The USDA Agricultural Statistics Service in Des Moines released the 1991 Honey Crop Report February 19th. Once again the number of colonies increased over the preceding year and production per colony remained low. The state average was 56 pounds per colony on 92,000 colonies of bees. The total production for the state was 5,152,000 pounds at $0.55/lb. for a total value of $2,834,000.

The trend since 1988 has been small honey crops but more colonies of bees in Iowa (see Table below). When you have such a good year as 1988, it appears a lot of people go into beekeeping or increase the size of an existing operation. Unfortunately, those bumper crops do not come along very often.

Five Years of Iowa Honey Production

Year	Honey Producing Colonies	Yield Per Colony	Production	Price Per Pound	Value of Production
1987	44,000	103	4,532,000	0.54	$2,447,000
1988	49,000	129	6,321,000	0.47	$2,971,000
1989	67,000	90	6,030,000	0.45	$2,714,000
1990	70,000	54	3,780,000	0.53	$2,300,000
1991	92,000	56	5,152,000	0.55	$2,834,000

Adapted from The Buzz, newsletter of the Iowa Honey Producers Association in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Agriculture Land Stewardship, March, 1992.

This article originally appeared in the April 1, 1992 issue, p. 46.