Drone Brood, Pollen stores, and Plantain

We are no longer feeding pollen patties to our bees since they are bringing a lot in from the local trees. Pretty soon they will be bringing in dandelion and Alaska Wild Rose.

Here is what stored pollen cells look like:

DRONE BROOD:
I don't remove drone brood unless it is more than 8-12 drone cells in one area of the comb. Here are some photos with explanations regarding drone comb:

Drone pupa is convex (it looks like Kix cereal).

This is (female) worker pupa at the bottom, left and there are two (male) drone cells at the top left. These are "drawn-out" taller to allow more space in the cell for the larger drone brood.

PLANTAIN WEED can reduce reactions to bee stings. I have seen it draw the redness and swelling right out of an area recently stung by honeybees. What I do is chew a leaf until my saliva begins breaking it down. Then I put it on the area of the sting and put a piece of tape or a Band-aid over the plantain. This weed grows all over the place like dandelions.

Bee Space, Re-queening a queenless colony & moving bee hives

Hello Fellow Beekeepers,

Jen and I checked all of our colonies on Friday, May 1st and at midnight we moved them out of our town house yard to several locations once most of the snow melted.

One of our Carniolan queens had disappeared (probably died) and I could tell by the size of the larva it had been about five days since she died. We purchased a Russian queen from Dale Lupton and hung the Russian queen cage between the middle frames, leaving the queen cage cap on for five days.

The reason you want to re-queen as soon as possible after a queen disappearing is that you don't want the worker bees to develop ovaries and start laying eggs. These eggs will always be unfertilized and therefore produce drones. It is the queen's pheromones that keep the workers from acquiring immature reproductive organs. Since the workers do not mate with drones, all of their offspring are unfertilized. On the other hand, you don't want to introduce a brand new queen to a colony without an "Acquaintance Period" when the colony develops a desire for the new queen. This is why we don't allow the queen to escape her cage for at least five to eight days after hanging her in a queenless colony.

The rest of the colonies were in great shape with nice brood patterns emerging. Here is an example of a healthy brood pattern:

By the way, Dale does have extra queens for sale if anyone needs one. 907-978-1455

We didn't add a second box on May 1st because the queen still had several frames to lay eggs on.

We did not fill up sugar feeders to ensure sugar water would not spill during the transport to other locations.

Moving Bee Hives:
We moved the colonies at midnight to ensure all the bees were in their clusters. We pushed the telescoping lid back to block the upper entrance so bees could not exit this entrance. Leaving the entrance reducer on the smallest setting, we stapled window screen over the bottom entrance so no bees could escape. Finally, we ratchet strapped the entire hive together and carried it to the back of a truck, driving the hives at least 5 miles away to ensure they wouldn't return to their original hiving location to find their colony and hive missing. (Bees can get confused if you move them more than a few feet or less than several miles because they return to their original geographical location and stay there in a cluster even without the safety of shelter. In spring temperatures, they can die due to exposure.

Once we arrived at a new location, the colonies were taken out of the truck bed and set on foundation bricks facing southeast for early and all day sun exposure. The screen was taken off and telescoping lid was pushed forward, allowing the bees to come and go out of the top entrance.

The next day, we went back to the new locations to top off sugar water and observe the colonies.

Increasing "BEE SPACE" May 9, 2020 Hive Checks 

It appears Jack Frost has left town and hopefully for good until October!

Jen and I increased colony "bee space" by removing all inner insulation, replacing it with frames. This gives the queen several thousand more wax cells to lay eggs in and ensures she doesn't run out of space for laying eggs. We changed entrance reducers to the medium setting and added second boxes at the bottom (called "bottom supering"). Then we pulled a couple frames of brood (eggs, larva, & pupa)  from the original brood box to add to the center of the bottom box. This draws the workers and queen down into the new box. We will watch the weather and if Jack Frost pays another visit or temperatures get below 40* we will set the entrance reducer at the smallest setting.

Any frames with bare foundation will be sprayed with sugar water to entice the workers to get busy building honeycomb on the foundations.

Re-queening Update:
The cap on the new Russian queen was removed so workers will hopefully release her within the next couple days. A frame of eggs and larva was robbed from another colony and placed in the hive where the new Russian queen has been hanging for five days. This helps the workers to receive the new queen without killing her as she is "bringing brood" with her.

Outside insulation is still on the hive boxes and will remain probably until June 1, 2020.

