2013
Beekeeper’s Calendar
For
Alaska’s Interior
By
Dawn Cogan of Science-Based Art of Alaska, LLC
Below is a tentative schedule for beekeeping in
Interior Alaska for 2013. These dates
and activities are subject to change depending on the weather and unforeseen
circumstances. Regardless, I will be
posting weekly updates on my blog: http://sciencebasedart.blogspot.com/
Prior to Honeybee
Arrival:
order
or assemble equipment;
clean-up/paint
last year’s equipment;
order
bee suit(s); set up foundation bricks;
mix
sugar water 1:1 ratio,
warm
up equipment over a day or two.
April
13th:
Honeybees arrive at Monroe Catholic School parking lot on the gym side of the
school.
April
18th - 20th:
1st Queen check (50* or
warmer) Looking for eggs & larva (Do not look for queen because it is
probably too cold) If you find no eggs, check again in three days. When the
queen is “out” of her cage, remove the cage and save it for re-caging her in
the fall.
May
4th
:
You should see brood in all stages (eggs, larva, and pupa) If you still do not
find eggs, either call an experienced beekeeper or if you are absolutely
positive there are no eggs or larva present, purchase a new queen and slowly
release her (using a marshmallow like the original hiving). If you find cells with several eggs on the
cell wall – dump your colony & kill your bees. If you find several eggs at the bottom of
cells, it is o.k.
May
15 -16th:
You should have several frames of brood (eggs, larva & pupa) and few cells
should be empty. If the brood pattern is
“spotty”, or you find many empty cells, something is wrong! You should either re-queen or unite your
colony with another colony - (After
killing the “spotty” queen). Your
bees are not getting enough food if they have no stored sugar water or no
pollen in cells. One good indication of
this is if your bees are running over the frames, “shaking.” If this is the case, feed them sugar water as
well as frames with stored honey. If you
find eggs and emerging adult bees (being born) but no larva, then your hive is
suffering from a lack of pollen stores.
In this case, give your bees a pollen patty (room temperature). We may need to remove sugar feeders. Make
sure to keep any grasses, etc. cut short in front of hive entrance.
May
26th - 28th:
Regular hive check – Look for sugar water and pollen stores. Look for all stages of brood. Remove
sugar water feeders as long as local plants are blooming and sugar stores are
well-stored! Swarm prevention
time!! – If you know your queen is healthy & laying from the evidence of
eggs, larva and pupa, kill any “swarm cells/queen cells.” If your queen is “honeybound” (has very
little empty cells to lay in) then you need to reverse your hive bodies and add
a super. Depending on the weather, you
may need to turn or take your entrance reducer out completely by now. Make
sure to keep any grasses, etc. cut short in front of hive entrance.
*Remember:
Queen cells are usually on the sides and bottom of frames – take your time,
move slowly as you check for queen cells. Sometimes it’s easy to miss them! If you miss one, your hive is in danger of
swarming!! Keep removing queen cells every 10-12 days. Demaree handout is a good tool at this
time.
June
6th – 8th: Perform a regular hive
check. Add honey supers. Make
sure to keep any grasses, etc. cut short in front of hive entrance.
June
16th – 18th: Perform a regular hive
check. Keep entrance free of weeds and
grass!
June
28th – 30th: Perform a regular hive
check. After ensuring your queen is in the bottom brood boxes, put on your queen excluder between the deep brood boxes and the honey super boxes. Keep entrance free of weeds and
grass!
July
10th – 12th: Perform a regular hive
check. Keep entrance free of weeds and
grass!
July
22nd- 24th: Perform a regular hive
check. Keep entrance free of weeds and
grass!
August
3rd-5th: Perform a regular hive
check. Keep entrance free of weeds and
grass!
August
11th – 13th: Cage queens on hive(s)
not being wintered-over! Make sure the cork is well secured and hang the queen
between two frames. (Make sure queen can
be fed through the screen of the little queen box).
Sept.
3rd – 6th: Extract honey and give
“sticky” frames back to bees.
September
– To the end: Give bees sugar water so they will draw
out any frames with bare foundation.
Sept.
10th – 12th: In early morning or later afternoon (cool
temps 35*-40*), Shop-vacuum bees and dump in compost.
Finally-
Store your equipment by putting your queen excluder on top of your bottom board
to discourage mice from entering and eating any left-over honey, pollen stores,
or destroying next season’s wax!! Cover
up any holes in the hive with fine, mesh screen (staple). Leave your hive outside on foundation bricks
or some sort of elevated surface to discourage spring water damage. Ratchet-strap hive together from top to
bottom.
