Adding Supers!

Hi Folks, I am adding my supers a bit early this season for three reasons:
1) Raspberries and fireweed have bloomed early this year and are prolific.
2) When checking my hives yesterday I discovered multiple honey frames in the top box already.
3) My queens need more space as most frames have eggs, larvae, pupae, or honey in them.

This is promising to be a great honey season despite all the smoke!

Help for the Bees During the Heat

One way to help the bees keep their hives cooler is to place a 10-penny nail diagonally across the two front corners of the hive. I have done several hive checks in the past week and found that people haven't placed an entrance in their inner cover. This causes poor ventilation and doesn't allow the bees to enter and exit the hive from the top, cutting down on productivity.

Bee Space!!

This week I found my own hives as well as several others I looked at packed with bees so I added more space by putting a super on. My hunch is that the honey flow will be early this year as some plants are flowering sooner than usual such as the raspberries.

Slow Brood Process During Colder Weather

Several new beekeepers have emailed or called stating they have noticed a decrease of brood activity in their colonies. This is very highly likely because of the cooler weather we've had. Queens slow down in cooler weather. If anyone needs a new queen you can call Monte at  (907)490-3126. I am out of queens for the season. Another option is to go to: http://www.koehnen.com/
You can order a queen and have it express mailed up to Alaska. This company comes highly recommended by Steve Victors. I'm looking forward to warmer weather and blue skies next week.