September2006

R£SERVAnONS FOR THE ANNUAL MEETING AT MIDLAND MUST 8E MADE 8Y OCT08ER '3. 2006 TO INSURE THE SPECIAL ROOM RATES.

For reservations call 1-800-825-2700 and mention the MBA for special room rates. See inside cover for more information.

Check us out we have made some changes more information in the presidents column.

Press Release

NATIONAL HONEY BOARD,,,

For Immediate Release:

Sept. 15, 2006

•

National Honey Board 390 Lashley Street Longmont, CO 80501 Phone: (303) 776-2337 Phone (800) 553-7162 Fax (303) 776-1177 www.nhb.org www.honey.com

Contact: Lisa Jager (303) 776-2337 lisa@nhb.org

Honey Producers Participate in Voluntary Quality Assurance Plant Audit Training; Benefits Include Free Feedback and Audit Input

Longmont, Colo. - The first training sessions for a proposed honey industry Voluntary Quality Assurance plant audit program were successfully conducted in August in North Dakota. Additional training sessions will be conducted at various sites through the end of September.

!hetrc:ining sessions were conduct~(:l by honey indu~try repn:~s_entilliyel' with inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Processed Products Branch. Inspectors are using an audit developed by U.S. beekeepers and other honey industry representatives. The USDA inspectors have indicated their willingness to provide an inspection program tailored to the needs and wants of the honey industry.

Participation in the training sessions is providing honey producers an excellent opportunity to obtain free feedback on their facility and have input in the development of the audit program.

Representatives from five honey industry groups participating in the 2006 honey industry roundtable in late June endorsed their support for the proposed voluntary plant audit program. The groups are American Beekeeping Federation, American Honey Producers Association, National Honey Packers & Dealers Association, Western States Honey Packers & Dealers Association and Sioux Honey Association.

NHB conducts research, advertising and promotion programs to help maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets for honey. These programs are funded by an assessment of one cent per pound on domestic and imported honey.

Our fellow beekeepers in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana had a very poor crop, if you could help them stay in business andvhavev honey to sell please contact us and we will share names and numbers. Please try to be as fair on pricing as you would wish to be treated. We could be in the sanle boat and 'tie may need the help in the future. Let's work together and keep American honey on the shelves and available to as many people as posssible.

"Clearly, service is king at the impressive 30-acre resort, which can best be described as a mid-Michigan wonderland for guests of all ages. What else would you call a complex that features two separate hotels, a dual-screen movie theater, three indoor swimming pools, 35,000 sq. ft. of banquet and meeting space, two game arcades, a 32-lane bowling center, an indoor miniature golf course, a sparkling new Four Seasons health and fitness club, a three-acre lake and beach area, two whirlpools and saunas, a billiards room, three restaurants, a cocktail lounge, an outdoor playground and basketball court and a 77 site RV park?"

Arcades & Billiards in Best Western & Valley Lanes: tokens which can be purchased for .25 each

Pools, jacuzzi, sauna and weight room in both hotels. The Best Western Pool Area & Arcades Center is open 24 hours.

The following activities will be offered at the RV Park while we are at Valley Plaza. We are welcome to attend. Unfortunately, there no spaces available in the RV Park.

Goodrich Apiaries Selling 810-797-2530

Wanted

Used & Old Beebooks wanted by "newer" beekeeper with varacious reading appetite.

Please help me expand my limited library. My bees need all the help they can get!

Please Qring to th~ fall meeting or mail to

Barbara Pepp 35487 Pike River RD Chassell, MI 49916

Dadant Melter

operates with steam or hot water

INTERESTED PARTIES CALL or WRITE

Ms. Geraldine Marshall 5399 Evans Road Holly, MI 48442 810-694-3801

Goodrich Apiaries Selling 810-797-2530

9 5/8 treated brood wldrawn frames**

9 5/8 treated brood wi un-drawn frames** 9 5/8 painted supers wi drawn frames*** 7 5/8 treated super wi drawn frames ****

7 5/8 treated super w/un-drawn frames****

7 5/8 treated super w/lOframes unassembled**** 6 5/8 painted super w/drawn frames*

painted bottom boards

treated bottom boards

painted inner covers

telescoping top covers

live hives

drums

queen excluder (older) queen excluder (newer)

15 cal stainless heated sump w/float switch***** 72 fram stainless extractor

cowan uncapper w/trough

* 90% of the 6 5/8 supers are 8 or 9 Frame (with spacers) all others 10 frame. All have wood frames. Most have crimped wax foundation, rest have pierco black plastic foundation.

