Paul Timm with his first frame of sweet clover honey.

Beginning Beekeeping Workshops have been scheduled for February 21 in Kearney and March 22-23 in Lincoln. A program with registration details is included in this newsletter. If you are considering beginning beekeeping in 2004, the following story about Paul Timm may help you decide.

Paul Timm is a teacher at Laurel-Concord Public Schools who began keeping bees in the spring of 2003. Beekeeping has been good to Paul, and he harvested a nice crop of comb honey during his first season.

Paul enjoys the following benefits from keeping bees: (1) bees are fascinating, and he has found many ways to use them in teaching, (2) he found that there is nothing better than his own comb honey on a hot biscuit, (3) he didn't have to go shopping for Christmas presents, (4) he has learned a great deal about the chemistry of fermentation by making mead, (5) he has enjoyed many happy hours watching his bees go about their work with indefatigable energy.

There are many other reasons to keep honey bees. They are invaluable pollinators of orchard and garden crops. However, from my perspective, the greatest benefit to keeping bees is the understanding or the interrelatedness of all living things that beekeeping brings. I am clearly biased, but I think that the world would be a better place if everyone kept a hive of bees at some time in their life.

A Beekeeping Update Program will be offered in Norfolk on February 28 to update beekeepers on bee management strategies, disease and pest control strategies, and there will be plenty of time for questions and answers. The program will begin at 9:00 AM and end at noon. There is no registration fee for this program, but pre-registration is requested

A program on bees and beekeeping will be offered at the Pioneer Park Nature Center in Lincoln on Saturday, March 7 from 9 AM - Noon. The program will include information on bumble bees, leaf-cutter bees, mason bees, and honey bees. To register, contact Becky Seth at: (402) 441-7895.

Chunk comb honey commands a premium price.

A firm, fine-textured, creamed honey has a delightful taste.

Paul Timm turning sweet clover honey into mead. (Click for larger view.)

Bottling mead to be corked and aged.

A Value-Added Products Workshop will be offered in Mead, Nebraska at the Agricultural Research and Development Center Headquarters building on June 18-19, 2004. The workshop will focus on three hive products that command premium prices ---- creamed honey, comb honey, and mead. The program will include detailed presentations on all aspects of preparing and marketing high quality products.

The program will include both classroom and hands-on demonstrations. You will learn how to use the Killion method for producing premium comb honey and how to combine the Killion method with powdered sugar dusting to control Varroa mites. You will also learn how to use the shook swarming strategy for producing comb honey and a variety of other management techniques used by successful comb honey producers.

Creamed honey presentations will include how to prepare and use starter, how to obtain a uniform set, strategies for controlling temperature, adding fruit flavor and color to creamed honey, labeling requirements, and marketing strategies.

Mead production presentations will include equipment needed, fermentation techniques, bottling equipment, aging, labeling and marketing. Participants will be treated to a mead tasting mixer at the end of the first day.

Program details will be published in the March issue of Bee Tidings. Registration is limited to 100 individuals, so be sure to register early if you want to participate in this workshop.

Cash prizes for top three national entries are sponsored by the American Beekeeping Federation.

Cash prizes for top two state winners are sponsored by the Nebraska Beekeepers Association.

Each state winner, including the national winners, will receive an appropriate book about honey bees, beekeeping, or honey.

The topic for the 2004 essay contest is, "Swarming".

A swarm of honey bees is fascinating - and it can be frightening for non-beekeepers. For the general public, seeing a swarm fill the air, then pitch on a tree limb - or even a car - is their introduction to the world of honey bees. Every seasoned beekeeper can relate a tale of an unusual swarm. What are the reasons for swarming? What does swarming accomplish for the bees? What is the effect on the beekeeper? One (only one) humorous - or otherwise interesting - swarming incident is a welcome addition to the essay.

Good leads for your research include your school and public libraries, local beekeepers, your County Extension agent, your state beekeepers association president (Jim Sack, JLSack@alltel.net), and the beekeeping professor at your state's agricultural college (Marion Ellis, mellis3@unl.edu).

The American Beekeeping Federation Website, <www.abfnet.org> has links to other beekeeping sites. Prior year's winning essays are published on the American Beekeeping Federation site. The National Honey Board websites, <www.honey.com> and <www.nhb.org>, also provide valuable information about honey. Regional information about honey and beekeeping in Nebraska can be found on the University of Nebraska's Beekeeping and Apiculture website by reviewing back issues of the Bee Tidings Newsletter: <http://entomology.unl.edu/beekpg>.

The scope of the research is an essential judging criterion, accounting for 40% of the score. The number of sources consulted, the authority of the sources, and the variety of the sources are all evaluated.

