H Th e P l at t ev i l l e Jo u r n a l H

SouthWest

THE

Week
Wednesday, April 13:
Americans Creed Day
Platteville Regional Chamber Business After Hours,
The BarN, 6935 Mound View
Road, 5 p.m. 348-8888.
Dr. Swagata Banerjee,
149 Doudna Hall, UW
Platteville, 5:30 p.m. 3421310.
UWPlatteville Percussion
Ensemble and Steel Band
Concert, Center for the Arts
Brodbeck Concert Hall, 7:30
p.m. 342-1143.

www.swnews4u.com

Friday, April 15
Second Harvest Food Pantry, St. Mary Catholic Church,
Platteville, 10 a.m. www.
secondharvestmadison.org.
Big Brass Blast, UW
Platteville Brass Ensemble
concert, Center for the Arts
Brodbeck Concert Hall, 7:30
p.m. 342-1143.

Sunday, April 17
Family Promise concert
and silent auction, First English Lutheran Church, 215 W.
Pine St., Platteville, lunch for
freewill donation 12:30 p.m.,
silent auction 12:30 p.m.,
David Francey and Ira Wolf
concert 3 p.m.
Gender Choir Concert
An Irish Hooley featuring
Singing Pioneers and Coro
DAngeli, UWPlatteville
Center for the Arts Brodbeck
Concert Hall, 3 p.m. 3421143.
Percussion Studio Recital,
UWPlatteville Center for the
Arts Brodbeck Concert Hall,
6 p.m. 342-1143.

SECTION

The buzz on beekeeping

Thursday, April 14
Senior dinner, Rebels
Northern Exposure, Livingston, 12:30 p.m. Reservation
deadline April 11.
Statewide tornado drill:
Mock tornado watch, 1 p.m.,
tornado warning, 1:45 and
6:55 p.m.
Young at Heart Super
Social for 55 and older, Park
Place Senior Living, 1075 N.
Elm St., Platteville, 4:306
p.m.
Tai Chi, lawn between
Royce Hall and Gardner
Hall (110 Royce Hall if rain),
UWPlatteville, 5:30 p.m.
342-1310.

Saturday, April 16
Platteville Indoor Farmers
Market, Trinity Episcopal
Church, 250 Market St., 8
a.m.noon.
Town of Mifflin cleanup, 8
a.m.4 p.m.; also April 18, 8
a.m.noon.
Technician Radio License
class, Dubuque County EOC/
EMA building, 14298 Public
Safety Way, Dubuque, 9
a.m.5 p.m. (563) 4514485, colinwheats@yousq.
net.
Amanda Frisch senior
bass trombone recital, UW
Platteville Center for the
Arts, 3 p.m. 342-1143.
OASIS gospel music: Acceptable, Platteville Municipal Building auditorium, 75
N. Bonson St., 7 p.m.
Eric Murphy alumni tuba
recital, UWPlatteville Center
for the Arts, 7:30 p.m. 3421143.

WEDNESDAY, April 13, 2016

Beekeeping can produce sweet results,

as long as you dont mind being stung.


Kirk Osborne (above) keeps bees on his property in Platteville and in other area locations. Jason Klovning owns land north of Platteville for his bees.

Photos by Steve Prestegard

by Steve Prestegard

plattevillejournaleditor@gmail.com

he author of the book

Beekeeping for Dummies
has 25 years experience
raising honeybees.

Interest in beekeeping has grown

much more recently, with increasing awareness of what honeybees
do and what has been happening to
honeybees, along with the increasing popularity of honey.
The American Beekeeping Federation claims that one-third of the food
Americans eat including many
non-citrus fruits, seed alfalfa, almonds, seed onions and cucumbers
is pollinated by honeybees.
Two dangers honeybees face inappropriate use of pesticides, and
colony collapse disorder, the cause of
which is being researched therefore could have a major effect on the
countrys food supply.
The areas largest bee operation
is Willow Creek Apiaries, which has
1,300 colonies of bees that make
honey sold at its retail outlet in
Rockville and at area supermarkets
and specialty food stores.
On a much smaller scale are local beekeepers like Kirk Osborne
of Platteville and Jason Klovning,
M.D., who owns land for his bees
near Union.
I like nature, biology; Im a