**AII have 10, 1 piece pierco frames/foundation

***All have 10 frames most wood frames w/crimped wax foundation.

****AII have 10 wood frames in pierco black plastic foundation.

*****Sump was purchased in 2003

NOTE: All of the treated supers listed above were new in 2005. The "treatment 'lis by boiling the wood in paraffin and copper sulfate for 24 hours making it bug and weather-proof life time wood ware. The "treated" bottom boards were constructed from womanized 5/4 deck boards and 3/4 plywood the waterproofed

Attendees: Dave Anthony, Roger Hoopingarner, Roger Sutherland, Ed Wracan, Terry Klein, Mary Klein, Ann Leonard, Richard Leonard, Zachary Huang, Gerald Dunbar

Secretary's report read from June ... correction oflast name for nominee for District 2 rep Motion by Ed Wracan to change May minutes to read "add Dave Anthony to checking account and remove past-president Richard Leonard from the account" Motion 2^nd, carried. Correction made

Motion made by M. Klein to orders checks to be printed by QuickBooks for Treasure rather than handwriting all. Motion 2^nd and carried.

Synopsis of ANR - 15 new members, prox $800 spent in advertising. Suggestion made that as an incentive for new members to join "on the spot" at ANR, if they register and join MBA at that time, the cost will be a lesser amount. Board will take under consideration.

Mike Hansen spoke on Plum pox, strain D in Michigan. He has links to the MBA website on the MDA

Bylaws update - Suggested changes were gone over and discussed by the Board. Motion was made, 2^nd and carried to accept the amended bylaws. Revised by-laws will be published in the Fall newsletter for review by Membership. Membership will then vote to accept at the Fall meeting

Budget/ANR 2007 - projected cost for ANR 2007 is $2500. Suggestion was made again to charge for adverstisements in the newsletter and website to offset the cost of the newsletter. Motion made to charge, 2^nd and carried.

Honey Queen Program - motion by Board to bring up at the fall meeting to eliminate the program. 2^nd and carried.

2007 Bee Calendar - Theme is "Beekeepers in Action" and pictures are still needed for the face pages. 2007 meeting dates were discussed and will be in the calendar.

ANR 2007 - Speakers are being lined up and we will have the same type of program as 2006. Will contact a local beekeepers club to coordinate as last tear.

MBA Board meetings - Discussion to have a "teleconference" with all board members in November. This will be as a trial to see if it can be done on a regular basis.

Honey sticks - motion made, 2^nd carried to purchase a bucket of honey sticks that Dave Anthony had made. Available to MBA members @ $.07 each

Bill for web-site and other bills - $40/month for website maintenance. All articles must be approved by President before putting on website. Motion made, 2^nd and carried to accept a 6 month trial maintenance contract.

Anything for the good of beekeeping - MSU Autumn fest ... Motion made, 2^nd and carried to have MBA booth.

"Mini-page" published in local newspapers are available by contacting Mary Klein. MBA has purchased 8000 for members to purchase $.03 each.

Fremont Foundation - Roger H is going to contact them regarding funding MBA has available. Motion made, 2^nd and carried to give funds to Zachary/MSU for bee research. Funds will be discussed at the November 'teleconference"

Zachary to speak at the Fall meeting and in the newsletter on the focus of his research.

ncient Egyptians used honey to treat bums and wounds. Recent research conducted at universities in New Zealand, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates suggest the Egyptians had it right. Honey helps wounds heal. In one ofthese studies 50 women with infected C-section or hysterectomy incisions received either application of honey every hour or topical antiseptics. Bacterial infections in the honey group cleared up after about 6 days; it took 14 days for the other group to heal. I fmd that minor bums respond well when you immerse the bum area in cold water for a few minutes, and then apply a coat of raw honey and cover with a gauze bandage.

President - candidates: Ann Leonard, Dave Anthony Vice President - candidates: Don Lam, Terry Klein Dist 1 - candidate: Scott Barnes

Secretary's report - minutes were published in the newsletter for approval by membership. No changes - moved to accept by membership

Treasurer's report - Balance at beginning of 2005 $11962.97 with a current balance. of $11062.38. Detailed treasures report is available to all members upon request. Motion made to accept Treasurer's report as read - Approved by membership

Auditors are requested for the Annual Audit of the Treasurers Books. Those volunteers are to meet with Roger H after this meeting.