Personal interviews with beekeepers and others familiar with bees and beekeeping activities are valued sources of information and should be documented. Sources, which are not cited in the endnotes, should be listed in a "Resources" or "Bibliography" list.

Note that "honey bee" is properly spelled as two words, even though many otherwise authoritative references spell it as one word.

1. Contest is open to active 4-H Club members only. 4-H'ers who have previously placed first, second, or third at the national level are not eligible; other state winners are eligible to re-enter.
2. Entry requirements must be followed, and entries that are not in the prescribed format may be disqualified.
3. Entries should be typewritten or computer-generated, double-spaced, 12-pt. Times Roman or similar type style, and on one side of white paper.
4. Write on the designated subject only.
5. All factual statements must be referenced with bibliographical-style endnotes.
6. A brief biographical sketch of the essayist, including date of birth, gender, complete mailing address, and telephone number, must accompany the essay.
7. Length - The essay should be 750 to 1,000 words. The word count does not include the endnotes, the bibliography or references, nor the essayist's biographical sketch.
8. Essays will be judged on:
   (a) scope of research - 40%
   (b) accuracy - 30%
   (c) creativity - 10%
   (d) conciseness - 10%
   (e) logical development of the topic - 10%
9. Entrants should not forward essays directly to the American Beekeeping Federation. Each state 4-H Office is responsible for selecting the state's winner. Essays must be received by the state 4-H judge no later than February 27, 2004 to be considered for judging.
10. Essays for Nebraska entrants should be sent to:
    Dr. Marion Ellis
    Department of Entomology
    202 Plant Industry Bldg.
    University of Nebraska
    Lincoln, NE 68583-0816
11. Each state may submit only one entry for the national essay contest.
12. Final judging and selection of the National Winner will be made by the American Beekeeping Federation's Essay Committee, whose decision is final.
13. The national winner will be announced by May 1, 2004.
14. All national entries become the property of the American Beekeeping Federation and may be published or used as it sees fit. No essay will be returned.

The first meeting of 2004 for the Nebraska Beekeepers Association was held on Saturday, January 10, at the Gretna library. We had a small turnout on a cold winter day. A large part of the discussion centered around whether we should continue to hold monthly meetings on Saturday mornings. Consideration of changing to quarterly meetings, holding them in the evening, and having a speaker was strongly supported by those in attendance. We planned to vote on a proposal at the February meeting. However, since the January meeting, I have discovered that the library will be closed on Saturday the 14th for painting and carpeting. So, we will postpone the February 14 meeting until March 13, again at the library at 10:00 AM. If you want to have input on future meetings, you need to attend this meeting. You can also email comments to me at: JLSack@alltel.net.

Nick Aliano

Dr. Marion Ellis was in San Antonio at the American Bee Research Conference on Saturday, the day of our meeting. Nick Aliano, Marion's graduate student, won the student paper competition, an outstanding achievement for him. Association members had a hand in sending him, as he used the foundation account to pay travel expenses. Although the meeting attendees did not know this was going on concurrently, there must have been some intuition going on. The Association voted to fund an additional $8,000 donation from our treasury to the foundation fund to help more students like Nick achieve great things in bee research which comes back to help us as beekeepers. Since the Association has always had education as a primary goal of the organization, this is a way we can really continue to make a difference.

We held elections for Association officers at the meeting. I was re-elected President for 2004. Glen Day was elected Vice-President. JoAnn Vasko was re-elected Secretary. Marion Ellis was re-elected State Fair Coordinator. At the time of the meeting, there were no candidates for the positions of Treasurer, Information Coordinator, and State Fair Manager. Since the meeting, Helen Rohrke has agreed to be nominated as Treasurer, and Ed Utterback has agreed to be nominated as Information Coordinator. These positions will be filled at the March meeting. The position of State Fair Manager is more complex. The job of providing oversight for the Association display, ice cream sales and demonstration hives may well be a shared duty between several persons. Please think ahead to August/September and consider giving some time for more than a shift at the booth: consider being responsible for a day or two or three. More to come on the Fair.

Since there are some serious issues to be discussed at the next meeting, I urge you to attend, and let your voice be heard.

See you at the meeting!

Bee Tidings is published jointly by University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension and the Nebraska Beekeepers Association four times a year. Your membership in the Nebraska Beekeepers Association for $12 per year includes a subscription to Bee Tidings.

This newsletter was respectfully written by:
	Marion D. Ellis 209 Plant Industry, Box 830816 University of Nebraska Lincoln, NE 68583-0816 Phone: 402-472-8696 Fax: 402-472-4687 Email: mellis3@unl.edu
Your comments and suggestions about the newsletter are always welcome!

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