association of the Ozarks 4th Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. The Library Center, 4653 S. Campbell, Springfield www.ozarksbeekeepers.org

Boone Regional Beekeepers Association 3rd Sunday of odd months, 1:00 p.m., Columbia Insurance Group, 2102 Whitegate Dr. (back door), Columbia Contact Art Gelder 573-474-8837

Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association 2nd Wednesday of each month, 7:00 p.m., Powder Valley Nature Center 11715 Craigwold Rd., Kirkwood Bob Sears, President 314-479-9517 www.easternmobeekeepers.com

Gasconade County Beekeepers Association 2nd Sunday of month, 7pm, Progressive Bank of Owensville Contact Rodney Angell 573-764-2922 bee143@fidnet.com

Jackson Area Beekeepers 4th Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. First Pres. of Jackson, 206 E.Washington Contact Grant Gillard 573-243-6568 gillard5@charter.net

Jefferson County Beekeepers Association 2nd Tuesday of each month, 7:30 p.m., Hwy B & 21 Jefferson County Extension Center, Hillsboro Contact Scott Moser 636-285-7295

Joplin Area Beekeepers Association Last Tue. of each month, 7 pm, SM Bank Community Building (7th and Duquesne Rd), Joplin Contact Gene Foley 417-624-6831

Mid Missouri Beekeepers 3rd Sunday of each month, Bank of Salem, Salem Contact Don Moore 573-265-8706

Midwestern Beekeepers Association

Mississippi Valley Beekeepers Association Last Tuesday of Month in Quincy, IL Contact Debi Bridgman 573-439-5228

Missouri Valley Beekeepers Association 3rd Monday of each month, 7:00 p.m. Scenic Regional Library, Union Contact Rodney Angell 573-764-2922 bee143@fidnet.com

Parkland Beekeepers 3rd Tuesday of each month, 108 Harrison, Farmington Contact Gene Wood 573-431-1436

South Central Missouri Beekeepers Association Steve Teeple, President

417-261-2210

Southern Missouri Beekeepers of Monett (“MOBees”) 3rd Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. Monett High School VO-AG Building Robert Sperandio, President 417-235-6959

Southwest Beekeepers Association 1st Tuesday of each month Neosho High School FFA Building Contact Herb Spencer 417-472-7743

WEAVER’S FAMOUS QUEENS And Package Bees

3rd Wednesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. YMCA, 10301 E. 350 Hwy, Raytown Cecil Sweeney, President 913-856-8356

Buying beeswax Want to purchase yellow beeswax. Price will vary on how clean it is. Walter Els 573-486-5612 welsbees@gmail.com

Selling bees, etc. Pam Wright 417-257-1770 Bees and woodenware Want to be included? Send an email to Eugene at editor@mostatebeekeepers.org with “Trading Post” in the subject line. Or call 314-965-4631.

The world’s most confused honeybee

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

Page 10

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May 2008 Honey Chair report by Joyce Justice Thank you for bringing items for our Auction on Friday night. We made $235.00.That was great. Our silent auction table did well and we had fun items. The Pussy Willow plant got the most attention, I think.Thanks for remembering . Our queen has taken an office in an organization that is going to require too much of her time and will be unable to complete her year as our Honey Queen. Please get your completed applications in early and see if we can replace her by the state fair or even earlier. Let me know if this is what you feel is best, or if we should wait till fall and do without a queen this summer. Please let me know. We want to give all the applicants a fair chance.

Queen Chair Joyce Justice and auctioneer Jerry Winckler inspect a bottle of wine donated by Dwight Crevelt of 7Câ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Winery. A variety of items were auctioned during the Friday night banquet to benefit the Queen Program.

Milton Wright April 19, 1929 to February 17, 2008 Milton Wright died on February 17 at the age of 78. He began keeping bees about 1980 with a few hives on the farm where his father lived near West Plains, MO. He put some colonies on the roof of his house in Chicago. They made so much honey that the roof began to sink down. He brought them to Missouri.