Bumper stickers are available and free to members. See Roger H or Ann Leonard Discussion with MBA members on the benefit of burning beeswax to purify the air in a room and the affects of honey as an antiseptic. Honey is known as the "gourmet medicine"

Discussion on the floor regarding maintaining the website - This Fall meeting was not advertised on it .... Who owns it? The MBA website is owned and maintained by Zachary Huang, MSU. Members and officers must supply Zachary with information to be put on the website. The MBA website is Michiganbees.org and Zachary's email is bees@msu.edu. A suggestion was made to have a "Director of communications" to gather information for both the website and the newsletter. This could then be compiled and forwarded to both Zachary and the newsletter editor.

A 'honey locator' link will be placed on the MEA website. This will enable members and "surfers" to find those in their area that have honey for sale or want to purchase honey. This link will be to the SEMBA website and will be maintained by SEMBA

Current newsletter editors Terry and Mary Klein have given their letter of resignation. As of this meeting, they will no longer be doing the newsletter.

MBA Queen program was brought to the table from 2004 Pall meeting. It was once again moved to place the program on hold for another year. This motion was approved by the membership. The Honey Queen is not utilized enough throughout the organization to keep this program active.

Money raising ideas were brought to the floor. All ideas/suggestion must be presented to the MBA board at one of its meetings. Board meetings are: Jan 21, April 15 and Sept 16. Members are suggested to forward their suggestions to any Officer or their District rep.

New Business:

Gerald Dunbar announced a new bee organization in Michigan and the website is:

Honeyfarm.blogspot.com

- Historian, Mary Folkema has resigned as Historian. Mary has been MBA historian for many years. Richard Jorgensen has volunteered to take over this position and has been approved by MBA Pres, R. Leonard

I've received a few calls recently about how best to deal with Small Hive Beetle (SHB) when you fmd it in your operation. SHB is not considered to be a major pest for northern beekeepers. The life cycle requires warm temperatures for successful buildup of numbers. We do observe some reproduction of SHB in the north, but not to the extent it's found in the South.

The life cycle of SHB is relatively simple. Adults lay eggs in the colony, eggs hatch, larvae feed on brood and then move to the soil outside of the colony to pupate. Following pupation the adults return to the colony to feed and lay eggs. Okay, that's a very simple explanation of the life cycle, but there are a couple of vulnerable places in the life cycle where SHB can be addressed.

The insecticide Checkmite+ is labeled for the control of SHB. You place the product in the colony under a piece of corrugated material. The adult beetles that hide under the corrugated material come into contact with the Checkmite+ strip and receive the dose that kills them. But not all beetles seek out corrugated material to hide under do they. What we often observe is that adults will make their home in a vacant cell right in the cluster to keep warm during cold weather.

If conditions are right, the adults will lay eggs. If conditions remain right, the eggs can hatch, and the larvae will start to feed in the colony. The larvae leave a mucous like material behind them, and the slime is offensive to the bees. We tend to pull our honey he August - a time of year when it's warm enough that SHB may be into it's reproductive cycle.

One often-expressed concern is that when we bring honey supers into the honeyhouse, the SHB larvae hatch out and we see larvae crawling around the honeyhouse. We unlikely to see the numbers oflarvae that they do in the warmer climates, but the sight of larvae crawling around in a clean processing area is a bit unnerving. The larvae are looking for soil so they can pupate. For the most part you can clean up the larvae at the end ofthe shift when you sanitize the floor.

If you have a problem population of SHB it may be necessary to treat the soil in the bee yard with GuardStar prior to placing your colonies. Guard-Star if a registered insecticide that is labeled for use to control SHB. Creating a chemical barrier under and around your colonies prevents the larvae from pupating, and breaks the life cycle. If you keep the population under control in the bee yard, you'll see far fewer adults and larvae in the honey house.

If you're fmding larvae this time of year, it's unlikely that they will complete their life cycle since soil temperatures are dropping. But if you're finding a lot oflarvae in August when you pull your supers, you'll want to take some precautions in the honey house as well.

Consider the following ideas gleaned from fellow inspectors. I) If you have yards with beetles, extract from those yards last.

4) In the honeyhouse, hang a light over a pan of soapy water at night to attack larvae from supers.

