Saturday, August 27, 2016
Shop Vacuuming Bees
Today we are recycling honeybees. It has been so warm that we have been waiting for a cool day to do this but we just don't want to wait anymore because workers can develop ovaries and start laying eggs. How can you tell if a worker is laying? You will find multiple eggs in cells. The problem with this is that these are unfertilized and will all become drones. The comb becomes drone comb and next year's queen will lay drone eggs in all the cells that became drone cells. We filled our shop vacuum half way with water, filled the generator with gas and when we are done will dump the dead bees in our compost because they are some of the best vermiculite in the world. Their soft organs become rich soil and their exoskeletons don't decompose as fast so they aerate soil beautifully. It is 53* here in downtown Fairbanks.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Harvesting Honey
Many folks started harvesting honey frames before last week's steady rain. If you haven't started taking honey, now is the time to remove any frames with completely capped honey cells. Honey frames can be stored at 60 - 70 * in a rubber maid tote with the lid cracked. What I like to do is go ahead and extract as much as I can to give the sticky frames back to the bees. They will consolidate the honey into cells in one area of the hive which gives you more to extract when you are ready. My queens will have been caged for three weeks this coming weekend and anytime after that I can rob what is left of the honey and extract it. Then I will give those frames back and about a week to ten days later I will shop-vacuum my bees to recycle them in my compost. This is a sad day however their soft body parts will make rich soil for next years garden and their exoskeletons will be the best organic vermiculite on Earth.
The bees are eating a lot of honey right now because of cooler temperatures and rainy days. They can eat multiple pounds of honey in a few days.
If you end up taking some frames with uncapped honey such as this frame to the left, you can let the honey evaporate for a couple weeks and it will become the correct thickness which decreases the speed of sugaring. When honey is not the correct moisture content, it tends to crystallize much quicker. The proper moisture content is 17% - 18%.
Some frames will have honey in the corners after all the brood has hatched out. These can be extracted as well. Some beekeepers keep two of the brood frames with honey to insulate next year's colony instead of using foam insulated follower frames.
It is important to keep the boxes full of frames after they have been removed from the hive so the bees don't create burr comb in the empty space.
If you don't have extra frames to replace the removed honey frames then you may want to extract in the next day or so and get the sticky frames back into the hive as soon as possible.
The bees are eating a lot of honey right now because of cooler temperatures and rainy days. They can eat multiple pounds of honey in a few days.
If you end up taking some frames with uncapped honey such as this frame to the left, you can let the honey evaporate for a couple weeks and it will become the correct thickness which decreases the speed of sugaring. When honey is not the correct moisture content, it tends to crystallize much quicker. The proper moisture content is 17% - 18%.
Some frames will have honey in the corners after all the brood has hatched out. These can be extracted as well. Some beekeepers keep two of the brood frames with honey to insulate next year's colony instead of using foam insulated follower frames.
It is important to keep the boxes full of frames after they have been removed from the hive so the bees don't create burr comb in the empty space.
Friday, July 29, 2016
If you caged your queen(s), watch for queen cells! HONEY EXTRACTION
The first several days after a queen is caged, worker bees will try to create a new queen by manufacturing royal jelly and placing a bed of it in multiple queen cups. Then they drag an egg out of a cell to plant it into the jellified queen cup. The last thing you want is a new, unmarked queen to start laying eggs again. Remove all queen cells until all eggs have metamorphized into larva. After this, you shouldn't see anymore viable queen cells.
Along with the Angels, the Longs, and the O'Learys, we robbed two hives at Plant Kingdom last week. We ended up with eight gallons from this initial harvest. It has been several years since we have had such light honey. It is nearly transparent.
The Farmer's Market was bustling this Wednesday!
Along with the Angels, the Longs, and the O'Learys, we robbed two hives at Plant Kingdom last week. We ended up with eight gallons from this initial harvest. It has been several years since we have had such light honey. It is nearly transparent.
The Farmer's Market was bustling this Wednesday!
Friday, July 22, 2016
Queen Caging Demonstration this Saturday!
Hi Folks, Tomorrow (7/23/16) at 3pm I will be caging two queens up at plant kingdom.
Please come for a free demo if you wish. Call me on my cell if you have questions about directions.
(907)460-6050
Please come for a free demo if you wish. Call me on my cell if you have questions about directions.
(907)460-6050
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Honeyflow at Its Peak!
Have you noticed how heavy your frames and boxes are getting? We are at the peak of the honeyflow now. I will start robbing honey from the supers that don't have any brood in them today to get it extracted and to the market. Honey must be capped (sealed with wax) to be the right moisture content. If the honey is harvested before it is sealed by the bees the honey will tend to sugar (become granular) much faster. I plan on caging my queens in the next week or so. If you want to join me for this free demonstration for those who took my class, please email me at sciencebasedart@yahoo.com and let me know. I will email a confirmation to you with a date, time. I have seen many hives this summer and the best one was the O'Leary family's in Aurora Subdivision. For starting out with bare foundation, I was very impressed with the amount of drawn-out honeycomb, brood production and honey production. Having a Rubbermaid tote to store frames in during the harvest is vital. I put my tote anywhere from 10 to 20 feet from the hive, leaving the lid on. I rob one completely drawn-out and capped honey frame at a time using my bee brush to remove any lingering bees before placing the frame into the tote.
Rubbermaid Tote Image
If you need to rent my extractor please email me. It costs $25 per day and includes 3 decapping forks, 1 hotknife, 1 coldknife, 1 stainless steel double sieve (strainer), 1 - 5 gallon bottling bucket, and a long spatula. If you want to order bottles, now is the time to do so. I order mine from Dadant or Mann Lake Ltd.
Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions:
sciencebasedart@yahoo.com
Harvesting Your Honey - An Important Message from Steve Victors
The summer seems to be going well and we are now at the time to start planing our harvest if you have not already done so. As many of you know, many beekeepers harvest in early August and I thought that I would send out this message explaining why that is:
The sweet spot for harvest is timing the fluctuations of two changing factors. The first to consider is the hive population as it relates to the metabolic demand of the hive. To do this we have to look at the hive as a single organism and examine the factors involved. Factor one is the population of the adult bees in the hive and factor two is the amount of brood being raised at the moment. Metabolic demand of the adult bees is dependent upon the temperature of the bees themselves and the warmer they are the more food they will consume. In addition the more bees that there are the more food that they will consume also. At the end of July, both the temperature and the population have reached their peak. The metabolic demand of the adult bees in the hive is highest at the end of July. This situation lasts until high populations begin to diminish through winter attrition. Remember that this is TEMPERATURE dependent and as winter sets in, the bees become colder and the metabolic rate slows down. This can be described graphically as a flattened or truncated bell curve. (A bell curve with a flattened top.) The flattened top stretches through the month of June, July and August.
In looking at the other factor (brood,) it is generally an accepted rule that it takes a frame of honey to raise a frame of brood. Brood raising increases during a nectar flow, and since our flow runs from late June through August, brood raising is heaviest at this time. With these two factors combined, metabolic demand of the hive is highest during the month of July and into August.
Let's turn our attention to the nectar flow. Nectar flow can be described as a bell curve starting in late April and ending in late September. As many of you know, the bell curve starts at zero and ends in zero. The peak of this bell curve is in mid-July. If one simply overlays the bell curve of nectar flow on top of the bell curve of metabolic demand, one can easily see that the portion of the nectar flow curve that stands above the metabolic curve represents our honey crop.
It is interesting to note that the metabolic demand curve does not move much from year to year. The nectar flow curve shifts right or left depending on the season and environmental conditions. It can widen out or it can shrink back down.
The absolute PERFECT time to harvest is where these two graphs cross each other. Since the nectar curve shifts right or left, widens or contracts, traditionally this curve crosses between the first and the tenth of August. You will note in looking at your imagined curve that there is still a nectar flow going on. After the crossing of these two lines, the metabolic demand is exceeding what the bees are bringing in. The wise beekeeper in picking their harvest date will focus on the factors that shift the graph right or left. We are now approaching the three week from August mark.
Now is the time to decide how to manage your queens if you haven't already done so. There are many styles of queen management. I prefer to have no brood in my extracting room. My queen management style is to put the queen in the bottom box of the hive with an excluder over the top of this box so that in three weekstime there is no brood above the excluder. I do this because I want young brood hatching out in preparation for winter. For those that are not planning on wintering, placing the queen in a cage can eliminate ALL brood in the hive in three weeks time.
I do not advocate removing or killing the queen. Loss of pheromones results in lower productivity of the hive and emergency queen cells that make end of season management more difficult. This will also reduce your honey crop.
For those beekeepers in the Anchorage and Valley areas, you should know that our extracting services will be operational, and we will be accepting your boxes from the end of July to the first of September. After the first of September, we generally break down our equipment for the end of the season. We have commercial grade uncapping machines, several large extractors and a fairly efficient filtering system. We run the honey in individual batches, and the honey return to the customer is the same honey that arrives in their boxes. If you choose to use our services, it will be necessary for you to manage your queens so that there is no brood present. Our uncapping machine does not differentiate between a frame of brood and a frame of honey. The frames are loaded into our uncapper one at a time by hand, and we are able to pull frames aside that have brood on them. These frames must be uncapped by hand, and extra charges will be incurred. If you wish to provide your own buckets, that is something we can accommodate. A full schedule of charges and requirements are listed on our website on the Services page.
We hope that this letter finds you well and that your harvests are abundant,
Steve and Donna
https://www.
The sweet spot for harvest is timing the fluctuations of two changing factors. The first to consider is the hive population as it relates to the metabolic demand of the hive. To do this we have to look at the hive as a single organism and examine the factors involved. Factor one is the population of the adult bees in the hive and factor two is the amount of brood being raised at the moment. Metabolic demand of the adult bees is dependent upon the temperature of the bees themselves and the warmer they are the more food they will consume. In addition the more bees that there are the more food that they will consume also. At the end of July, both the temperature and the population have reached their peak. The metabolic demand of the adult bees in the hive is highest at the end of July. This situation lasts until high populations begin to diminish through winter attrition. Remember that this is TEMPERATURE dependent and as winter sets in, the bees become colder and the metabolic rate slows down. This can be described graphically as a flattened or truncated bell curve. (A bell curve with a flattened top.) The flattened top stretches through the month of June, July and August.
In looking at the other factor (brood,) it is generally an accepted rule that it takes a frame of honey to raise a frame of brood. Brood raising increases during a nectar flow, and since our flow runs from late June through August, brood raising is heaviest at this time. With these two factors combined, metabolic demand of the hive is highest during the month of July and into August.
Let's turn our attention to the nectar flow. Nectar flow can be described as a bell curve starting in late April and ending in late September. As many of you know, the bell curve starts at zero and ends in zero. The peak of this bell curve is in mid-July. If one simply overlays the bell curve of nectar flow on top of the bell curve of metabolic demand, one can easily see that the portion of the nectar flow curve that stands above the metabolic curve represents our honey crop.
It is interesting to note that the metabolic demand curve does not move much from year to year. The nectar flow curve shifts right or left depending on the season and environmental conditions. It can widen out or it can shrink back down.
