Individual Details

Jack Heiken, who entered the service last week, is stationed at the Great Lakes training center. (March 1, 1945)

Heikens own mystery farm (10 October 1968)

Mystery Farm No. 116, which appeared in last week's Express, was identified as the Jack Heiken farm, located three miles east of Scotch Grove on a county gravel road.
The Heikens have owned the 103 acre farm since 1960. He has 10 acres in corn with the remainder in hay and pasture.
Heiken has 15 Holstein milk cows and also is a bee keeper. He has 100 forms of bees and sells honey.
In the past year, the Heikens added another pond to their farm.
They are the parents of five children: Sandra, 18; Bill, 17, senior at Monticello Community school; Leslie, 15, sophomore; Kenneth, 7, second grade at Carpenter school; and Judy, 4.
Paul Ladehoff of Monticello and Heiken identified the farm.

(Monticello Express, Aug 20, 1980)
Bee business keeps this man buzzing, farming

Jack Heiken started raising bees as a 4-H project when he was 13 years old. Some 40 years later, he's still raising bees, but now it's a matter of economic survival. Heiken farms and raises bees on land surrounded by lush green timber, nestled along the Maquoketa river northeast of Scotch Grove.
"I started raising bees as a hobby," Jack recalls, "but now, I couldn't afford to farm if I didn't raise bees. They keep this place afloat ... If I didn't work with bees, I'd have to work some place else."
At present, Jack and his family have about 110 warms of bees. Jack says each swarm can produce about 100 pounds of surplus honey per year.
Surplus honey
Surplus honey is honey which the bees do not need for survival. Unless bees have access to the proper flowers, they will only produce enough honey to sustain themselves.
Jack says to produce surplus honey, bees need to collect nectar primarily from white sweet clover and basswood trees.
Most of Jack's bees are Italian bees, originating in Mississippi or Georgia. Although he sometimes buys bees, he says he usually tries to raise his own bees with queens he purchases annually.
Besides himself, Jack's wife, Helen, his father, Henry, and his two sons also help with the bee business. Helen does all the bottling and labeling of the honey, and packages the comb honey. Jack's father and his two sons help out in the honey house -- the building in which the honey is extracted and readied for bottling.
Works with bees
But Jack is still the main person who works with the bees in the bee yard. "Nobody else likes to get stung," Jack says matter of factly. "It doesn't bother me anymore."
Jack estimates that during the 40 years he's been keeping bees he's been stung about 10,000 times. "I get stung a couple times every time I work with them," Jack says.
Changed mind
He says he's never ran from an angry swarm, but he has changed his mind about working with them from time to time.

Uncapping honey

HENRY HEIKEN, 78, uses his spare time to lend a helping and experienced hand to his son's honey operation in rural Scotch Grove. The elder Heiken uses an electric uncapping knife to remove the wax covering on a frame of honey. After removing the capping, the frame is placed in an extractor. When the extractor has four frames in it, it is spun. Centrifugal force removes the honey from the frames. The removed wax is heated and sold in blocks to bee- keeping suppliers, and is used in a variety of products.

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Birth	7 Aug 1925	Monticello, Jones, Iowa, United States
Marriage	27 May 1949	St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Anamosa, Jones, Iowa, United States - Living
Census (family)	1950	Scotch Grove Township, Jones, Iowa, United States - Living
Death	8 Jun 2005	Mercy Medical Center, Cedar Rapids, Linn, Iowa, United States
Alt name		Jack Heiken
Burial		Scotch Grove Cemetery, Jones, Iowa, United States

Spouse	Living
Child	William "Bill" Heiken (1951 - 2023)
Child	Living
Child	Living
Child	Living
Child	Living

Father	Johann Heinrich "Henry" Heiken (1901 - 1983)
Mother	Muriel Belle Taylor (1905 - 1990)
Sibling	Donna Lea Heiken (1928 - )
Sibling	James Noel "Jim" Heiken (1937 - 2008)
Sibling	Living

Notes