Alaska Beekeeping Workshops

  

 

	Alaska Beekeeping Workshop

Fairbanks & Vicinity – Monroe Catholic School 

615 Monroe Street; Fairbanks, Alaska 99701

*Saturday 3/18/23 1 - 5:30PM & Sunday 3/19/23 1 – 5:30PM (both days for a total of 9 hours)

Mat-Su Valley -   Birch Harbor Baptist Church: 
Mile 5 Knik Goose Bay Rd, Wasilla, AK 99654

*Saturday 3/4/23 10AM – 4PM & Sunday 3/5/23 2PM – 5PM (both days for a total of 9 hours)

Delta Junction -   Please register for the Fairbanks workshop this spring. 

Syllabus:

What is beekeeping? • How much honey will I harvest? • How much will this cost me? • Equipment necessary to keep bees in Alaska • Biology and races of honeybees • Members of the hive and their duties • Where to obtain bee equipment. New, used or building your own equipment. • Preparing equipment for the arrival of bees • Insulation, feeding bees properly • Preparing for the arrival of bees • Is the queen marked? (Queen-marking tool) • 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

 

Hands-on In-class Projects: Build a beehive • Follow the beekeeper’s calendar throughout the season • Honey Extraction

Includes your own copy of our Beekeeping Handout Book, refreshments and door prizes: 

Miscellaneous beekeeping tools, a free 4 lb. package of honeybees donated by Fairbanks Beekeeper and Honeybee Supplier, Dale Lupton 907-978-1455

REGISTER HERE!

Please use the link below to complete the second part of your registration:

https://forms.office.com/r/hfbE0ZNUif

Wrapping up the Season

 Hello Folks,

I have taken a much-needed break from blogging this summer as my grandmother's memorial service and son's wedding kept me very busy the past couple of months. 

By now, if you have been following the beekeeper's calendar, colonies not being wintered should have a caged queen. (IF YOU HAVEN'T CAGED YOUR QUEEN YET AND YOU ARE NOT WINTERING, GET'R DONE!) Hang your caged queen in the middle of your brood box. All the brood will have hatched out within 21-24 days. We don't want eggs and larva in our honey! From the moment you cage a queen, all the female workers will hatch out 21 days later and the drones will hatch out 24 days later.

I have robbed nearly all my honey now because it has been cold at night and honeybees devour their stores when they are cold.

Once the honey is extracted from the frames, I give the sticky frames back to the bees to clean up. This way, I won't have to store sticky equipment.

I will be wintering colonies again this season and will let folks know how it goes in spring 2023.

June 21, 2022 Update

 Hello Folks,

I hope you are seeing lots of honeybee babies "brood" and pollen stores inside your honeycomb! Our bees are now foraging my favorite, the Alaska Rose in addition to all the other variety of weeds, domesticated and native flowers. In the last several weeks, I have requeened one colony myself and helped a couple of people re-queen their colonies. It is now getting a bit late in the season to re-queen colonies. 

When a queen goes missing mid-summer(and I don't see any eggs and/or larva, I often combine the queenless colony with a strong colony to increase the number of foragers before the honey flow. 

To combine two separate colonies, I take the lid off a strong colony, and cover the entire top of the box with two or three pages of newsprint, leaving it hanging over all edges of the box. Then I use my hive tool to slice 4-5 two-inch holes in the paper to help the bees begin to tear apart the paper. The queenless colony is reduced to one box if the population isn't too large. This is done by tapping the bees off of frames that have no brood and little to no stores inside the cells. These frames should be stored in a cool, dry place that the bees cannot reach. 

Combining colonies allows a slow pairing of the two colonies as opposed to a fast combination which always causes the workers to fight. I have been very successful with combining colonies over the past 18 years. It nearly always works great. 

The queenless colony can then keep working and won't die off due to a decreasing population which also exposes them to disease and robbers.

I just swapped my top boxes with the bottom boxes a couple days ago and will be adding honey super boxes in the next week to prepare for the honey flow.

I keep removing grass and plants in front of the hives and completing full hive checks every 10-12 days. Ten days is best practice in case you miss a queen cell/cup. 

I make sure my bees have plenty of water nearby. This helps them with making lots of honey.

Now it's just waiting for the web of life to work the way it was intelligently designed!

Two of my colonies are at Georgeson Botanical Gardens and they are really bringing the nectar and pollen in! 

Lisa and James Harlow have been wintering successfully for the past two years. In their first year, they successfully wintered 5/5 colonies. 

Here is the link to Lisa's blog where you can find a variety of information about homeschooling and homesteading. It has been a pleasure collaborating with Lisa and her family over the past five years!

https://rosehipsandhoney.com/

Bee Space!!! It's Time for Making Changes to hives!