Since all of our colonies have about 80% drawn out honeycomb, we gave the last sugar feeding today (5/9/2020) so when the dandelions arrive in full force, the bees will begin to forage for natural nectar.

This ensures our honey is made from nectar rather than processed sugarcane.

Beekeepers with little to no drawn-out combs must continue to feed sugar water until at least half of the frames are drawn-out with virgin wax. Sugar water is the most efficient source of energy for comb building. You don't want the bees to have to use natural nectar that they work so hard to forage for to build comb.

As long as we see eggs and larva in each hive we don't have to see the queen since young brood is most often evidence she is alive and well.

We will complete hive checks again on May 19th (every 10 days), making sure we see eggs, larva, pupa and adult bees of course. At that time we plan to remove sugar feeders, replacing them with two more frames.

By then, bees should have plenty of natural nectar and they already have lots of tree pollen to forage. Dandelion pollen is a bright yellow orange and Alaska Wild Rose provides a sweet grayish-green pollen.

June is the "swarming month" when most colonies try to create a new queen because outdoor temperatures make the bees think they will have time to divide their colony and produce enough brood before the honey flow the end of June through July. We humans know this is not possible in Alaska because our summer season is so short and the honey flow drops off rather abruptly the end of August as flowering periods of plants declines considerably. Some years we have an extended season when white and yellow clover bloom late in the season, however not every year.

As long as we see eggs and larva, we remove any queen cups and queen "supersedure" cells.


       Queen Cup

Supersedure Cells (Pupa stage with Royal Jelly)

If we are able to enjoy prolific fireweed and clover into September without a frost and our colony management skills have been timely and successful, our honey yield will be great.

Happy beekeeping and stay safe out there!

Re- Queening Your Colony

If your colony is in the unfortunate state of being queenless, you want to remedy this problem ASAP!

Call your bee supplier to request purchasing a new queen.

Take an empty jar with a lid that has holes in it with you to obtain the queen at the time of purchase.

Place the queen cage in the jar with several workers in the jar to care for the queen.

When temperatures are 50* or warmer, hang the queen cage with the corks and caps still on in the middle of the hive for five days.

If you introduce the queen to quickly to the colony they may attack and kill her because they aren't used to her pheromones yet. After five days, remove the cork replacing it with a mini-marshmallow or remove the cap over the candy fondant.

Within a couple days, the queen should have exited the cage. Wait a few more days and complete a thorough hive check at 50* or warmer.

Hopefully you will see eggs!

Our Preliminary 2020 Colony Checks

Jen and I checked all of our colonies this weekend and are happy to report all of our queens are laying eggs. This is the first sign of a very successful season!

Here's what we did five days after hiving the bees since we have drawn-out honeycomb:
(folks with bare foundation should be topping off sugar water every three days)

• Made sugar water and had it ready (at room Temperature)
• Had another pollen patty available for each colony
• Waited until temperatures were at least *50
• Took out entrance reducer
• Topped off sugar water
• Removed the empty queen cage
• Leaving sugar water feeder inside the brood box, we slowly removed the inner insulation board on the side of the box opposite the feeder.
• Set the insulation board on a frame holder or leaning it up against the outside of the box.
• We removed the next frame, inspecting it for the following:
• The Queen 
• Queen cups
• sugar water stores
• Each frame was removed and inspected the same way followed by being replaced in the same place it was previously.
• Once inspecting all frames (both sides) and confirming a queen was present, or we saw eggs, on (one egg per wax cell) we removed any/all queen cups.
• We added another pollen patty if the first one was gone or nearly gone, making sure to place it away from the center hole in the inner lid. This hole is important for oxygen flow.
• We replaced the inner cover making sure the hole in the cover is in the correct place (front and center) allowing oxygen flow and a viable upper entrance to the hive.
• When temperatures start to drop below 45* we replace the entrance reducer at the smallest setting.

 

Queen cup photos

• As long as we saw eggs, we didn't need to "find the queen"
• The eggs should be one per cell. If you see multiple eggs in cells then you either have a queen that is a "drone layer" or workers that have developed ovaries and your colony will die out because you have no workers to groom and feed the queen, care for the young, clean the hive, forage for resources, or protect the colony.