Southeastern Area Director: Ray Batton 573-686-4888 3032 N. 14th St., Poplar Bluff, MO 63901 southedir@mostatebeekeepers.org Program Chairperson: Sharon Gibbons 636-394-5395 314 Quinnmoor Dr., Ballwin, MO 63011 sgibbs314@earthlink.net Newsletter Editor: Eugene Makovec 314-965-4631 643 Pearl Ave., Kirkwood, MO 63122 editor@mostatebeekeepers.org Auxiliary Treasurer: Dolores Vivian 816-690-7516 443 Fricke Road, Bates City, MO 64011-8280 H1ybee@aol.com

He had the dubious distinction of being the first beekeeper in Missouri to identify varroa mites in his colonies in 1989. The State Entomologist came from Jefferson City and said that the bees should all be killed so that the mites would not spread. We know how successful that was.

Queen Chairperson: Joyce Justice 816-358-3893 P.O. Box 16566, Raytown, MO 64133-0566 queenchair@mostatebeekeepers.org

When he retired, he came to the farm to keep bees and sell honey full time. He built a honey house on the farm.

State Fair Chairman: Dean Sanders cell 816-456-4683 37804 Old Pink Hill Road, Oak Grove, MO 64075

He loved to work with bees, read the bee magazines, and attend beekeeper meetings. He was a member of South Central Missouri Beekeepers Association, Missouri State Beekeepers Association, American Beekeeping Federation and American Honey Producers Association. -- Pam Wright

Assist. Prof. Entomology/Extension Spec.: Dr. Richard Houseman 1-87 Agricultural Building, University of MissouriColumbia, Columbia, MO 65211

Missouri State Beekeepers Association P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075 www.mostatebeekeepers.org

Like amber waves of grain, this swath of pollen is typical of Missouri’s April bounty. Spring pollens, particularly from fruit and nut trees, provide the best balance of nutrients for healthy honeybees.These include proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals, sterols and carbohydrates, according to Dr. Eric Mussen, Extension Apriculturist at the University of California, Davis. Dr Mussen spoke at the MSBA’s annual Spring Meeting in March. -- photo by Eugene Makovec

This newsletter is published six times per year, in odd months. Submissions are due by the 15th of the month prior to publication. The email edition is in color, and contains hyperlinks and bonus back-page material, while the print version is in black-and-white. If you are a member currently receiving the printed newsletter and you wish to upgrade, just send an email to editor@mostatebeekeepers.org with “email newsletter” in the subject line. I’ll reply with confirmation, and add you to my list. Business card size $15.00 Half page $50.00 Advertising rates are as follows: Quarter page $35.00 Full page $100.00 Classified Ads: Advertise one to three beekeeping-related items in a one-line ad at no charge.This service is for non-commercial MSBA members only, and is limited to one ad per item per calendar year. Honey Trading Post: This is a free service to members wishing to buy or sell honey on a wholesale basis. Just email or call the editor with contact information and whether you are buying or selling. Pricing is between the interested parties.

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

July 2008

P.O. Box 448 Oak Grove, MO 64075 www.mostatebeekeepers.org

Eugene Makovec Editor

State Fair is August 7-17 in Sedalia Plan now to enter your hive products, volunteer in MSBA booth The 2008 Missouri State Fair will be held August 7-17 in Sedalia. With the theme “Go4It!”, the annual event will feature carnival rides and games, rodeos and tractor pulls, musical acts including Air Supply, Charlie Daniels, and Foreigner, and a plethora of agricultural exhibits. As always, the MSBA will host its Honey Booth to promote honey and beekeeping to the public. Missouri beekeepers will again have an opportunity to supply honey and related products for sale at the booth. Anyone Urban apiculture: Natalie Semchyshyn (left) and Amos Harris install interested is asked to submit bids by July 27 to Ron Vivian,Treasurer; package bees on the roof of Harris’s six-story apartment building in St. Missouri State Beekeepers Association; PO Box 448; Oak Grove, MO Louis in May. -- photo by Tracey Haynes 64075. A bid sheet is printed on page 3 of this newsletter. Association, based in the St. Louis area, while Midwestern member Beekeepers can also enter the fruits of their labor in competition. Lowell Hutchison took the Individual Grand Champion award. Categories include everything from extracted and comb honey to beeswax and even observation hives. For a list of categories, visit Booth Workers Needed www.mostatefair.com/premium.html. Click on “Agriculture, Crafts, As always, our Honey Booth cannot operate without the generous Arts and Culinary”, then download the “Agriculture Entry Blank” PDF. help of MSBA members. Dean Sanders, our Fair Chairman, is recruitIn addition to individual entries, local clubs will compete against each other. Last year’s club winner was the Eastern Missouri Beekeepers

