This is what a healthy brood pattern looks like!

 

A healthy brood pattern has queen evidence in nearly every cell. 

This is an amazing queen pattern, an excellent example of the pupa stage. The huge oval in the middle shows that this queen is doing her job!
There is a "rainbow" of pollen above the pupa pattern and honey in the corners and around the edges of this frame. The honey acts as insulation and protects the unborn bees from other animals.

Check your sugar syrup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Folks, I went out to grab an extra queen for someone and discovered my sugar feeders are completely empty after only three days. I am re-filling my sugar feeders sooner than ever before so that my bees have plenty amino acids, etc. to get them through until local nectar arrives.

Feeding Honeybees in the Spring

I try not to let my sugar H2O run out, especially if I hived my bees on bare foundation. I mix up a fresh batch of sugar water every 4 days and just lift the lid off of each hive to fill the sugar feeder (in the afternoon when temperature = 50* or higher) I will check for queen activity this weekend (4/24/15 - 4/26/15). At that time I will be holding frames up to peer into the back of wax cells to hopefully find eggs that look like small grains of rice or larva. These are both sensitive to sunlight so don't leave them out of the hive for too long. Just take a peek and place them right back inside the hive. Keep feeding sugar water for a several weeks.

2015 Beekeeper's Calendar

2015 Beekeeper’s Calendar

For Alaska’s Interior

By Dawn Cogan of Science-Based Art of Alaska, LLC

This is my tentative schedule for beekeeping in Interior Alaska for 2015.  These dates and activities are subject to change depending on the weather and unforeseen circumstances.  Regardless, I will be posting weekly updates on my blog: http://sciencebasedart.blogspot.com/ 

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) three weeks prior to extraction so all the brood will hatch out before harvesting and extracting.

April 18^th: Honeybees arrive at 605 Betty Street (next to Monroe Catholic School on the gym side of the school).

April 24^th - 26^th: 1^st Queen check (50* or warmer) Looking for eggs & larva (Do not look for queen because it is probably too cold) If you find no eggs, check again in three days. Do not let sugar water run out! Keep filling feeder(s).

May 8^th - 10^th : Perform a complete hive check. 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.  If you find several eggs at the bottom of cells, it is o.k.

May 20^th – 23^rd: Perform a complete hive check. You should have several frames of brood (eggs, larva & pupa) and few 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 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).  We may need to remove sugar feeders.  Make sure to keep any grasses, etc. cut short in front of hive entrance.

June 2^nd – 4^th: Perform a complete hive check. – Look for sugar water and pollen stores.  Look for all stages of brood.  Remove sugar water feeders as long as local plants are blooming and sugar stores are well-stored! Swarm prevention time!! – If you know your queen is healthy & laying from the evidence of eggs, larva and pupa, kill any “swarm cells/queen cells.”  If your queen is “honeybound” (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 14^th – 16^th: Perform a regular hive check.  Make sure to keep any grasses, etc. cut short in front of hive entrance.

June 26^th – June 28^th: Perform a regular hive check.   Keep entrance free of weeds and grass!

July 8^th – 10^th: Perform a regular hive check.  Add supers Keep entrance free of weeds and grass!

July 20^th – 22^nd: Perform a regular hive check.   You could add your excluder now if you plan on harvesting and extracting honey on or after August 15th. Keep entrance free of weeds and grass!

August 1^st - August 3^rd: Perform a regular hive check. Keep entrance free of weeds and grass! Add supers Keep entrance free of weeds and grass! 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).  

August 13^th - August 15^th: Perform regular hive check. Keep entrance free of weeds and grass!

August 23^rd  – September 1^st: Extract honey and give “sticky” frames back to bees. 

September – To the end: Give bees sugar water so they will draw out any bare foundation frames.

September (a few days to 1 week after giving bees sticky frames):  In early morning or later afternoon (cool temps 35*-40*), Shop-vacuum bees and dump in compost.

Finally- Store your equipment by putting your queen excluder on top of your bottom board 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 together from top to bottom.  

HONEYBEES 2015

A new beekeeping season is upon us. Those of us who have ordered bees from Steve Victors of Alaska Wildflower Honey are scheduled to pick up our bees tomorrow, Saturday, April 18th around 5P.M. at 605 Betty Street.