FEEDING: My honeybees have plenty of natural pollen now, so i pull out any pollen patties. I keep a couple extra pollen patties in my freezer and thaw them out to room temperature if I see any more than four days of bad weather (stormy, below 50*, rain, wind). Carniolan queens may slow egg laying when food supplies wane. I have removed sugarwater feeders and replaced them with frames. New Hive(s)? If you started with bare foundation, however, you may want to feed sugar water for a couple more weeks because this helps honeybees excrete more wax and build comb faster than they will if they have to forage for all the nectar to build the comb. 

UPPER ENTRANCE: I just recently flipped my inner lid so the upper entrance is on the bottom of the lid now that it is warm enough. 

• LOWER ENTRANCE: My entrance reducers are set at the medium setting overnight and can be pulled completely out on days that are 45* and above. I keep watching the weather all the time to make sure I reduce the entrance if a cold snap is coming. Jack Frost is a sneaky guy and we have to be on guard for freezing temperatures.

• BEE SPACE: I have added a second brood box to all of my hives, placing the new box on the bottom board and raising the original box, which should now be full of brood, sugar water, and pollen.

• INSULATION: My internal insulation has been removed and replaced with frames. External insulation can be removed as soon as no fear of frost exists.

• EXPANDING THE BROOD NEST: I take a couple frames with a lot of pupa cells out of the original box and place them in the middle of the new brood box (on the bottom). When these bees hatch out of their cells, they will go to work in the box they were born in.

• TOP BAR KEEPERS: I keep feeding sugar water until the second or third week of June for the same reason stated above.

• NEXT CHANGE: In two to three weeks I will swap the brood boxes, placing the top box on the bottom board and the bottom box will be moved to the top.

• HIVE CHECKS: I can now place regularly scheduled hive checks on my calendar for every 10-12 days. If I make the mistake of waiting longer than 10-12 days to complete a hive check, my colonies are in danger of swarming. If I take the risk of completing hive checks any more often than 10 days, I run the risk of smashing too many bees and especially the queen. 
• Keep grass and weeds trimmed in front of the hive entrance! If you have a piece of carpet, this makes a great "front yard" for bees that keeps plants from growing too tall in front of the hive entrance.

• WATER: I make sure my bees have a great water source nearby. If no natural source exists, I create a container with twigs, rocks, and moss so the bees won't drown in standing water.

Bee Space and Moving Colonies to Summer Locations

I picked up and hived my bees on April 17th - Easter Sunday. 

All five colonies have a laying queen. 

I have kept each colony in one deep brood box to help them survive this cold snap we've been experiencing. 

Every colony has been fed 1:1 sugar to water four times and I had to replace pollen patties since the bees devoured the first patties about a week ago. 

My honeybees have been kept warm by having the entrance reducer set on the smallest setting and insulation around all four sides of the brood box and inside the telescoping lid and under the bottom board. 

I am preparing to move my colonies from my home at a high elevation, to three different locations in downtown Fairbanks. There are more abundant flora and natural water sources at lower elevations. Moving colonies will be accomplished at night after the bees are all inside their hive. I cover entrances with a window screen, stapling the screen to the wood so bees cannot and will not escape while transported. 

Then I place a ratchet strap around the entire box, bottom board, and lids, making sure this is ratcheted very tight. They will be loaded into a utility vehicle and driven to their new summer home.

Once the bees are in their summer location, I will wait until 50* or warmer to add a second box below the first brood box. 

When the weather warms up to above freezing temperatures all day and night, we can pull a couple frames of brood down into the empty brood box because when those bees hatch out, they will go to work building and repairing wax honeycomb in the lower brood box, preparing the cells for the queen to lay eggs. If you place eggs and larva into an empty box when temperatures are below 40*, colonies can develop chalkbrood. The remedy for chalkbrood is better maintenance by keeping the bees warm and fed.

I am making sure to fill internal feeders with sugar water every 3-5 days. Letting the colony run out of sugar water increases the risk of colony collapse. 

Pretty soon, we will slow down with feeding sugar water so the bees don't pack every available cell with sugar water, causing the queen to be "honey-bound" which occurs when she has no empty cells in which to lay her eggs. 

The bees have been bringing in willow pollen and will start foraging for birch and spruce very soon.

Keeping bees fed and warm is the #1 goal at this time.

First Hive Checks

 Apiary Update:

Here are examples of how queens should be laying excellent patterns of brood:

         

    

Examples of a "spotty queen":

Spotty queens can be replaced however, replacing a queen can be a risk because the colony might not accept a new queen once established.

