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arntm mmm tribune september 28 1988 c15 silent student stouffville christian school held open house last thursday and about 300 parents and students attended above from left grade 4 student joshua lake shows his mother liz centre phololbruce staple and teacher nancy stover his desk dummy grade 4 students made life size dummies to occupy their seats while they enjoyed the open house honey yield slowed by stifling summer heat by bruce stapley the dry spring weather ex perienced this year plus the searing summer heat that slowed down the bees in their honey making efforts will result in a smaller crop for byer honey this fall the business which has been in the byer name for over 100 years will have to settle for a crop somewhere between a half and three quarters of last years output according to erie byer who operates the business located north of markham on hwy 48 along with his uncle lloyd byer the drought certainly did af fect the crop he says when we get a dry spring the honey plants dont develop as well he adds however that rain later on in the season helped avert an even greater drop from last years totals we ended up doing a lot better than some on tario beekeepers but then erie byer has been in the business long enough to know that each year is an adventure unto itself and he knows there is always someone in the business who is worse off then himself a lot of the producers out west were out of business before the year even started because of poor crops and low prices last year erie reports that his employees consisting of around 27 million bees tend to slow down a little when the temperature reaches 90 degrees fahrenheit on a real hot day they tend to cluster around the hives and this summer had its share of 90 degree days another result of the heat and dryness says erie is that the honey becomes darker in color when there is not enough clover the bees get honey from other plants that are darker in color also a smaller flow just makes for darker honey the darker color doesnt affect the taste he maintains there is a bright side despite the adversity erie reports that honey prices have risen just enough to enable him to hold his own in a business that can prove difficult to show a profit and he says the bees sensing the reduced crop stored much more honey in their brooding nests where they spend the winter this will mean less money spent on feeding the bees this winter erie and lloyd will continue to offer their honey for sale at the st lawrence market in toronto on fridays and saturdays which usually accounts for half their an nual business the remainder is sold directly to the public from the hwy 48 location all in all erie guestimates total volume of this years crop at around 30 to 40 thousand pounds and hes op timistic for next year the pro spects are better than we had thought they would be he claims we thought there would be no sweet clover because of the drought but the sweet clover is there for next year but eries is a guarded op timism as he has learned through the years never to become complacent he has come to expect the unexpected you never really know what youre going to end up with he says v in the honey business its not an uncommon occurrence to get stung betters bur s shop 120 main st n markham store hours m0ncl0sed thursday 800800 tueslw 800500 frilw 800800 wednesday 800600 saturday 700 400 marham fair specials cut from canada grade a beef hinds sides 1 loins 2 cut wrapped frozen to specifications boneless chicken breasts 144 per 3 lb package frozen ontario pork back ribs 34 knockers leadbetters homemade hot sweet italian sausage deep smoked side bacon chicken cordon blue 449 1 i lb maple leaf 2 hot dogs 399 per 5 lb bag frozen stuffed breaded butterfly chops noah martin summer sausage 120 main st n markham 2941550 we reserve the right to limit quantities sale from wed sept 28- sat oct 1- the best place lo be is a leptemisr 28oetober 1 enjoy browsing through a good selection of antique furniture and collectables on steeks steeles ave piornhill out altilea centre