The absolute PERFECT time to harvest is where these two graphs cross each other. Since the nectar curve shifts right or left, widens or contracts, traditionally this curve crosses between the first and the tenth of August. You will note in looking at your imagined curve that there is still a nectar flow going on. After the crossing of these two lines, the metabolic demand is exceeding what the bees are bringing in. The wise beekeeper in picking their harvest date will focus on the factors that shift the graph right or left. We are now approaching the three week from August mark.
Now is the time to decide how to manage your queens if you haven't already done so. There are many styles of queen management. I prefer to have no brood in my extracting room. My queen management style is to put the queen in the bottom box of the hive with an excluder over the top of this box so that in three weekstime there is no brood above the excluder. I do this because I want young brood hatching out in preparation for winter. For those that are not planning on wintering, placing the queen in a cage can eliminate ALL brood in the hive in three weeks time.
I do not advocate removing or killing the queen. Loss of pheromones results in lower productivity of the hive and emergency queen cells that make end of season management more difficult. This will also reduce your honey crop.
For those beekeepers in the Anchorage and Valley areas, you should know that our extracting services will be operational, and we will be accepting your boxes from the end of July to the first of September. After the first of September, we generally break down our equipment for the end of the season. We have commercial grade uncapping machines, several large extractors and a fairly efficient filtering system. We run the honey in individual batches, and the honey return to the customer is the same honey that arrives in their boxes. If you choose to use our services, it will be necessary for you to manage your queens so that there is no brood present. Our uncapping machine does not differentiate between a frame of brood and a frame of honey. The frames are loaded into our uncapper one at a time by hand, and we are able to pull frames aside that have brood on them. These frames must be uncapped by hand, and extra charges will be incurred. If you wish to provide your own buckets, that is something we can accommodate. A full schedule of charges and requirements are listed on our website on the Services page.
We hope that this letter finds you well and that your harvests are abundant,
Steve and Donna
https://www.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Used Honey Extractor for Sale!
Kim Griffith has a used 3 frame manual extractor for sale. She bought it just a couple years ago from Steve Victors. She is asking $250.00. (907)385-8612
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Time to start using my smoker!
I did a hive check later in the evening tonight with my friend, Catherine. We both got stung. This is why I try to complete hive checks at mid-day on sunny days. Now that my colony populations have at least tripled, I will start using my smoker. I got stung five times tonight.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
June - The Swarming Month & Time to Remove the Entrance Reducer
I added honey supers to my hives this week!
June is considered the swarming month so I am persistent at staying on top of removing queen cells provided my original queen is still in the hive and I see eggs, larva, and pupa. I have been on many hive consultations and found this to be true again this year. One person had a swarm and actually caught 6-8 queens and caged them. We killed all but one to release the next day so she could do her mating flights. Hopefully she was bred well and is now laying hundreds of eggs everyday.
I have removed my entrance reducers and won't use them again until fall. Thankfully, we were blessed with rain before the fireweed started to bloom. Last year we had beautiful fireweed flowers however they didn't have enough rain early in the season so didn't produce an abundance of nectar beyond the food they needed for themselves. This year promises to be a bumper crop of honey at this rate.
As a reminder: If you took my class this year you have a $20 discount on a hive consultation. The price for the first consultation for those who took my class is $40.00. The price for subsequent consultations is $60.00 Please email me if you need to make an appointment. I am out of spare queens now so if anyone has an extra queen please let me know as I do get calls from time to time with requests for a new queen. It is getting a bit late in the year for ordering new queens. If you need a new queen:
June is considered the swarming month so I am persistent at staying on top of removing queen cells provided my original queen is still in the hive and I see eggs, larva, and pupa. I have been on many hive consultations and found this to be true again this year. One person had a swarm and actually caught 6-8 queens and caged them. We killed all but one to release the next day so she could do her mating flights. Hopefully she was bred well and is now laying hundreds of eggs everyday.
I have removed my entrance reducers and won't use them again until fall. Thankfully, we were blessed with rain before the fireweed started to bloom. Last year we had beautiful fireweed flowers however they didn't have enough rain early in the season so didn't produce an abundance of nectar beyond the food they needed for themselves. This year promises to be a bumper crop of honey at this rate.
As a reminder: If you took my class this year you have a $20 discount on a hive consultation. The price for the first consultation for those who took my class is $40.00. The price for subsequent consultations is $60.00 Please email me if you need to make an appointment. I am out of spare queens now so if anyone has an extra queen please let me know as I do get calls from time to time with requests for a new queen. It is getting a bit late in the year for ordering new queens. If you need a new queen:
- Email me: sciencebasedart@yahoo.com to see if I know of an extra local queen
- Contact Steve Victors https://www.alaskawildflowerhoney.com/contact-us
- Contact Kohnen http://www.koehnen.com/
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Another Organic Remedy for Ants in Your Honeybee's Pants
I just heard that cinnamon is a deterrent to ants. Just get a container from Sam's Club and sprinkle it on the ground, around the base of the hive. I wouldn't get any on the entrance to the hive. This rain is great for helping flowers produce excess nectar! Perfect timing for raspberries and fireweed!!
Monday, May 23, 2016
Keep Performing Hive Checks!