Main tasks at this time:

1) Keep bees nourished with 1:1 sugar water and pollen patties;

2) Keep bees warm;

3) Regular hive checks every 10 -12 days;

4) Remove queen cups and cells after confirming you have evidence of a queen (eggs, larva, and pupa);

Queen Cup Examples:

Queen cell examples:

    

        

5) Remove any burr comb and save it for melting down for wax products (see examples below):

    

    

• Burr comb is always drone comb.

• When a queen lays an egg in drone comb, the egg will become an unfertilized bee - a drone!

• The more drones a hive has, the more the female workers have to labor to keep the colony nourished well.

• Keeping a small population of drones is important, however, in case you lose your queen. The colony needs drones available to mate with a newly hatched queen.

No Eggs or Larva? 

You probably have a queenless colony if you can't find eggs and larva. This needs to be addressed immediately!

Call Dale Lupton 907-978-1455 to order a new queen.

• If your colony is queenless for more than a couple weeks, some of the workers will develop ovaries and fill cells with multiple unfertilized eggs which become drones. 

• A colony in this condition will eventually have a full population of drones and will die out. 

• Also, this alters the comb in a very undesirable way - worker cells become drone cells - All drone comb must be removed to prevent future queens from laying high populations of unfertilized, drone eggs.

Examples of laying workers:

    

                  

        

Laying Worker Drone Comb:                   

What to do about laying workers:

• Have a replacement queen on hand in a queen cage.
• Lay a white flatbed sheet or blanket on the ground at least 50 feet and preferably with a  building between the hive and the sheet;
• Carry each frame over the sheet and shake off all the bees;
• Place the frame into a tote or a cooler with a lid making sure no bees are on the frames;
• Hang the new queen in the middle of the top brood box, leaving the cap on the queen cage so the bees will have time to get used to the new queen's pheromones (If you quick release the queen, the colony may kill her);
• Put all the frames back into the hive boxes.

Any workers who have not developed ovaries will reenter the hive and laying workers will not be allowed back into the hive.

You must re-queen the colony since they will not be able to create their own queen at this late date.

Preparing for Spring Hiving

 Hello Beekeeping Friends and Family,

My first shipment of honeybees is arriving this weekend. I am taking pollen patties out of the freezer to make sure they are at room temperature when I place them in the hives. My equipment is warming up inside my house for a couple days before hiving. Sugar water will be made the morning of hiving at a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water. I will put a couple teaspoons of Honey B Healthy in the sugar water. 

I always start with one deep brood box because more space means less warmth for the bees in early spring. I wait to set my hive equipment outside on foundation brick until minutes before hiving the bees to ensure the equipment is warm.

For folks hiving on bare foundation, don't let the sugar water run out! Top off internal sugar feeders every three days for the first several weeks. 

Insulation: I make sure to insert insulation boards on both sides of the internal brood box and wrap my hives on the outside with insulation. I put 1-inch rigid foam insulation under the bottom board and inside the telescoping lid, taping the seams or edges with aluminized duct tape (foil tape). 

Entrance reducers are a must this time of year! 

I wait to hive my bees until it is very close to 50* or warmer. I use a spray bottle to mist the bees to help them transition from the shipping container to the hive. If it is cooler than 50* or the wind is blowing, I do not mist the bees to protect them from becoming hypothermic.

I like to keep Benedryl and Epinephrine handy just in case I have an allergic reaction to bee venom.

2022 Honeybee Prices from Supplier, Dale Lupton

Dale Lupton is the only local (Fairbanks, Alaska) supplier of honeybees. He and his supplier, Phil - a Master Beekeeping Farmer in the Sacramento area, have supplied me with the highest quality honeybees for the past five years. After working with three other suppliers from other Alaskan cities, and struggling to acquire healthy packages as well as suffering high queen mortality rates, I teamed up with Dale because of his extensive knowledge and hive-side manner. He provides beekeepers with more than just bees and equipment, answering questions and sharing effective beekeeping trade secrets with anyone who needs them. Dale keeps up with the increasing demand for honeybee packages, supplying anyone who places an order, and when supply has run short, Dale has offered his own colonies on occasion to new beekeepers. Dale Lupton: 907-978-1455

Dale's 2022 Prices:

4 lb. Packages of Carniolans                                   $223.00 + $15 after April 14th

4 lb. Packages of Caucasians                                  $223.00 + $15 after April 14th

4 lb. Packages of Italians                                        $223.00 + $15 after April 14th

4 lb. Packages of  Hybrid Russians                        $223.00 + $15 after April 14th

4 lb. Packages of  Purebred Russians:                    $240.00  + $15 after April 14th

Extra Queens (Carniolan, Caucasian, Italian)         $41.00 

Extra Purebred Russian Queens:                             $51.00

New, unassembled hive kits and used equipment are also for sale!