2016
Beekeeper’s Calendar
for
Alaska’s Interior
By
Dawn Cogan of Homestead Honey
Below is a tentative schedule for beekeeping in
Interior Alaska for 2016. These dates
and activities are subject to change depending on the weather and unforeseen
circumstances.
DO NOT USE QUEEN EXCLUDERS WITH SUPERS THAT HAVE BARE
FOUNDATION! The bees will treat the
excluder as a “ceiling” and will rarely if ever draw-out the honeycomb.
Add queen excluder(s) below honey supers three weeks prior
to extraction, ensuring the queen is in the brood boxes, so all the brood will
hatch out before harvesting and extracting.
April
23rd:
Honeybees arrive in Monroe Catholic School parking lot on the gym side of the
school usually in the early evening (between 5:00 and 8:00pm).
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.
May
12th - 14th:
Perform a complete hive check (50* or
warmer). You should see brood in all stages (eggs, larva, and pupa) If you
still do not find eggs, either call an experienced beekeeper or if you are
absolutely positive there are no eggs or larva present, purchase a new queen
and slowly release her (using a marshmallow like the original hiving). If you find cells with several eggs on the
cell wall – dump your colony & kill your bees.
Keep
filling feeder(s) every 3-5 days without doing a full hive check.
May
25th – 27th:
Perform a complete hive check. You should have several frames of brood (eggs,
larva & pupa) and some cells should be empty. If the brood pattern is “spotty”, or you find
many empty cells, something is wrong!
You should either re-queen or unite your colony with another colony - (After killing the “spotty” queen). Your bees are not getting enough food if they
have no stored sugar water and/or no pollen in cells. One good indication of this is if your bees
are running over the frames “shaking.”
If this is the case, feed them sugar water as well as frames with stored
honey. If you find eggs and emerging adult
bees (being born) but no larva, then your hive is suffering from a lack of
pollen stores. In this case, give your
bees a pollen patty (room temperature). Remove sugar water feeders as long as local
plants are blooming and sugar stores are well-stored! Make
sure to keep any grasses, etc. cut short in front of hive entrance.
June
7th – 9th:
Perform a complete hive check. – Look for sugar water and pollen stores. Look for all stages of brood. Swarm prevention time!! – If you know your
queen is healthy and laying from the evidence of eggs, larva and pupa kill any
“swarm cells/queen cells.” If your queen
is “honey-bound” (has very little empty cells to lay in) then you need to
reverse your hive bodies and add a super.
Depending on the weather, you may need to turn or take your entrance
reducer out completely by now. Make sure to keep any grasses, etc. cut
short in front of hive entrance.
*Remember:
Queen cells are usually on the sides and bottom of frames – take your time,
move slowly as you check for queen cells. Sometimes it’s easy to miss them! If you miss one, your hive is in danger of
swarming!! Keep removing queen cells every 10-12 days. Demaree handout is a good tool at this
time.
June
20th – 22th:
Perform a regular hive check. Make sure to keep any grasses, etc. cut
short in front of hive entrance.
July
3rd – July 5th:
Perform a regular hive check, adding
honey supers. Keep entrance free of weeds and grass!
July
18th - 20th:
Perform
a regular hive check. Keep entrance free of weeds and grass!
August
1st – 3rd:
Perform
a regular hive check. Cage
queens on hive(s) not being wintered-over! Make sure the cork is well
secured and hang the queen between two frames.
(Make sure queen can be fed through the screen of the little queen
box). If wintering over, add your excluder now to harvest and extract honey
on or after August 25th. If you add the excluder make double sure your
highness is below the excluder. Keep entrance free of weeds and grass!
August
15th – 17th:
Perform a regular hive check. Keep entrance free of weeds and grass!
August
27th – September 8th:
Rob honey and/or perform regular hive check. Keep entrance free of weeds and
grass! Extract honey and give “sticky” frames back to bees.
September
6 th – to the end:
Give bees sugar water so they will draw out any bare foundation frames and have
nourishment to clean up drawn-out wax.
September
(a few days to 1 week after giving bees sticky frames): If you are not wintering over, in early
morning or early evening (cool temps 35*-40*), Shop-vacuum bees and dump in
compost.
Finally Brethren- Store your equipment by putting your queen excluder between the bottom board
and the bottom brood box to discourage mice from entering and eating any
left-over honey, pollen stores, or destroying next season’s wax!! Cover up any holes in the hive with fine, mesh
screen (staple). Leave your hive outside
on foundation bricks or some sort of elevated surface to discourage spring
water damage. Ratchet-strap hive bodies
together from top to bottom.
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