ing volunteers to work in four-hour shifts. It’s a great excuse to spend a couple of days in Sedalia taking in all that this wonderful state has to offer. (Think about carpooling with others from your local club.) Please call Dean at 816-456-4683 to volunteer your time.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

What is this flower? Large numbers of these spiny-stalked plants sprout 2-3 feet from sandy, rocky soil along the Huzzah Creek near Steelville. The bees love them (note the dark blue pollen basket), but even my horticulturist friend could not identify them. If any of our members can, please contact me. (See back page for another view.) --Editor

From the President Ken Norman

State Fair Bid Sheet

Apitherapy News Honey as medicine or placebo?

The Empty Super Working with wax

Beekeeping of Yesteryear Depression, pumpkins & pigeons

Honey Board to be phased out

Replaced by Packers/Importers program

Local Club Information

Honey Tradin’ Post

Membership Application

Queen Chair Report

Directory of Officers

Page 2

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

From the President by Ken Norman Go 4 it! is the theme of the Missouri State Fair for 2008, so with that in mind I outline several things that are needed at the Fair this year. 1. The first is a request from the outreach specialist for the Missouri Agriculture Department: “The 2008 State Fair is drawing near and your help is needed! This year will mark the 1st Annual First Lady’s Pie Contest. We would like as many people as possible to enter their pies in this year’s contest. With your help we can make this inaugural event a success! Please spread the word throughout your organizations via newsletters, phone calls, letters, etc. The deadline to enter is July 21st. Please provide myself or Mary Cottom with the entrant’s name and contact information. I can be reached at the information below or you can reach Mary Cottom at 573-751-0810 or 573619-9111.Thank you for your assistance and I look forward to seeing you all at the 2008 Missouri State Fair! David Baker 573-5221542.” 2. The next one is a sleeping room in or near Sedalia for our Assistant Manager of the Fair, Marlin Trout. If you or if you know someone who can provide a sleeping room contact Kenny Norman at 417-669-4452 or send an email as soon as possible to dkennynorman@juno.com with contact information. 3. It is good to hear that several local associations are coming up to work at the Fair as a group project, but we could always use more so please contact Dean Sanders at 816-456-4683 to work at the Fair. By all means the local associations can display their banners and advertise their locations and promote their locals. Of course, any member can work at the fair in four-hour slots or more, and be sure to look at the bid sheets on the opposite page for products that will be needed at the Fair to be sold. 4. The Missouri State Beekeepers Association still needs a Secretary to serve. If you have a nominee or if you would like to volunteer to be an officer, call Ken Norman 417-669-4452 or email dkennynorman@juno.com. I have been noticing a lot of negative publicity on honeybees, as seemingly benign as a cartoon Thursday in the Springfield Newsleader where it shows two teenagers attempting to paint a