Things I do before the bees arrive tomorrow:

Store my equipment indoors
Prepare sugar water (1:1 ratio)
Prepare hive location
Have a chemical-free spray bottle filled with sugar water ready
Have a pollen patty ready

I will have free mini-marshmallows available.
Pollen patties will also be available for sale tomorrow.

The 2015 Beekeepers calendar  will be posted this evening.

Honeybee Unit Study for Kids of All Ages!!

The Honey Files by the National Honey Board

http://www.otago.ac.nz/genetics/otago038245.pdf

About Our Instructors:

Kaylee graduated from homeschool with 23 UAF credits in 2013. She is currently attending Bryan College in Dayton, TN to obtain her Bachelor’s in English with a certification in Elementary Education. She loves working with children and wants to share her gifts in music, writing, photography and art with her students.

Dawn Cogan founded Science-Based Art in 2010. She is graduating from UAF on May 10, 2015 with certification in elementary education. As an experienced homeschooler, Dawn has developed a passion for teaching life sciences across disciplines and through hands-on activities. 

Each camp is Monday through Friday. Students need to bring a sack lunch, rain gear and a light summer jacket.
Cost: $350 - All materials are included!

2nd-4th Grades:
June 1^st – 5^th, 2015: Botany, Bugs, and Birds (9 am-5pm) 

Students will enjoy a full day of music, literature-based art, and explorations through math and science. Curiosity will abound as we bring the classroom into the outdoors. 

5th - 6th Grades:
June 8^th-12^th, 2015: Backyard Science (9 am-5pm) 

Fifth and sixth graders will become expert junior scientists as they use the scientific method to explore and experiment with scientific phenomenon. 

7th - 12th Grades:

June 15^th – 19^th, 2015: Creative Writing Photography (9 am-5pm) 

Junior High and High School Students will be inspired in creative writing and take photos to create art from their own photographs. This week will be full of creative writing, photography tips, and fine art. 

2nd-4th Grades:

June 22nd –26th, 2015: Botany, Bugs, and Birds (9 am-5pm) 

Students will enjoy five full days of music, literature-based art, and explorations through math and science. Curiosity will abound as we bring the classroom into the outdoors. 

     
To register, go to: 
Registration Form

A Message From Our Reliable Honeybee Supplier!

Good Evening Beekeepers:

This is just an update on the spring bee order status 
for this year.  I am not sure if you are intending on 
ordering bees this year or not. About half of the 
beekeepers who ordered bees last year have already 
placed their orders.  Spring has been progressing well 
in California and from the looks of things we have hope 
that it will reach here as well.  A number of beekeepers 
in the Valley, Anchorage and on the Peninsula are 
wintering through; and it looks like this was a good 
choice so far this winter.  March seems to always be the 
hardest month to get them through.  If you have checked 
your hives and have found them light and in need of 
supplemental feed, I have winter patties here in stock. 

From looking at the long range seasonal forecast models 
our summer is expected to be a pretty good one.  Here is 
a link to it for those who want to see
:http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/two_class.php

We are now approaching the one month mark in the 
countdown to the first bee shipment.  For those who want 
to know what is happening in the bee yards down south, 
John’s team will begin to graft our queens in about a week.  
For us to get good mated queens the process takes about a
 month from the time the eggs from our breeder queens are 
laid until we have well mated and ready-to-lay queens. 

John is quite proud of the quality of queens that he 
produces and has a selection process for his breeder 
queens that ensures productive hives.  For the last 
several years he has been exporting queens into 
Canada expanding his selection process to include 
wintering traits applicable to continental climates 
found on the Canadian prairies.  He sent about 
10,000 queens last year into the commercial sector 
there.  I have always had the opinion that the 
commercial guys know far more what they are 
looking for in queens than I have experience to 
select for, which is one of the main reasons that 
I have remained with the same supplier for many
years.  He simply knows what he is doing.  The 
queen in your package is like the engine in a car-- 
get a good one…Perhaps you are wintering over 
one of his queens now.  If so, let me know how it 
is going. If you have not sent in your bee order, it 
would be quite helpful that we receive it soon so 

that John can plan to have our queens selected 
and ready for our packages.  As you know, our
website is set up to work with credit cards or you 
can follow your order with a check in the mail if 
you wish. As always, I stand by to help you with 
your order and throughout the season.

Steve

www.stevesbees.com
Package bees and beekeeping supplies

892-6175
315-5256