I continue to perform complete hive checks every 12 days. My sugar feeders have all been removed from the hives and frames have replaced them as well as inside insulation frames. I have removed all outside insulation as well. Keeping water nearby is paramount throughout the entire season. I think I will add honey supers a couple weeks early this year with the early blooming pattern we are seeing with local flowers. I will let you know when that is and estimate two weeks from today. I am down to two back-up queens so if anyone has an extra queen the want to get rid of please let me know so that if someone calls I can refer them to you. The going rate for queens is $30.00 at this time. If you discover problems with ants you could get a kiddie pool and create a mote around your hive by setting it up on foundation blocks in the middle of the kiddie pool. The ants will drown before they reach the bee hive.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Beekeeping Update
What an amazing start to our beekeeping season! This is the best spring start I have experienced in 13 years. I hope and pray the rest of the summer is as wonderful. I did two hive consultations this weekend to find beautiful colonies with healthy queens, full brood patterns, and the need for more space.
1) Remove sugar feeders at this time because dandelions and choke cherries have blossomed. We want our bees to get out an forage for natural nectars. Replace feeders with frames. You should have 10 frames in each brood box.
2) If you haven't already done so, now is the time to add another brood box to the bottom of hives. What I do is pull a frame or two with some or all drawn-out comb and empty cells into the middle of the bottom box. Then I put a couple frames of pupa on either side of the drawn-out frame. When these bees hatch out they will be loyal to cleaning and building in the box they hatch out of. I complete the box with either bare foundation frames or drawn out frames.
3) Remember to spray sugar water on both sides of bare foundations.
4) The next few days may bring cooler temperatures so I keep entrances reduced to at least medium.
5) Having either inside or outside insulation is advised until temperatures remain above 40 degrees at night.
1) Remove sugar feeders at this time because dandelions and choke cherries have blossomed. We want our bees to get out an forage for natural nectars. Replace feeders with frames. You should have 10 frames in each brood box.
2) If you haven't already done so, now is the time to add another brood box to the bottom of hives. What I do is pull a frame or two with some or all drawn-out comb and empty cells into the middle of the bottom box. Then I put a couple frames of pupa on either side of the drawn-out frame. When these bees hatch out they will be loyal to cleaning and building in the box they hatch out of. I complete the box with either bare foundation frames or drawn out frames.
3) Remember to spray sugar water on both sides of bare foundations.
4) The next few days may bring cooler temperatures so I keep entrances reduced to at least medium.
5) Having either inside or outside insulation is advised until temperatures remain above 40 degrees at night.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Don't Divide the Brood Nest!
Most colonies should have at least two frames with full pupa patterns on both sides by now. The bees probably haven't done much with the outer frames yet. Don't fall into the temptation to divide the brood nest by placing frames that aren't drawn-out in between frames with brood in them. Keeping the nest together is very important while night temperatures are still freezing or just barely above freezing. I plan on doing another complete hive check over the weekend. My bees were given their last sugar water last night. If your first brood box only has a couple frames left for the queen to lay in, you can add another brood box to the bottom of the hive. My entrance reducers are at the middle size now but if it drops cold I will change them back to the smallest entrances. Keeping a fresh water source for your bees all summer is vital! Steve Victors would like to recycle the boxes that the bees were shipped in so if you would like to contribute to this cause, please stay tuned for a date and time to drop the box(es) off. Bee careful!
Friday, May 6, 2016
Looking at Pupa!
Everyone who had their honeybees arrive on 4/23/16 should see eggs, larva, and now pupa! Below are photos of pupa patterns. The workers have secreted wax and sealed the brood with a thin layer of wax for the third stage of the metamorphosis. Within the next 10-15 days our first baby bees will be hatching out. When you do your hive checks you can look for their little heads as they chew their way out of the cells. I have re-queened one of my personal hives and two others. If you don't see eggs, larva and pupa by now your hive may bee queenless. Call an experienced beekeeper to have a look at your colony if this is the case! I have removed my outer insulation and still have the inner insulation frames in my hives. Sugar feeding should be complete by May 15th since we should be seeing more dandelions by then. Colonies at higher elevations or cooler locations may need to feed longer.
Pupa - "Capped Brood" - The third stage of the metamorphosis of insects.
- "An insect in its inactive immature form between larva and adult, e.g., a chrysalis." (Google)
Hatched Out Queen Cell - If a queen has already hatched out this is what you will find. 
Female Honeybee Birth 
Queen Bee Cell
-Remove queen cells to prevent swarming!!Queen Bee Cells 
Queen Bee Cells
Sunday, May 1, 2016
First Complete Hive Check of the Season
Today was a beautiful day for complete hive checks! I removed the empty queen cages and am storing them in my tool box until fall when I will cage my queens. My queens are laying beautiful patterns of eggs and within the next 14 days baby honeybees will be born by the hundreds every day all summer, Lord willing. I marked a couple queens today. I will continue to feed my bees sugar water for one more week (about 1-2 more feedings), since I have drawn-out comb. For those who are using mostly bare foundation, you may want to feed sugar water until the middle or end of May in order to encourage wax building. Another way to entice faster wax building is to spray sugar water on bare foundations.I pulled off the outer insulation today and left the inner insulation boards on each side of the brood box. Next weekend would be a good time to add a second brood box below the first box because we want the babies warm and every good scientist knows that heat rises!
From the Science-Based Art of AK, LLC Beekeepers Calendar:
See Photos for examples of
brood patterns.
From the Science-Based Art of AK, LLC Beekeepers Calendar:
April 29th – May 1st: First Queen & Complete Hive Check (50* or warmer) Looking for eggs & larva (Do not look for queen if it is too cold) If you find no eggs, check again in three days. Do not let sugar water run out!
Keep filling feeder(s) every 3-5 days without doing a full hive check.
See Photos for examples of
brood patterns.
Healthy pattern of eggs (1-2 days old)
Healthy larva (4-7 days old)
Healthy Larva (7-10 days old)
Spotty (Poor) Queen Pattern
Dead Queen - Laying Worker Eggs (Kill Bees!)