house and they encounter a hanging hornet nest and of course it is called a honeybee nest and it is honeybees which are coming out and stinging the teens from the paper hornet nest. When at the Fair, we need to constantly emphasize to the public the need for honeybees and the need for pollination. At this time Missouri beekeepers enjoy a positive rapport for beekeeping and honeybees, but things can change and by being in the forefront to the public we can head off potential problems with our craft. At this time I am trying to remove some honeybees from a house which was built in 1880 in Springfield.They went up an ageing foundation into the walls. I hope to get most of them by using a screen wire cone and another bee hive.The owner is very concerned for the bees and wants to save all of them if possible. Every opportunity when the membership can promote honeybees and beekeepers will aid the association in the long run. I have this organization which would like to know of flood damage to honeybee colonies. Here is their request: “I am writing from the Natural Resources Defense Council. We are an environmental lobbyist group based out of New York City and we are currently beginning a campaign on Colony Collapse Disorder and its relationship to pesticides. Right now, we are just trying to get a good estimate on the actual colony loss that is occurring and are curious about how the current floods are affecting the already dire situation. If you had any insight or reports on how the floods are affecting beekeepers in Missouri that would be extremely helpful. Thank you for your time, Dylan S. Atchley, Program Assistant, Public Health and Science Center, Natural Resources Defense Council; 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005; 202-289-2389 datchley@nrdc.org You can email with any reports of losses from the website www.mostatebeekeepers.org/ or dkennynorman@juno.com Have a great summer and a record honey crop for 2008.

ITEM Extracted Honey Gallon 5 lb Jug 2 lb Jar 1 lb Jar 24 oz Bear 12 oz Bear Chunk Honey; Size _____ (Large Jar) Niblet; Size _____ (Small Jar) Comb Honey Cut Comb Ross Rounds Creamed Honey Plain Honey Sticks, assorted flavors

YOUR PRICE EACH

QUANTITY NEEDED 50 pcs

50 pcs

30 pcs 20 pcs

COMMENTS:

ITEM Lip Balm Containing Honey/Beeswax Describe: Hand Lotion Containing Honey/Beeswax Describe: Pollen 8 oz 1 lb Hard Candy Assorted Novelty Items Honey Dippers Honey Pot Style ______________ Style ______________ Clothing Describe: Describe: Describe: Describe: Beekeeping Related Books Describe: Describe: Describe: Describe: Describe:

Missouri State Fair Bid Sheet QUANTITY NEEDED

16 singles 25 singles 10 cases 15 cases 14 cases 17 cases 4 cases 4 cases 200 pcs 50 pcs 200 singles 1 case ea

BEESWAX & BYPRODUCTS Candles Rolled Dipped Molded Novelty Candle Rolling Sheets, assorted Wicking material for candles 1 oz Molded Beeswax (approx wt.) 50 pcs 1 lb Beeswax Block 20 pcs Soap containing honey and/or beeswax 50 pcs Describe: Describe:

YOUR PRICE EACH

Page 4

Missouri State Beekeepers Association Apitherapy News ... Honey as medicine: Placebo or sweet success? St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine September 2005 by George M. Bohigian, MD

The answer is both. Honey is both a placebo and a sweet success. Honey for medical purposes, both orally and topically, has been used for over 5,000 years and currently is being used by many of our patients as complementary and alternative medication. Honey for medical purposes has been used since antiquity in many cultures from Egypt to India. Mesopotamia would become known as “The Land of Milk and Honey.” Honey was used in Egypt to treat all manners of disease including wounds.The oldest medical book in history is the Kahun Papyrus (1825 B.C.), dealing with gynecology and pregnancy; however the Edwin Smith Papyrus is the first medical book in history to mention the treating of eye diseases and wounds with honey. This Papyrus, which the original may be as old as 3,000 B.C., describes treatment of “a gaping wound at the top of the eyebrow penetrating to the bone.” After stitching, applying two strips of plaster (two bands of linen), it recommended a surgeon “treat it with grease and honey every day until it recovers.” Honey, the most frequently used of all ingredients for medical purposes, is mentioned about 500 times in the medical Figure 1 Papyri. The symbol of honey in ancient Egypt was the hieroglyph or ideogram of a bee followed by a semi-circle representing a female plus a beer jug with a three legged stool (Fig. 1). Hieroglyphics were both pictorial and phonetic symbols. It is the female bee who makes the honey. During winter months, the females push out the male drones to preserve the hive, killing off the males. Biology and chemistry of honey Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Frequently the ancient Egyptians placed human organs into the honey as a preservative in their mummification process. It is thought that Alexander the Great was entombed in honey to preserve him. Honey that has been stored over thousands of years still can be used and does not spoil. Honey on our kitchen shelves that decolorizes and crystallizes can be cleared by simply placing the jar or the container in warm water so the crystals return to their liquid honey state. Honey is made up of mainly fructose, glucose and water. The antibacterial properties in honey are due to osmotic action, enzymes and hydrogen peroxide release. Honey should not be fed to children less than one year of age because of infant botulism. Clostridium botulinum from dirt can contaminate honey, which is harmless to older children and adults due to a more mature GI system.

