As I write this letter, all eyes have been on the weather. With two hurricanes hitting the Gulf Coast already this year, my thoughts are with anyone in their path. I have heard from beekeepers in Louisiana and Texas who have been greatly impacted from these storms. Anyone who hasn’t experienced a weather event such as this might not realize it’s usually not the wind that does the most damage to the bees, but the water. Flooding of a beehive can do several things. The most obvious is the hive will drown or be washed away possibly to never be seen again. However, even a lesser degree of flooding can turn devastating. Commonly, a beehive will go partly under water and the cluster will survive initially only to be killed out later by small hive beetles.

This year was a mixed bag for Texas beekeepers starting out with almond pollination. Overall the price paid for rent was higher and the bees may have graded a little better than last year. Currently, I believe pollination prices will be strong in the 2009 season. Honey production in our state was up and down as usual with the overall crop a little better than last year. The good news is that retail demand for homegrown honey is stronger than ever and wholesale prices are up substantially.

One other thing of note—everyone is probably aware of the increasing demand for bees and queens. It is time to start planning for your 2009 season, so get your orders in as soon as possible.

I hope I will see all of you in Plano!

Ray Latner, Manager: Dadant & Sons Inc. – Paris, TX

Dear Friends,

I have just returned from College Station for a visit with our friends at TAMU. I will report that progress is being made. It is a slow process, but I have to say that it is moving forward. They have an architect that has been working with Dr.Pankiw and is making sure that what we are designing, will meet her needs. Hurricane Ike has just come ashore and has done extensive damage to the A&M campuses at Galveston and Beaumont. So the architect has been called away to work on those other projects. When he returns, he will be able to finish up the work on the Honey Bee Research Lab. I will stay on top of Dr. Heinz and Chad Wootton to make sure we don’t fall through the crack. As for the ground breaking on the project that Chad had mentioned at last year’s convention, I don’t see that happening this year. I hesitate to even give you a date, but I will go out on a limb and offer the first quarter of 2009. I hope we can keep that, but you know how things progress at TAMU.

As I mentioned in my last article, we have raised in excess of $500,000. As you remember, they last asked us to raise $550,000, so we have done our part. The only problem is I am sure the Lab will end up costing somewhat more than this. They are supposed to have a better understanding of cost estimates when the architect gets through with the plans. I will keep you updated in future articles.

Thank You,
Todd Youngblood
Capital Campaign Committee Chair