Healthy brood development photos


• When this happens we lay a queen or king size sheet out on the ground (preferably on the other side of a building) at least 100 feet away from the hive. Then take a one or two frames out of the hive at a time, walk over to the sheet and gently shake or very slowly brush every single bee onto the sheet. If the problem is laying workers you will remedy the problem because the laying workers will not be allowed back into the hive by non-laying workers who make it successfully back into the hive.

Evidence of a laying worker photos

If you see no evidence of the queen (eggs & larva) or the queen herself, your colony may be queenless and if so, you need to re-queen your colony. Call your bee supplier to purchase a new queen.
Re-queening directions are in a subsequent blog post.

Hiving Honeybees - April 11, 2020

Hello Folks,

I hope this blog entry finds you and your loved ones happy and healthy. Despite the challenges of finding flights for shipping our bees to Fairbanks, Phil and Dale have been successful once again! The bees are beautiful and can't wait to get out and forage! We received seven colonies on April 9th and 10th. Temperatures were in the 30s for a couple days, so we waited until the weather warmed up to the 50s.

We received five Carniolans, one Italian, and two Russian colonies.

In preparation of receiving the bees, days in advance here's what we did:

• Brought all equipment inside the house to warm it up for bees.
• Cleaned up frames to remove comb in undesirable places.
• Cleaned inner feeders with hot water and a new sponge or clean rag - no soap or chemicals.
• Placed frames in proper order (empty cells in the middle for the queen to start laying eggs in as soon as she emerges from the queen cage).
• Made one gallon sugar water per colony with Honey B Healthy (Minimum 1:1 ratio sugar to water)
• Filled a spray bottle with diluted sugar water for feeding in shipping boxes while waiting for weather to warm up for hiving.
• Made sure sugar water and pollen patties were at room temperature.
• Made sure all outer lids had insulation in them.
• Insulated hives from inside and outside, including a one inch rigid foam for under the bottom board.
• Made sure we have two foundation bricks for each hive.

Just before hiving the colonies here's what we did:

• Set up a table for working space, tools, etc.
• Had a pitcher and funnel for pouring sugar water into feeders.

• Shoveled and used a snow blower to clear deep snow in a 15 X 20 foot rectangle in front of hives.
• Sprinkled dirt or ashes all over the snow to ensure the bees don't get confused between the ground and the sky because if they fly into the snow they will often times die from hypothermia.
• Covered side snowbanks with tarps for the same purpose as above.
• Cut an x into pollen patty wax paper.
• Set up one brood box on each pair of foundation bricks facing southeast or west for now until snow melts and hives can be moved to a location at least five miles away as a crow flies.
• Place entrance reducer on smallest entrance.

While hiving the colonies here's what we did:

• Remove three or four frames from the middle of the brood box.
• Slip off the clear plastic cover by lifting two tabs.
• Tap the bee bus to knock the cluster of bees to the bottom.
• Remove the feeder can to access the queen.
• Replace the feeder can and inspect the queen.
• Place the queen cage in your pocket to keep her warm.
• Open the side door of the Bee Bus slowly.
• Gently dump the bees in the middle of the brood box where frames have been removed.
• Tap the Bee Bus until all or nearly all bees have exited the box.
• Wait a few minutes for the bees to climb on existing frames.
• Slowly replace all frames in the brood box.
• Remove pink cap on queen cage to expose candy to workers.
• Tear off queen cage hanger and place in the bottom of queen cage diagonally to hang queen between middle frames.
• Cut a square piece of the bee bus about 2" by 2" then a slit in the middle of the square to slide the hanger into for a more secure queen cage holder. You don't want the queen to fall to the bottom of the box because she can die from cold.
• Place a chemical-free funnel into the inner feeder and fill to a half inch below the top.
• Place pollen patty on top of frames.
• Use hive tool to push all frames together tight, leaving and extra space to only one side of the brood box.
• Place inner cover on first, making sure the 1.5 inch wide upper entrance is facing the front of the hive.
• Place outer lid over inner lid making sure it is pulled all the way forward so bees can enter, exit and acquire oxygen from this upper entrance.

Subsequent days:

• Make sugar water only as you need it so it doesn't get moldy. 
• Top off room temperature sugar water ever three days for bare foundation or every five days for drawn-out comb. Do not let sugar water run dry for colonies with bare foundation. 
• Replace pollen patty if it is consumed or dries out.
• Enlarge entrance when temperatures are 50* or above and reduce entrance when temperatures are below 45*.

We hope to post photos and videos in the near future.