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Summer Camps for Children in 2nd Through 12th Grades
Hey Ya'll!
This is Stephen! Kaylee and I are super excited to start these summer camps. It's going be a world of fun, so if you are interested in signing your child up for a Science Based Art summer camp, please check out the link: "Summer Camp Registration" just under the blog head photos above. Every detail you need to know about each camp is located at that link, so click away! Hope to see you this summer!!
This is Stephen! Kaylee and I are super excited to start these summer camps. It's going be a world of fun, so if you are interested in signing your child up for a Science Based Art summer camp, please check out the link: "Summer Camp Registration" just under the blog head photos above. Every detail you need to know about each camp is located at that link, so click away! Hope to see you this summer!!
Sunday, April 24, 2016
This is the best start my honeybees have ever seen! The weather is unbelievably warm.
I am very impressed once again with Steve and Donna Victors transportation of our bees! For those of you who did not order early enough to obtain bees from the Victors shipment, please consider ordering earlier next year and Steve shared he will have several hundred more colonies available for the Fairbanks shipment next year. If the weather holds hive manipulation will be different than previous years so check in on this blog regularly as I will communicate what I am doing each time I work with my hives through the season.
From the Science-Based Art Beekeepers Calendar:
April 29th – May 1st: First Queen Check (50* or warmer) Looking for eggs & larva (Do not look for queen if it is too cold) If you find no eggs, check again in three days. Do not let sugar water run out!
Keep filling feeder(s) every 3-5 days without doing a full hive check.
I will be filling sugar feeders on 4/26/16 when it is 50* or warmer.
I am pulling out entrance reducers by 11 AM and reducing my entrances to the smallest setting by 7 PM.
Blessings for your first week of beekeeping in 2016!
~ Dawn
Saturday, April 16, 2016
APRIL 23rd, 2016 - Arrival of Honeybees from California Almond Fields
One week from today we are expecting the arrival of our beloved honeybees from California. Steve and Donna Victors will receive the bees at Anchorage International Airport and drive them up to Fairbanks in an air conditioned trailer. The estimated time of arrival in Fairbanks will be posted here on this blog by Saturday morning 4/23/16.
Reminders:
1) Bring equipment inside 24 hours before hiving your bees.
2) Make sugar water (at least 1:1) 24 hours ahead and at room temperature at the time of hiving. (Having a weak sugar syrup can cause bees to expire, but don't over-do it either).
3) Have internal and external insulation ready.
4) Have a chemical-free spray bottle ready.
5) Mini-Marshmallows are available for free when the bees arrive.
6) Have pollen patty at room temperature ready. (Pollen patties will be available for sale when the bees arrive for $5.00 each.)
In past years beekeepers have been known to wait about an hour in the Monroe parking lot (Gym side of bldg.) Please be patient as exact time of arrival is tough to predict. If you do have to wait, bring a good book or plan on mingling with other beekeepers while you wait.
Blessings to all for a great season of gardening and beekeeping!
Reminders:
1) Bring equipment inside 24 hours before hiving your bees.
2) Make sugar water (at least 1:1) 24 hours ahead and at room temperature at the time of hiving. (Having a weak sugar syrup can cause bees to expire, but don't over-do it either).
3) Have internal and external insulation ready.
4) Have a chemical-free spray bottle ready.
5) Mini-Marshmallows are available for free when the bees arrive.
6) Have pollen patty at room temperature ready. (Pollen patties will be available for sale when the bees arrive for $5.00 each.)
In past years beekeepers have been known to wait about an hour in the Monroe parking lot (Gym side of bldg.) Please be patient as exact time of arrival is tough to predict. If you do have to wait, bring a good book or plan on mingling with other beekeepers while you wait.
Blessings to all for a great season of gardening and beekeeping!
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Science Based Art Summer Camps!!
Hey Ya'll!
This is Stephen! Kaylee and I are super excited to start these summer camps. It's gonna be a world of fun, so if you are interested in signing your child up for a Science Based Art summer camp, please check out the link below. Every detail you need to know about each camp is located at that link, so click away! Hope to see you this summer!!
Click here for Summer Camp Sign-ups!!
This is Stephen! Kaylee and I are super excited to start these summer camps. It's gonna be a world of fun, so if you are interested in signing your child up for a Science Based Art summer camp, please check out the link below. Every detail you need to know about each camp is located at that link, so click away! Hope to see you this summer!!
Click here for Summer Camp Sign-ups!!
Friday, March 11, 2016
Beekeeping Classes with Dawn Cogan
Beginning and Intermediate Beekeeping with Dawn Cogan
Beekeeping Classes with Science-Based Art
Science-Based Art
Instructor: Dawn Cogan
Instructor: Dawn Cogan
To register, email Dawn at sciencebasedart@yahoo.com or call Dawn at (907)460-6050.
Cost: $150 per family
Sat. 2/11/16 1-5 PM & Sun. 2/12/16 1-5 PM (4 hrs. each day for a total of 8 hrs.) Monroe Catholic School
• What is beekeeping? How much honey will I get? How much will this all cost me?
• Equipment necessary to keep bees in Alaska
• Biology and races of honeybees
• Members of the hive and their duties
• Where can I get bee equipment? Should I get new, used or build my own?
• Getting equipment ready for the arrival of bees
- Hands-on Project: Construct a beehive in class
• What to do when the bees arrive
• Is my queen marked? (queen marking tool)
• Management of honeybee colonies in Alaska, the beekeepers calendar
• Running 2-Queen Hives
• Swarming and how to prevent it
• Honeybee diseases
• Extracting your Alaska honey
• What to do at the end of the season/wintering over
• Storing your equipment
• Beeswax candle making
Steve Victor's Honeybee Shipment Delayed to Interior by 7 Days!
