Friday, August 21, 2015

Science-Based Art Classes Cancelled for 2015-2016

Since I have been hired by IDEA as a full-time contact teacher, I will not be teaching Science-Based Art classes this year. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. I will continue to be an active member of the homeschool community in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Matrimony & Caging Queens

Hi Folks, Since my daughter got married last week I have neglected to blog for several weeks.
I will be caging queens tomorrow (8-6-15) if weather allows. The window for caging queens is now through the middle of Aug. depending on when you want to extract honey. Remember, it takes 21 days for worker brood to hatch out and 24 days for drones so 21-24 days after you cage your queen your hive will have no more eggs, larva or pupa and extraction is much cleaner and easier.  This has been a much better season than 2014 thanks to warmer weather. Most honey is darker this season, which I contribute to a shortage of rain in early to mid-summer. This decreases the amount of nectar flowers can produce (such as fireweed). When I cage my queens, I put a cork back in the queen cage hole and stick a thin piece of duct tape over the cork to discourage any royal Houdini tricks. Then I hang the queen cage in the middle of the hive between two frames ensuring the screen is not facing the foundation. I want to keep my caged queen alive as long as possible so the workers won't try as hard to create another queen. The screen of the queen cage must be facing open space between the frames.