Current uses of honey Oral and topical honey is used today by many individuals as eye drops for prevention of cataracts. Honey mixed with vinegar or lemon juice to prevent colds is a home remedy; however there are no scientific controlled studies to assess the benefit.A search of the Internet provides the reader with hundred of sites of various honey and their byproducts to be used as complementary and alternative forms of medicine to promote health. Besides its value as a food, honey can have healing therapeutic properties. It is estimated that 30-62 percent of the population uses some form of complementary or alternative form of medicine.There are many “scientific studies” supporting the use of topical honey as an ocular therapy. Studies suggest that use of topical honey for burn therapy is equivalent to current burn therapy.There is significant literature in peer reviewed medical journals on this topic for burn management. The placebo effect The term placebo is from the Latin “I shall please”. A placebo, like a sugar pill or saline injection given by a doctor, was to appease demanding or desperate patients. In some studies, the placebo effect may account for up to 30 percent or more of a clinical benefit of antidepressant medications. The placebo effect can give the patient hope and expectancy of a cure. This may, in turn, cause our own brain to produce chemicals akin to opiates.The chemicals are called “endorphins” and “enkephalins”. In one published study, even sham surgery had a placebo effect in which orthoscopic surgery for osteoarthritis in the knee was carried out versus sham surgery in which just an incision was made, and both groups over subsequent years had equal benefit. Conclusion Any “medicine” given by a physician can be effective. The placebo effect may improve both the patient’s satisfaction and treatment effects.The physician-patient encounter helps the healing response. It is not only the “medicine” that helps, but the spirit of caring -- that is the sweet magical secret of medical care. References: 1. Waugh, R.>. “The eye in man in ancient Egypt.” Hirshberg’s History of Ophthalmology; Monographs Vol. 1 and 2. 2. Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States. Washington, DC:The National Academies Press; 2005: 10. 3. Gropman, J. The Anatomy of Hope. New York, NY: Random House; 2004: 228. 4. “A Controlled Trial of Orthoscopic Surgery for Osteoarthritis of the Knee.” New England Journal of Medicine; 2002: 347: 81-88. Dr. Bohigian is a professor of clinical ophthalmology at Washington University/Barnes Hospital in St. Louis.

July 2008

Page 5

The Empty Super ... Diary of a hopeful hobbyist by Eugene Makovec Working with wax

State Fair, I thought. But that seemed like a lot of work.

Understand first of all, I am a lazy beekeeper.

This Spring I visited one of our new Eastern members who had started with a three-pound package after attending a beginners’ workshop. She’d had her bees for about a month, and they were doing great, with one exception: Despite a constant supply of sugar syrup (administered via division board feeder), and a decent honey flow outside, they were not drawing comb worth a darn. Looking through her single brood chamber with her, I quickly identified the problem – her startup kit had come with plastic comb. I explained its drawbacks to her as we observed such things as partially drawn frames, extra-deep combs on either side of undrawn frames, and comb sections hanging from the tops of frames but not really attached to foundation.

