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Saturday, July 20, 2019
Space Weather - Cosmic Rays at the Moon
Caging Queens, Wintering Over and Harvesting
I just returned home from visiting my children and grandchildren in Alabama. The ecosystem there is so different from Alaska with such a diverse population of insects! This has been one of the best years for honey I've seen in 14 seasons of beekeeping! We have added 3-4 honey supers on most hives.
More heat = more flora = more nectar = more honey!
Wintering Over Honeybees in Alaska
I cage my queens when I don't want to winter them over.
If you are interested in wintering over your colony in Alaska, I recommend going to the Alaska Wildflower Honey website as they have had success wintering over and give tips on how to do so.
https://www.alaskawildflowerhoney.com/articles/17-winter/31-storage-of-hives
If your queen is unmarked, and you want to mark her for over wintering, I have the tools for marking queens. Just shoot me a text and I can help.
907-460-6050
Caging Queens
I will be caging queens on Friday, July 26th and Saturday, July 27th. If you would like to attend a free demonstration of how to cage a queen, please show up at 605 Betty Street at 6:30 PM on Friday, July 26th with your bee suit. I will start with one in my yard and then travel to other locations including Botanical Gardens to perform hive checks, cage queens and harvest honey. There are several ways of caging queens. One is to pick the queen up with your bare hands and place her in the queen cage.
Another way is to herd the queen into the cage. This takes more time and she may fly away during the process. If she flies away, most likely she will return to the hive later provided she doesn't get eaten by a bird.
Make sure the cork will stay in the cage hole. I cut down a wine cork for this purpose to ensure the queen doesn't escape.
Important Note
If a colony has a caged queen or becomes queenless, it is important to keep the female workers from developing ovaries and laying (unfertilized) drone eggs in all the cells. Keeping a queen caged for more than a few weeks can cause this to happen. Once this happens, many or all of the cells are changed to have the circumference for drones an the comb is very undesirable. After all, a colony with no workers will not survive. The frames can be salvaged, however I remove all wax in this case and melt it down for various other purposes, including candle making.
Harvesting "Robbing" Honey
I start harvesting capped honey frames at the time I cage my queens. This process of robbing honey from stinging insects can bee an adventure! I have several Rubbermaid totes with lids clean and ready for carrying honey frames back to my home where I extract the scrumptious liquid gold.
I place an empty tote at least 15 yards away from the hive(s) and take one frame out of the hive at a time, gently brush off bees walking toward the tote. I place the frame upright in the tote, replacing the tote lid as quickly as possible and trying to keep as many bees out as possible. This process continues until all capped honey frames are in totes. The totes become very heavy so using a wagon or vehicle on wheels helps with transporting the totes. I always have someone help with lifting.
Extracting Honey
My preference for removing the wax cappings is a decapping fork because I don't like melting the wax too deeply since I want to re-use the comb next season. I store my personal honey in glass jars through the winter months. Storing honey at room temperature or between 70 and 100 degrees keeps it from sugaring as quickly. If you want to make creamed honey, here is a video:
http://honestcooking.com/your-new-favorite-breakfast-creamed-honey/
After you have creamed some honey, if you take a teaspoon and stir it into a jar of liquid honey, in a week or two the jar of honey will change to creamed honey.
Now my mouth is watering and I'm headed into the kitchen to eat some raw honey!
Remember, if you sell honey in Alaska, it must be labeled with your contact information.
More heat = more flora = more nectar = more honey!
Wintering Over Honeybees in Alaska
I cage my queens when I don't want to winter them over.
If you are interested in wintering over your colony in Alaska, I recommend going to the Alaska Wildflower Honey website as they have had success wintering over and give tips on how to do so.
https://www.alaskawildflowerhoney.com/articles/17-winter/31-storage-of-hives
If your queen is unmarked, and you want to mark her for over wintering, I have the tools for marking queens. Just shoot me a text and I can help.
907-460-6050
Caging Queens
I will be caging queens on Friday, July 26th and Saturday, July 27th. If you would like to attend a free demonstration of how to cage a queen, please show up at 605 Betty Street at 6:30 PM on Friday, July 26th with your bee suit. I will start with one in my yard and then travel to other locations including Botanical Gardens to perform hive checks, cage queens and harvest honey. There are several ways of caging queens. One is to pick the queen up with your bare hands and place her in the queen cage.
Another way is to herd the queen into the cage. This takes more time and she may fly away during the process. If she flies away, most likely she will return to the hive later provided she doesn't get eaten by a bird.
Make sure the cork will stay in the cage hole. I cut down a wine cork for this purpose to ensure the queen doesn't escape.
Important Note
If a colony has a caged queen or becomes queenless, it is important to keep the female workers from developing ovaries and laying (unfertilized) drone eggs in all the cells. Keeping a queen caged for more than a few weeks can cause this to happen. Once this happens, many or all of the cells are changed to have the circumference for drones an the comb is very undesirable. After all, a colony with no workers will not survive. The frames can be salvaged, however I remove all wax in this case and melt it down for various other purposes, including candle making.
Harvesting "Robbing" Honey
I start harvesting capped honey frames at the time I cage my queens. This process of robbing honey from stinging insects can bee an adventure! I have several Rubbermaid totes with lids clean and ready for carrying honey frames back to my home where I extract the scrumptious liquid gold.
I place an empty tote at least 15 yards away from the hive(s) and take one frame out of the hive at a time, gently brush off bees walking toward the tote. I place the frame upright in the tote, replacing the tote lid as quickly as possible and trying to keep as many bees out as possible. This process continues until all capped honey frames are in totes. The totes become very heavy so using a wagon or vehicle on wheels helps with transporting the totes. I always have someone help with lifting.
Extracting Honey
My preference for removing the wax cappings is a decapping fork because I don't like melting the wax too deeply since I want to re-use the comb next season. I store my personal honey in glass jars through the winter months. Storing honey at room temperature or between 70 and 100 degrees keeps it from sugaring as quickly. If you want to make creamed honey, here is a video:
http://honestcooking.com/your-new-favorite-breakfast-creamed-honey/
After you have creamed some honey, if you take a teaspoon and stir it into a jar of liquid honey, in a week or two the jar of honey will change to creamed honey.
Now my mouth is watering and I'm headed into the kitchen to eat some raw honey!
Remember, if you sell honey in Alaska, it must be labeled with your contact information.
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