Good Morning Beekeepers,
As part of our bee order we closely track the developing conditions in California and report any new developments that may affect our schedule for bee delivery.
As you know, our goal is to deliver the highest quality package possible. We know that our delivery time is an exciting event that is often planned by beekeepers well in advance of the actual day. We have a few beekeepers who schedule the day off from work as well as some who arrange travel schedules around the arrival date that they picked out. It is for this reason that we monitor the situation in California and report any event that may interrupt our planned schedule.
With the El Nino year there have been a number of challenges that our supplier (and all California bee suppliers) have had to overcome, many of these were discussed at the last beekeepers meeting. For those who were not at the meeting here is a shortened discussion of some of the factors discussed:
1. Weather Factors as they pertaining to mating flights of our queens:
As you know, there is a 10 day period in which a queen must mate with multiple drones to have the fertility she needs to reliably create worker brood. This event occurs approximately 2 weeks prior to the filling of our packages. Several mating flights must be made to accomplish this. The weather must be warm and dry with little wind. Normal spring conditions in California give us these. On an El Nino year weather conditions in the month of March can be quite poor for predictable mating flights. This is an El Nino year. Typically the weather improves in the latter half of March. It is the first batch of queens that have the most difficulty finding good mating weather.
As you know, there is a 10 day period in which a queen must mate with multiple drones to have the fertility she needs to reliably create worker brood. This event occurs approximately 2 weeks prior to the filling of our packages. Several mating flights must be made to accomplish this. The weather must be warm and dry with little wind. Normal spring conditions in California give us these. On an El Nino year weather conditions in the month of March can be quite poor for predictable mating flights. This is an El Nino year. Typically the weather improves in the latter half of March. It is the first batch of queens that have the most difficulty finding good mating weather.
2. El Nino years also affect the almond bloom:
It is in the almonds that our hives are placed in early spring. The incoming pollen flow stimulates the brood rearing of the hives allowing them to grow. After the almond bloom, hives are moved out of the almonds full of workers and developing brood. These large hives are where we find our surplus bees. Removal from the almonds is the start of swarm season for these hives. Just as swarm season varies for us from year to year because of the arrival of the spring bloom and subsequent growth of the hive, it also does the same in California. A slow wet spring results in fewer surplus bees in early April.
It is in the almonds that our hives are placed in early spring. The incoming pollen flow stimulates the brood rearing of the hives allowing them to grow. After the almond bloom, hives are moved out of the almonds full of workers and developing brood. These large hives are where we find our surplus bees. Removal from the almonds is the start of swarm season for these hives. Just as swarm season varies for us from year to year because of the arrival of the spring bloom and subsequent growth of the hive, it also does the same in California. A slow wet spring results in fewer surplus bees in early April.
3. Wet flowers on the almond trees can affect the hives as well:
The almond bloom goes through several stages, four of which are mentioned here: Popcorn, bloom, petal fall, and jacket. All of these stages overlap to some degree within an orchard as some trees are slightly ahead and some slightly behind the others. Naturally, it is understood that bloom is where our bees are working, collecting pollen, and the brood rearing is the greatest. At the end of the bloom is an event called petal fall. Ideally, the almonds are pollinated and the flower petals fall off the flower in a gentle dry breeze. A rainy season of an El Nino year can wet the petals causing them to stick. As the nut develops into the jacket stage and the wet petals are still on the tree, mold can form on the petals and jackets potentially ruining the almond crop. Growers often spray fungicide on the trees when these conditions are present. While the fungicides are approved for spraying orchards in the presence of hives there are negative impacts. The primary impact is in the nutritional value in the pollen collected after the fungicides are sprayed on the orchards. This slows the growth of the hive and even though the event happens long before our packages are filled and the bees placed into the packages are not from that generation, the overall hive population is smaller and fewer bees can be removed for our packages.
The almond bloom goes through several stages, four of which are mentioned here: Popcorn, bloom, petal fall, and jacket. All of these stages overlap to some degree within an orchard as some trees are slightly ahead and some slightly behind the others. Naturally, it is understood that bloom is where our bees are working, collecting pollen, and the brood rearing is the greatest. At the end of the bloom is an event called petal fall. Ideally, the almonds are pollinated and the flower petals fall off the flower in a gentle dry breeze. A rainy season of an El Nino year can wet the petals causing them to stick. As the nut develops into the jacket stage and the wet petals are still on the tree, mold can form on the petals and jackets potentially ruining the almond crop. Growers often spray fungicide on the trees when these conditions are present. While the fungicides are approved for spraying orchards in the presence of hives there are negative impacts. The primary impact is in the nutritional value in the pollen collected after the fungicides are sprayed on the orchards. This slows the growth of the hive and even though the event happens long before our packages are filled and the bees placed into the packages are not from that generation, the overall hive population is smaller and fewer bees can be removed for our packages.
We have been in contact with our supplier to monitor the developments. We have learned that as of 2 weeks ago bees were in short supply and predicted to be behind schedule. Two major producers of queens and package bees were canceling orders and delaying delivery of packages. This is both Koehnen as well as Heitkam.
As many of you know I have been closely monitoring the weather patterns in California this spring. We have yet another wave of poor weather in the Sacramento Valley working its way through the area in the next several days. This coincides with the grafting raising and mating of our queens.