When I started out, I was given several deeps of drawn comb by my dad, who had gotten out of beekeeping several years before. I was clueless about wiring foundation, and it would have been difficult to learn from him from two states away. Not to mention, it looked like a heckuva lot of work. So I purchased some Duragilt, which consisted of two sheets of wax foundation with a smooth plastic sheet between for strength. Its primary drawback was the bees’ habit of chewing wax away in times of dearth, leaving sections of worthless smooth plastic. When Plasticell came out I gladly adopted it, as it combined the ease of Duragilt with the embossed indestructibility of plastic. When wax moths took over one of my deadouts, they completely consumed the old wax combs, leaving only wood and wires, but the plastic ones I just hosed off and put back in.

... I pulled out several honey frames that were filled top to bottom, end to end, corner to corner with wonderful, white-capped honey.

Then equipment manufacturers took it one step further: “No assembly required” described the one-piece frame-and-foundation solution. It was like a dream come true. At least for me it was. For the bees, not so much. Since I was pretty clueless anyway those first couple of years, I kind of got used to poorly drawn comb – partially drawn frames, extra-deep combs on either side of an undrawn frame, or comb sections hanging from the tops of frames but not really attached to foundation. I was just happy when I could keep my bees alive through the winter. But when I decided to add a couple of hives last year and needed to purchase some equipment, I decided to give good old-fashioned wax a try. And yes, it was a lot of work. Especially since I’m not all that handy to begin with. I bought the wax, the wire, the little metal eyelets and punch, and a spur embedder. They were out of the form boards for positioning frames while embedding, so I cut a section of 2x4 as a poor substitute. I then spent several hours one weekend assembling two boxes worth of frames. The results were astounding. I gave them to a couple of reasonably strong colonies and let the girls go to work. I didn’t feed them like crazy all Spring like they tell you to do with plastic. I checked periodically and rotated the end frames toward the center so they would draw them all, but otherwise I pretty much let them do what came naturally. What came naturally were the most beautiful frames of comb I’d ever seen. One day in June I pulled out several honey frames that were filled top to bottom, end to end, corner to corner with wonderful, white-capped honey. This could win me a ribbon at the

To be fair, this is not always the case. I worked with another beginner who began this year under the same circumstances and had great luck with her plastic foundation. So it may have a something to do with your particular colony. I’ve had colonies over the years who have done reasonably well with plastic, while others have hated it.

Just this Spring, I had two colonies that were slow to get going early on. I gave them each about a 50-50 chance of producing honey, and thought about combining them. As they showed progress in late April to early May I decided to use up some of my old plastic foundation in their second stories. But when I checked again on May 27, both hives were filled with swarm cells, and the queens had already left. Both still had 3-4 open frames of plastic foundation up top. Evidently they’d decided they would rather build their own comb elsewhere than work with the plastic junk I was providing. I ended up combining these two colonies after all, and still have nothing to show for my efforts. Much has been written about how best to get bees to work with plastic foundation. If you’re just starting out, that in itself should tell you that maybe plastic is not the best option available. I am not a purist by any stretch of the imagination. I will cut corners wherever I think I can get away with it. But there are certain, rare occasions when I will draw the line, and this is one: I will never buy plastic frames again.

DRAPER’S SUPER BEE 914 S. Street Auburn, NE 68305 Ph. (402) 274-3725 Fax: (402) 274-3128

Page 6

Missouri State Beekeepers Association

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Beekeeping

Yesteryear

A look back at the literature of the last century Bee Business Fails to Feel Depression Daily News, April 14, 1932 (Huntingdon, PA) Washington, April 13 -- The bee business isn’t much affected by the depression, the Department of Agriculture reports. Last year’s honey crop was worth about $10,000,000, and bees-wax about $1,000,000. The value of bees in the pollination of fruit was said to be great, although it is inestimable.

pumpkin made an investigation he found that the bees had accumulated eight pounds of honey.The circumstance is being quoted by the California papers as another result of the glorious climate of that state where “pumpkins and honey can be raised on the same vine.” (via the Internet, courtesy of Joe Waggle)

Pigeons and Bees The Daily Northwestern, January 28, 1889 (Oshkosh,WI)