teacher at heart, said Osborne, a

UWPlatteville police officer who
has an education degree and formerly taught middle school current
events and biology. Ive always been
kind of fascinated with honeybees.
When you get into beekeeping, you
start to see nature differently; you
start to notice them in places you
didnt notice before.
Osbornes bees are on the roof
of his garage. He has hives in two
other locations.
Klovning became interested because his uncle and a cousin are
beekeepers. Everything kind of fell
together, and Ive been doing this for
three years, he said. I dont intent
to turn this into a giant enterprise.
Many beekeepers purchase bees
from southern states. Those bees
produce all year around, but are unaccustomed to Midwestern winters.
A lot of beekeepers make a mistake [in that] they dont realize how
regionalized beekeeping is, said Osborne.
The mild winter seems to have
been beneficial to area honeybees.
Bees started appearing with pollen
on their legs possibly from maple
trees, Osborne said on a sunny
day in the last week of March.
This was the first winter I got
them to survive, said Klovning.
The last two winters were just horrid.

Four of Osbornes six hives survived this past winter, which is four
more than survived the previous two
winters. I know one of the kills was
my fault, he said.
The nature of bees is they store
honey for winter survival. They
dont go dormant, they dont sleep;
theyre alive inside that hive all winter. And they store way more honey
than they can use all winter. Thats
where beekeepers come in; we give
them a nice place to live and we
charge rent by taking their honey.
One reason beekeeping has become popular is because of the increasing popularity of honey, sometimes for invalid reasons.
Its not a miracle cure for anything, said Osborne. Honeybees
are attracted to the same things as
humans; unfortunately bees are attracted to flowers that arent allergenic. The aroma of honey, the flavor
of honey, the color of honey are all
dependent on the source.
Beekeepers need to practice
enough discipline if Im taking too
much honey, Im dooming my bees,
said Osborne. And every season is
different. Im still learning things.
During the winter, bees cluster
and quiver, generating heat up to 90
degrees inside their hives.
Bees generally collect and distribute pollen up to two miles from their
hives, although they can range as

far as five miles. Two miles covers

about 9,000 acres; its a significant
area, said Osborne.
For that reason, Osborne is skeptical of claims of organic honey, because you never know what theyre
getting into.
Osborne has a pollinator garden
on the south side of his property.
Honeybees will be dancing in that
garden from July to early September, he said.
Klovning plans on planting clover,
borage and other plants on his property later this spring.
Klovning purchased land for his
bees because its hard to find people willing to keep them, unless you
raise them. He has another hive
near Platteville Golf & Country
Club, with five other hives planned.
The first year Osborne started
raising bees, he got 235 pounds of
honey from two hives. For first-year
hives, thats kind of unheard of, he
said. The last few years, its actually dropped off; theres been more
beekeepers that have sprouted up.
One reason may be pesticide use,
or improper pesticide use.
The last couple of years I can
tell you when farmers are spraying in the fields, he said. Ive seen
healthy colonies of 40,000 drop to
10,000.
Something beekeepers tend to
See BEES page 10B u

