It was just a few weeks ago as of this writing that Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds proclaimed March 30th Iowa Honey Bee Day. And since then our local communities have been following suit. Belmond, Clarion, Webster City and Eagle Grove, in the past weeks, signed official proclamations recognizing the importance of the honey bee.
Hitting the nail on the head, the local proclamation declared, "honey bees and native insects are important as pollinators for a third of the food we eat and honey bees are vital in production of over 90 crops grown across the nation, many of which are in Iowa. Honey bees contribute to a healthy Iowa environment by assuring availability of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and flowers for wildlife and all Iowans."
"Iowa Honey Bee Day started six years ago," said Eagle Grove local Dick Ostercamp, half of the husband and wife team of beekeepers who maintain Eagle Grove's most local bee apiary, and operate the sweet business Blossom St. Honey, just south of town. It started when the Iowa Honey Producers Association and its associated beekeepers clubs asked themselves, "what do we need to do to have more of a voice in the state legislature?" They decided to make a concerted effort to speak to local governments, starting with the Iowa legislature, on behalf of the bees and beekeepers. And they hired a pair of lobbyists, one full time, one part time.
For Dick Ostercamp, who is now a leader in the local beekeeping community, this passion came late in life. "8 years ago I was still working, thinking about retiring," said Mr. Ostercamp. He decided he better get a hobby. Inspiration struck on a visit to relatives. "We had a head start because his sister was a beekeeper," said Kristi Ostercamp. They left that visit with their first two hives.
Both hives were essentially lost over that first winter. But the Ostercamps were not deterred, they were more determined than ever. Dick attended beekeeping classes at NIACC. As it turned out, losing their initial two hives was a blessing in disguise. "One day the instructor stopped the class and blurted out to me, 'why are you nodding all the time?'" It was because he'd experienced everything the teacher was talking about. "All those mistakes, I'd made them. All those things, I'd seen them."
Having learned what to do and what NOT to do both from instruction and experience, the Ostercamps quickly put their first year losses behind them. Even following that catastrophe, they had grown their apiary to five hives by the second year. By the third year, they had a dozen.
Today, seven years into their beekeeping adventure, the Ostercamps ship their apiary of hives around the country on trailers through Iowa's colder months, to pollinate crops in warmer climes. Particularly in northern California, where the apple blossoms, onion fields and almond groves that supply the nation are in desperate need of pollination. Not only do the California farmers pay well for the service, but the bees thrive in the warmth, allowing the Ostercamps to split each hive into multiple hives on their return, growing their apiary year by year. And the bees turn all that California pollen into sweet honey for Iowa's markets, early in the season. Before coming home to pollinate the crops Iowa's economy relies on, and produce Iowa honey from Iowa pollen.
The Ostercamps make an assortment of delicious products from the bounty their bees provide. Honey, of course. But also flavored
honey, creamed honey, honey sticks, bee pollen, honey caramels, honey apple butter, beeswax, chapped lip treatments, medicinal honey, candied honey spoons, and much, much more.
One product they can't legally sell, yet, is mead, or fermented honey wine. And while the Ostercamps still have a lot of legal filing and work to do before they can SELL mead, there's no restriction on making it, or giving it away.
And so the Ostercamps have put together a private stock of their mead, which was the hands down winner in a blind taste test by honey experts. And they're preparing to bring it to market, when they're ready, right in Eagle Grove. Planning to open one of only a handful of meaderies in Iowa within the next year, they hope.
In the meantime, a bottle of their private stock will be included in each of the gift baskets from Iowa honey producers, that will be given to lucky recipients at the fourth annual legislative reception/breakfast the Iowa Honey Producers association will be hosting in the Iowa Capitol Rotunda, on Iowa's first official Honey Bee Day, Wednesday March 30th. One basket is earmarked for Governor Reynolds, the other will be raffled off.
But the Ostercamps don't want people, locally or all around the world, just to care about their sweet honey products. They want them to care about the bees as well. After all, bees pollinate crops, and the livestock eat those crops, and make the food our pets and our families eat, and contribute to our local economy and livelihoods. "We all need the bees," the Ostercamps concluded, "not just us. You too."