There is now enough information for me to predict that our bee shipments are very likely going to be delayed for a week while this latest round of weather works its way out of the Sacramento Valley. This next week will be critical in determining if we are able to keep our schedule. If I were a betting man I would say that there was an 80% chance of having the bees delayed and a 20% chance of meeting the original schedule.
The result will be that all weeks will need to be shifted by 7 days. Delivery scheduled for the 9th will happen on the 16th. Delivery for the 16th (Fairbanks and Kenai Peninsula day) will be on the 23rd. Our third shipment scheduled for the 23rd will arrive on the 30th.
This is the first time in many years that we may not be able to meet our original delivery dates. While almost all of our beekeepers will be able to adapt to the new schedule, we realize that there are some who will not be able to alter their spring schedule. We apologize for the inconvenience this might cause but it is necessary to provide well mated queens with our packages. If it does become necessary to shift our delivery schedule we will cancel orders and refund any of our beekeepers who find that the new schedule does not work for them.
Within a week I will be sending out another email confirming our schedule and letting you know if a shift in delivery dates is necessary.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Summer Camps for Children
SBA Summer Camps will be under way the second week of June,
2016 with Stephen and Kaylee Powell. A maximum of eight students will be registered each week. Students will
need to bring a sack lunch, sunscreen, insect repellent, clothing for warm,
cool, and wet weather. Students will be engaged in hands-on educational activities including indoor and outdoor games. Snacks are provided twice each day with attention to allergies. Cost: $350.00 per student. All educational materials are included. To register email Stephen sciencebasedart@yahoo.com
June 13th - 17th: Botany, Bugs,
& Birds (2nd - 6th grades)
Students will enjoy a full day of music,
literature-based art, and explorations through math and science. Curiosity will
abound as we bring the classroom into the outdoors.
June 20th - 24th: Wilderness Survival
(5th-8th grades)
Topics will include: Anticipate,
prevent, and mitigate wilderness hazards. Learn and practice basic first-aid to address: hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, blisters,
insect stings/bites, and wild animals. Memorize seven
priorities of wilderness survival. Create your own personal survival
kit. Learn what to do when you are lost. Discuss survival in
the following conditions: Cold and snowy; Wet (forest); Hot and dry (desert);
Windy (mountains or plains); Water (ocean, lake, or river). Build
natural shelters. Learn three ways to treat water found in the
outdoors to prepare it for drinking. Discover edible Alaskan plants.
June 27th - July 1st: Botany, Bugs, & Birds (2nd - 6th grades)
Students will enjoy a full day of music, literature-based art, and explorations through math and science. Curiosity will abound as we bring the classroom into the outdoors.
Students will enjoy a full day of music, literature-based art, and explorations through math and science. Curiosity will abound as we bring the classroom into the outdoors.
July 11th - July 15th: Creative Writing Photography (7-12th grades)
Junior and Senior High students will take photos to create art from their own photographs. This week will be full of photography tips and fine art.
July 18th - 22nd Backyard Science (4th - 8th
grades)
Students will become expert
junior scientists as they use the scientific method to explore and experiment
with scientific phenomena.
July 25th - 29th Poetry Workshop (7-12
grades)
Students will create their own collection of famous poems, which they will illustrate. Students will also
learn multiple poetry styles, and write and illustrate their own poems, incorporating figures of speech (alliteration, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia,
and hyperbole).
August 1st - August 5th: Wilderness
Survival (5th-8th grades)
Topics will include: Anticipate,
prevent, and mitigate wilderness hazards. Learn and practice basic first-aid to address: hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, blisters,
insect stings/bites, and wild animals. Memorize seven
priorities of wilderness survival. Create your own personal survival
kit. Learn what to do when you are lost. Discuss survival in
the following conditions: Cold and snowy; Wet (forest); Hot and dry (desert);
Windy (mountains or plains); Water (ocean, lake, or river). Build
natural shelters. Learn three ways to treat water found in the
outdoors to prepare it for drinking. Discover edible Alaskan plants.
August 8th - 12th: Animal Migration (4th-8th grades)
Students will study animal migration during various seasons around the world, discovering and illustrating animals and their migratory routes.
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Beginning and Intermediate Beekeeping with Dawn Cogan
Beekeeping Classes with Science-Based Art
Science-Based Art
Instructor: Dawn Cogan
To register, email Dawn at sciencebasedart@yahoo.com or call Dawn at (907)460-6050.
Cost: $150 per family
Sat. 4/2/16 1-5 PM & Sun. 4/3/16 1-5 PM (4 hrs. each day for a total of 8 hrs.) Monroe Catholic School
• What is beekeeping? How much honey will I get? How much will this all cost me?
• Equipment necessary to keep bees in Alaska
• Biology and races of honeybees
• Members of the hive and their duties
• Where can I get bee equipment? Should I get new, used or build my own?
• Getting equipment ready for arrival of bees.
• Insulation, feeding bees properly
• What to do when the bees arrive
• Is my queen marked? (queen marking tool)
• Management of honeybee colonies in Alaska, the beekeepers calendar
• Running 2-Queen Hives
• Swarming and how to prevent it
• Honeybee diseases
• Extracting your Alaska honey
• What to do at the end of the season/Wintering Over
• Storing your equipment
• Beeswax candle making
Instructor: Dawn Cogan
To register, email Dawn at sciencebasedart@yahoo.com or call Dawn at (907)460-6050.
Cost: $150 per family
Sat. 4/2/16 1-5 PM & Sun. 4/3/16 1-5 PM (4 hrs. each day for a total of 8 hrs.) Monroe Catholic School
• What is beekeeping? How much honey will I get? How much will this all cost me?