Monday, April 18: Federal

and state income taxes due
Guest clarinet artist, UW
Platteville Center for the Arts
Brodbeck Concert Hall, 5:30
p.m. 342-1143.
Skywarn Weather Spotter
training session, Lancaster
High School Hillery Auditorium, 6:30 p.m.
Jazz Combos, UWPlatteville Markee Pioneer Student
Center Pioneer Haus, time
TBA. 342-1143.
Tuesday, April 19: Patriots
Day
Distinguished Lecturer Bo
Ryan, Williams Fieldhouse,
UWPlatteville, 9:30 a.m.
Jazz Ensembles Concert,
UWPlatteville Center for the
Arts Brodbeck Concert Hall,
7:30 p.m. 342-1143.
Wednesday, April 20
Platteville Childrens Choir
tour, sites and times TBA.
Chinese Calligraphy, 110
Royce Hall, UWPlatteville,
5:30 p.m. 342-1310.
Connections 4 Kids,
Rewey United Methodist
Church, 5:30 p.m.
UWPlatteville Symphonic
Wind Ensemble concert,
UWPlatteville Center for the
Arts Brodbeck Concert Hall,
7:30 p.m. 342-1143.
Friday, April 22: Earth Day,
Environmental Awareness
Day, Arbor Day
Saturday, April 23
IowaGrant Leo Club car
detailing, Collision Specialists, Livingston, 8 a.m.3
p.m. 943-6488.
Community Shred Day, Livingston State Bank parking
lot, Livingston, 911 a.m.
Gwendolyn Haag senior
vocal recital, UWPlatteville
Center for the Arts Brodbeck
Concert Hall, 3 p.m. 3421143.
Rewey Lucky Stars 4-H
spaghetti supper, Rewey fire
station, 4:307:30 p.m.
To submit items for The
Week, call 348-3006 or email
journaleditor@centurytel.net
at least two weeks before the
event date. Schedules are
subject to change without
notice.

Where chickens are cool, and fowl are foul

Cities, villages
have a wide range
of permitted and
prohibited animals
by Steve Prestegard

plattevillejournaleditor@gmail.com

Wisconsin has called itself Americas Dairyland for decades. Agriculture is one of the states three biggest
industries.
Agriculture is not limited to farm
fields, and small-scale agriculture
within Southwest Wisconsin city or
village limits isnt limited to gardens
in back yards. There is wide variation in which animals Southwest Wisconsin communities allow or prohibit
within city or village limits.
In Lancaster, most agriculturally related animals and insects are

allowed within the city limits. The

city, which last updated its ordinances
in November 2014, limited the ability
to keep animals deemed exotic, as
well as vicious dogs (specifically naming pit bulls), but for farm animals,
rules are open. Even bison, which are
listed under the definition of bovine,
are allowed, as would chickens, goats,
cows, and bees.
About 41 percent of the citys land
is zoned agricultural.
The City of Platteville, which has
no ag-zoned land, allows horses,
cows, goats, sheep, donkeys, ponies,
or mules, but only within enclosures
of at least one acre for the first animal and one-half acre for each additional animal.
The city defines as public nuisances
animals that engage in frequent or
habitual howling, yelping, barking,
crowing, or making of other noises
as well as an animal that causes an
undesirable odor of such intensity as
to annoy neighbors.

The City of Platteville also requires

permits for beekeepers that limit
them to between two and six hives
on up to 1 acre of land, but no limit
for larger land. The permitting process includes an annual fee and notification of land owners within 200
feet of the property where bees will
be kept. The ordinance includes a 10foot limit from adjacent property, a 25foot limit from habitable buildings,
a flyaway barrier for hives within 25
feet of property lines. The ordinance
also includes a provision requiring
that beekeepers with a colony that
exhibits unusual aggressive characteristics by stinging or attempting to
sting without due provocation or exhibits an unusual disposition toward
swarming must replace the queen
bee with another queen that shall be
selected from European stock bred for
gentleness and non-swarming characteristics.
A separate section of the citys animal ordinance regulates poultry,

requiring run areas of at least 30

square feet per bird that is at least six
months old. The ordinance, however,
does not apply to exhibitors of poultry
or buyers of poultry for shipment or
retail meat purposes.
In the Village of Potosi, agricultural
animals are limited to the areas of the
village that are zoned agricultural.
There is no limitation on caged animals, like chickens or rabbits.
The Village of Cassville has a very
similar ordinance, listing agricultural animals to agriculturally zoned
lands. Cassvilles ordinance specifically states poultry would be considered a farm animal.
Since 1996, farming of sheep, cows,
horses, swine, ducks, geese, chickens
or fur bearing animals has been prohibited in Cuba City. The ordinance
grandfathered in existing ag operations, but prohibited expansion or
restarting a farm operation if it had
been discontinued.
See ANIMALS page 9B u