New methods of preparing and wrapping honey have stimulated the A pigeon fancier of Hamme, Prussia, made a bet that a dozen bees liberated three miles from their hive would reach it market, the Department states. Likewise nickel candy bars containing honey and almonds have had a huge Nickel candy bars in better time than a dozen pigeons would reach sale and consequently increased the use for honey. containing honey and their cote from the same distance.The competitors were given wing at Rynhern, a village nearly a league (via the Internet, courtesy of Joe Waggle) almonds have had a from Hamme, and the first bee finished a quarter of California Pumpkin Hive huge sale and conse- a minute in advance of the first pigeon, three other reached the goal before the second pigeon, the quently increased the bees The Marshfield Times, Dec. 3, 1886 (Marshfield,WI) main body of both detachments finished almost simultaneously an instant or two later.The bees, too, A California pumpkin which had been utilized by a use for honey. had been handicapped in the race, having been rolled vagrant colony of bees as a honey store-house was the first to make its appearance.The insects had found their way into in flour before starting, for the purposes of identification. the vegetable through a crack in its side, and when the owner of the (via the Internet, courtesy of Aaron Morris)

July 2008

Page 7

National Honey Board to be phased out Will be replaced by new program May 16, 2008, Firestone, CO -- Memo from NHB On May 6, USDA announced the results of the referendum of first handlers and importers who voted to approve a new national honey packers and importers program. A copy of USDAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s press release is printed below. USDA will next publish a Final Order for the new program in the Federal Register.This is expected to happen sometime in May.When the Final Order is published, the collection of assessments for the current National Honey Board (NHB) will be suspended. Five board members from the NHB will then serve as trustees to oversee the winding down of operations.The actual termination date of the NHB will be set by the Secretary of Agriculture and is expected to be some time after the new program is operational. Some overlap of operations is needed to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. Bruce Boynton, Chief Executive Officer, National Honey Board May 6, 2008, Washington, DC -- Memo from USDA First handlers and importers of honey and honey products have voted to approve a new national honey packers and importers program. The vote was taken in a referendum conducted by USDAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) from April 2-16. In the referendum, 78 percent of those who voted -- representing 92 percent of the voted volume of honey and honey products -favored implementation of the Honey Packers and Importers Research, Promotion, Consumer Education and Industry Information Order (new program). Any current first handler or importer who handled or imported 250,000 or more pounds of honey products during calendar year January through December 2007 was eligible to vote.

Upcoming Meetings Fall 2008 Date: Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2008 Location: Lake Ozark, Lodge of the Four Seasons Speakers: Marion Ellis, Professor and Extension Apiculture Specialist, Department of Entomology, University of Nebraska

Spring 2009 Joint Meeting with Kansas Honey Producers Date: March 6-7, 2009 Location: Overland Park, KS, Marriott Speakers: Clarence Kollison, Extension Service Entomogist and head of Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University, Jennifer Berry, Apicultural Research Coordinator and Lab Manager, University of Georgia.

With the approval of the new program, the collection of assessments under the existing Honey Research, Promotion and Consumer Information Order -- authorized under the Honey Research, Promotion and Consumer Information Act -- will be suspended.The remaining provisions of the current order and regulations issued will be terminated at a later date. The new program will be administered, under AMS supervision, by a 10-member board consisting of three first handlers, two importers, one importer-handler, one national honey marketing cooperative representative and three producers and their alternates. The program will be funded by an assessment of one cent per pound levied on first handlers and importers of honey and honey products.The order is authorized by the Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act of 1996. Research and promotion programs help to expand, maintain and develop markets for individual agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. AMS will begin the nomination process once the order becomes effective. For more information, contact Kathie Notoro at 202720-9915 or email her at Kathie.Notoro@usda.gov.

July 2008

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Local Club Information Beekeepers Association of the Ozarks 4th Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. The Library Center, 4653 S. Campbell, Springfield www.ozarksbeekeepers.org

Boone Regional Beekeepers Association 3rd Sunday of odd months, 1:00 p.m., Columbia Insurance Group, 2102 Whitegate Dr. (back door), Columbia Contact Art Gelder 573-474-8837 http://beekeeper.missouri.org