• Equipment necessary to keep bees in Alaska
• Biology and races of honeybees
• Members of the hive and their duties
• Where can I get bee equipment? Should I get new, used or build my own?
• Getting equipment ready for arrival of bees.
• Insulation, feeding bees properly
• What to do when the bees arrive
• Is my queen marked? (queen marking tool)
• Management of honeybee colonies in Alaska, the beekeepers calendar
• Running 2-Queen Hives
• Swarming and how to prevent it
• Honeybee diseases
• Extracting your Alaska honey
• What to do at the end of the season/Wintering Over
• Storing your equipment
• Beeswax candle making
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Email from Honeybee Supplier Steve Victors
Hello Beekeepers,
Donna and I are hoping that your winter has gone well so far this year. It has been very mild here in Big Lake, and I suspect that the entire state has gotten off easier than we have in the past. I have been getting quite a few calls lately asking when it will be time to order bees for the spring. Well, the time is now here. We have overhauled our website and we are ready to go. We will be adding to our Education page this spring and placing a few videos on the site pretty soon. We have a video that shows our packages being filled when Donna and I were down getting bees last year. You will find it in the Education page and click on the Videos link on the right.
Donna and I are hoping that your winter has gone well so far this year. It has been very mild here in Big Lake, and I suspect that the entire state has gotten off easier than we have in the past. I have been getting quite a few calls lately asking when it will be time to order bees for the spring. Well, the time is now here. We have overhauled our website and we are ready to go. We will be adding to our Education page this spring and placing a few videos on the site pretty soon. We have a video that shows our packages being filled when Donna and I were down getting bees last year. You will find it in the Education page and click on the Videos link on the right.
This year we experienced an increase in our base price on packages of bees that I suspect has been driven by competition for California packages in the commercial market. Package bee suppliers in California are getting orders of 3 to 4 thousand packages at a time, and that puts a very real limit on the available supply driving prices up. This year we saw an increase of our base price for a single queen package by $15, and a $4 increase in queen prices for extra queens.
Fortunately, we have lower prices on fuel, and transportation costs have decreased compared to last spring. We have lowered our instate transportation fees because of this.
As always, we seek to bring you the highest quality packages that can be found at the most reasonable price.
We continue to use our long time supplier for both packages and queens because of the consistent high quality of his bees, queens, and care of the packages.
As we have done in the past, we will be making trips to accompany each shipment of bees from our supplier’s operation to the distribution points here in Alaska. We will be using our custom built trailer specifically designed for transporting packages of bees for the portion of the trip from our supplier’s yard to airfreight terminals in Portland.
As always, queens are guaranteed to be alive, healthy, and fertile. Packages are imported with a certificate of health and personally guaranteed to be in good shape.
This year we are adding a third type of bee available to our customers. John (our supplier) used these bees in his operation in South Dakota, and he said that they gathered a good honey crop for him. His new queens are of the Buckfast line with the breeding stock not directly related to the Buckfast queens found in Texas but coming from a different source. John reports that they have a good temperament similar to his Italian bees.
Information on the development of the Buckfast bee can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_bee
Here is the long range climatic seasonal predictions for weather: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/two_class.php
Our price this year is $170 for a four pound package with a marked queen.
Extra queens in the package are $24 each.
Transportation fees are now:
Fairbanks $7.50/package
Copper River Basin $7.50/package
Soldotna $4.00/package
Soldotna to Homer $4.00/package
Online orders are now ready to go at www.Stevesbees.comLooking forward to a great year,
Steve and Donna
892-6175
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Beginning and Intermediate Beekeeping with Dawn Cogan
Beekeeping Classes with Science-Based Art
Science-Based Art
Instructor: Dawn Cogan
To register, email Dawn at sciencebasedart@yahoo.com or call Dawn at (907)460-6050.
Cost: $150 per family
Sat. 2/27/16 1-5 PM & Sun. 2/28/16 1-5 PM (4 hrs. each day for a total of 8 hrs.) Monroe Catholic School
• What is beekeeping? How much honey will I get? How much will this all cost me?
• Equipment necessary to keep bees in Alaska
• Biology and races of honeybees
• Members of the hive and their duties
• Where can I get bee equipment? Should I get new, used or build my own?
• Getting equipment ready for arrival of bees.
• Insulation, feeding bees properly
• What to do when the bees arrive
• Is my queen marked? (queen marking tool)
• Management of honeybee colonies in Alaska, the beekeepers calendar
• Running 2-Queen Hives
• Swarming and how to prevent it
• Honeybee diseases
• Extracting your Alaska honey
• What to do at the end of the season/Wintering Over
• Storing your equipment
• Beeswax candle making
Instructor: Dawn Cogan
To register, email Dawn at sciencebasedart@yahoo.com or call Dawn at (907)460-6050.
Cost: $150 per family
Sat. 2/27/16 1-5 PM & Sun. 2/28/16 1-5 PM (4 hrs. each day for a total of 8 hrs.) Monroe Catholic School
• What is beekeeping? How much honey will I get? How much will this all cost me?
• Equipment necessary to keep bees in Alaska
• Biology and races of honeybees
• Members of the hive and their duties
• Where can I get bee equipment? Should I get new, used or build my own?
• Getting equipment ready for arrival of bees.
• Insulation, feeding bees properly
• What to do when the bees arrive
• Is my queen marked? (queen marking tool)
• Management of honeybee colonies in Alaska, the beekeepers calendar
• Running 2-Queen Hives
• Swarming and how to prevent it
• Honeybee diseases
• Extracting your Alaska honey
• What to do at the end of the season/Wintering Over
• Storing your equipment
• Beeswax candle making
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