Spring 2021 Beekeeping in Alaska

 Hello Fellow Beekeepers! Well, finally Jack Frost is headed out of Alaska! 

In seventeen seasons, I've only experienced one spring worse than this for low temperatures surrounding the first arrival of honeybee packages. 

Two dire needs of  honeybees in these early weeks are:

1) Warmth - All hives are insulated internally and externally. Telescoping lids are insulated and at least 1" of rigid foam insulation is placed underneath each bottom board. Each hive body is wrapped with insulation as well.

• We reduce our entrance to the smallest setting to keep as much heat inside the brood box.

• Do not cover your bee hive with a tarp or blanket. They need oxygen!

2) Nourishment - Keep inner sugar feeders full in the spring! If you don't have pollen stores in comb from previous years, feed pollen patties with essential oils until dandelions are prolific! Pollen is what the bees feed the eggs and larva and without it, queens may wait to lay eggs or decrease egg laying.

Current forgeable pollen is willow trees.

Our first shipment of ten colonies arrived April 8, 2021. We kept them in packages in Jen's garage for three days since evening temperatures dipped to -30* in Fairbanks. 

• I prepped our equipment by warming it up in my garage for a couple days prior to the bees arriving. 

• We are starting out with one brood box per colony to ensure the bees don't have to heat up too much space. Frames 1 and 10 are inner insulation frames. 

• The inner feeder replaced space three or four to ensure the food source is right next to the cluster. 

• At least three frames with empty comb cells were placed in the middle of the brood box to give the queen plenty of cells to start laying eggs in. 

• Pollen patties were taken out of the freezer the day before and cut into 1/4 lb. for each colony. 

• 1:1 sugar water with 1-2 tsp. Honey Bee Healthy was mixed up and brought to room temperature - 1 gallon per colony.

• With all the snow this spring, we used wood ash, old carpets, and tarps to lay on top of the snow. This helps the bees during orientation flights. They can become disoriented and fly straight into snow, thinking it's the sky especially on cloudy days because the snow and the sky look very similar. This is a fatal mistake! 

• We are filling up sugar water every 3-5 days with full hive checks every 10 days to prevent swarming. 

Regular hive checks every 10-12 days is our key responsibility to:

1) Make sure our queens are alive and laying well;

2) Prevent swarming by removing queen cells;

3) Make sure the bees don't run out of food. They are not able to find much pollen in Alaska yet and colonies are at risk of starvation and decreased body temperatures if not well nourished. Besides, sugar water is great for stimulating wax secretion. The sooner they build comb, the sooner the queen can start laying and the population begins to multiply.

4) Add bee space by adding another brood box when 7-8 frames are full of brood or resources.