8) Throughout the process remember: cleanliness, cleanliness, and cleanliness ..

9) Remember SHB is simply looking for a safe, secure, resource. They want an abundant place to maintain the species. Take away the food, security, and environment and they become a non-problem. Most needed management changes should be minor.

Small hive beetle should not be a major problem for northern beekeepers, there are some steps you can take, but monitoring your bees and making logical management changes should be the ticket for keeping this pest in check.

s I was sitting on my sun porch yesterday afternoon I noticed some honey bees on my garlic chives (the bees seem very attracted to these flowers), but had not arrived until about 3 p.m. This, I think, about sums up one of the problems with fall honey flows. They often do not happen simply because the weather does not cooperate. Yesterday my bees had about two hours of foraging weather and that was with temperatures in the mid to high 60's. Not a lot of foragers will fly at those temperatures. Years ago we calculated the foraging bee flight percentage. The curve is almost a straight line from about 60° to 95°, that is, about zero at 60° and about 100 percent of the available foragers at 95 degrees F. So you can see at even 70° the number of foragers is not very high. Now to go back to the bees on the garlic chives for a couple of hours, the temperature was only in the high 60's,and thus only a small percent of the available foragers, the honey just doesn't go into the hive very fast.

Now to take the other tack, I have seen colonies make more than 100 pounds of honey after Labor Day in September. This can happen if the flowers are in good shape and the temperatures remain relatively high. Bees like it hot-up to about 95° F.

What does it take to have the fall flowers in good shape? Mostly, the right amount of rainfall, earlier in the summer, in order to give the goldenrods and asters the plant vigor to produce nectar. These plants are perennial so you do not

have to have the seeds germinate. There are other fall flowers that contribute to the fall nectar flow but goldenrods are the most important. Since

There is a tradeoff for a good fall honey flow. There is a decided cost of longevity of the bees. Foraging takes it toll of bees and the more they forage the shorter their lives. If more bees die going into the winter the total number of bees available for the winter cluster will be diminished. Thus, a cost that may be counted as fewer colonies making it over winter.

Make sure all colonies have sufficient winter stores. A colony needs 60-90 pounds of honey-at the top of the hive. A heavy sugar syrup can be turned into honey rather quickly as long as the temperature remains above 55° F.

Prepare your best honey for the honey show at the Michigan Beekeepers Association fall meeting, and for entry at the national level-American Beekeeping Federation meeting in January.

Recognizing the importance of pollinators to ecosystem health and agriculture in the United States and the value of partnership efforts to increase awareness about pollinators and support for protecting and sustaining pollinators by designating June 24 through June 30, 2007, as , National Pollinator Week'.

Mr. CHAMBLISS submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to

Whereas bees, butterflies, and other pollinator species have a critically important role in agriculture in the United States and help to produce a healthy and affordable food supply and sustain ecosystem health;

Whereas pollinators help to produce an estimated lout of every 3 bites of food consumed in the United States and to reproduce at least 80 percent of flowering plants;

Whereas commodities produced in partnership with animal pollinators generate significant income for agricultural produce,s, with domestic honeybees alone pollinating an estimated $14,600,000,000 worth of crops in the United States each year produced on more than 2,000,000 acres;

Whereas it is in the strong economic interest of agricultural producers and consumers in the United States to help ensure a healthy, sustainable pollinator population;

Whereas possible declines in the health and population of pollinators pose what could be a significant threat to global food webs, the integrity of biodiversity, and human health;

Whereas the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, managed by the Coevolution Institute, is a tri-national, cooperative conservation, publicprivate collaboration of individuals from nearly 140 diverse stakeholder groups, including concerned landowners and managers, conservation and environmental groups, scientists, private businesses, and government agencies; and

Whereas the Pollinator PartnershipTM web site (http://www.pollinator.org) has been created as the source for pollinator information: Now, therefore, be it

(1) recognizes the partnership role that pollinators play in agriculture and healthy ecosystems;

(2) applauds the cooperative conservation collaborative efforts of participants in the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign to increase awareness about the important role of pollinators and to build support for protecting and sustaining pollinators;

(4) encourages the people of the United States to observe the week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

1. There must be 3 unlabeled jars or containers for each class you are entering.

5. All extracted honey will be checked by a polarscope for debris, foam, and crystals.

6. To qualify your entries must be in by 10:00 A.M. Saturday, October 28, 2006 -Dan Guthrie