First Hive Checks

 

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; EVERY 10 days IS BEST PRACTICE!

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.

Honeybee Package Rebate

Spring 2024 Honeybee Package Rebate

People who order honeybees from James and Lisa Harlow can receive a $7.00 per package rebate when they return the plastic shipping cage to be recycled.

4 lb. Honeybee Package Prices from James & Lisa Harlow

 

New Honeybee Distributor for Interior Alaska

Hello Folks,

Ordering honeybees has just gotten easier and more economical.

Interior Alaska has new honeybee distributors: James & Lisa Harlow.

I am ordering my bees from James and Lisa this year.

They have a small family farm north of Fairbanks and are having great success using a wintering shed to winter honeybees. I've been wintering along with them for the past several years and we have 11/12 colonies going strong so far this winter. One Russian colony is in its third winter with the same mother queen!

Check out their family blog: https://rosehipsandhoney.com/

1. Complete your pre-order to reserve colonies and species.

2. Prices will be available at the end of January or first week in February.

3. Complete final payment must be submitted by March 15, 2024. 

SPRING 2024 ORDER FORM:

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAAAAAAAO__Yx2QqtURFVJRFRQNEg2T05HODdDNFk5MDY0M1JCWC4u

2024 Interior Alaska Beekeeping Workshop

When: March 2nd & 3rd, 2024

Time: 1:00PM - 6:00PM both days for a total of 10 hours

Venue: Monroe Catholic School; 615 Monroe Street; Fairbanks, AK 99701

Instructors: 

Dawn Cogan, M.Ed. Education Leadership; B.S. Communications Management

James & Lisa Harlow - Successful Wintering

Registration Link:

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

Syllabus: 

What is responsible beekeeping? How much honey will I harvest?

What is the start-up cost?

• Equipment necessary to keep bees in Alaska

• Biology and races of honeybees
• Members of the hive and their duties

• Colony Management techniques & tricks

• Where to obtain bee equipment. New, used or building your own equipment.

• Preparing equipment for the arrival of bees - Insulation, feeding bees properly

• What to do when the bees arrive
• Is my queen marked? (queen marking tool)

• Running 2-Queen Hives
• Swarming and how to prevent it
• Honeybee diseases
• Extracting your Alaska honey
• Wintering Honeybees 
• Storing your equipment
• Beeswax candle making, lip balm, and lotion bar manufacturing

Hands-on Projects:

1) Management of honeybee colonies in Alaska, The Beekeeper's Calendar

2) Constructing a hive in class

3) Colony Collaboration team exercise

Cost per family: $185.00

Includes your own copy of our Beekeeping Handout Book

Door prizes: 1 free package of live honeybees, miscellaneous beekeeping tools, a free consultation with Dawn Cogan, a free extraction tools rental

Registration Link:

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

Wrapping up the Season

If you don't plan to winter your honeybees, you should cage your queen(s). This will ensure you won't have eggs and larva in your honey when you extract honey. It will take approximately 24 days for all the brood to hatch out of the honeycomb. Keeping the queen alive helps the colony to continue to produce honey from fall nectar and decreases swarming and/or queen rearing. Keep doing hive checks every ten days to prevent colonies from creating new queens. 

After you take all the honey frames and extract them, give all the sticky frames back to the bees to be cleaned up for about a week. Storing equipment that is clean, without dead brood or sticky frames make starting subsequent seasons much better.

Once equipment is clean, you can either winter the bees or shop vacuum and recycle them in a compost or garden bed. Their soft organs become part of a rich garden soil while their exoskeletons become a lightweight, organic vermiculite that aerates the soil. 

All equipment should be stacked upon a bottom board with a queen excluder between the bottom board and the bottom brood box. This will keep rodents from eating the honeycomb and building nests inside the boxes during winter months. I always store my equipment outdoors, under the eaves of my house. This prevents mold and mildew on the honeycomb frames.

If you wish to winter colonies, you must control several variables:

1) Space - Reduce the colony down to one brood box. This will help them stay warmer as they cluster in winter months.

2) Food - Remove all honey as this is too nutrient rich, causing compacted bowels. Feed 2:1 ratio sugar to water so the bees can store in honeycomb cells for winter. The best way I've found is to use an inverted bucket on the outside of a telescoping cover with a one inch hole in the middle of the lid. 

https://www.betterbee.com/feeders/fp0-one-gallon-feeder-pail.asp?mkwid=&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&pdv=c&gclid=CjwKCAjw_aemBhBLEiwAT98FMpofwavooz6Ib7N_KyS7Kq4jQRQiDMn2Y7pfyup4onpHilBMSEVdJhoCaSsQAvD_BwE

A sugar candy board will be added above the brood box later in October. Sugar candy board is made with granulated sugar, vinegar and water. 

3) Treat for mites using oxalic acid (wood bleach). This is done using a car battery and an oxalic acid vaporizer tool:

https://www.amazon.com/AUNMAS-Vaporizer-Evaporator-Beekeeping-Fumigation/dp/B082D8F1VG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3NWUBV2NRSBUO&keywords=oxalic+acid+fumigation+tool&qid=1691044838&sprefix=occelic+acid+f4umigation+tool%2Caps%2C268&sr=8-3

This should be done every two weeks for a total of three treatments.

4) About the middle of October in Fairbanks, Alaska, it's time to move colonies into a bee shed that is super insulated with the following:

    *A heat source that keeps temperatures between 35* and 38*:

https://www.amazon.com/Dreo-Radiator-Electric-Protection-Thermostat/dp/B096FQYFBJ/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=UVER9YYIIVA3&keywords=oil+drip+electric+heater&qid=1691045593&sprefix=oil+drip+electric+heate%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-2-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

    *Temperature monitoring: https://physitemp.com/electrotherms_p224

    * Humidity: Purchase several DryRid buckets from a local hardware store and hang or place in the wintering shed. Other ways to absorb moisture are charcoal or wood shavings above each brood chamber.

    * Govee Temperature and Humidity monitor that sets on the candy board:

https://us.govee.com/products/wi-fi-temperature-humidity-sensor?currency=USD&variant=37592920686777&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CjwKCAjw_aemBhBLEiwAT98FMkvOjEoba5fnYh_pGk4IBzoixCyx53bXMNs5FkcPrakBBxMPqDWmmBoCktQQAvD_BwE

*Elevation - One of the variables we found recently that helps with wintering success is elevation. Colonies stored at higher elevations are able to be moved out of wintering sheds in March for cleansing flights. This is the final step of wintering is allowing bees to complete cleansing flights before they succumb to Nosema or other diseases.

Beekeeper's Town Hall Meeting

Alaska beekeepers are invited to the first annual Beekeeper's Town Hall Meeting

Where: Interior Distance Education of Alaska (IDEA)

            2157 Van Horn Road; Fairbanks, Alaska 99701

When: Tuesday, July 11, 2023 from 6-8PM.

Guest Experts:

• Robert Snyder, Bee Informed Partnership
• Ben Sallmann, Bee Informed Partnership, Minnesota University
• Jonathan Hofland, Vacaville, CA Queen Breeder & Bee Package Producer
  

Agenda:

• Identifying & resolving honeybee diseases
• Queen grafting & rearing
• Successful wintering of colonies in Fairbanks, Alaska
• And more . . . Please bring your questions!

Register Here: https://forms.office.com/r/Fg4XuSdSD4

To attend virtually, please use the following link:

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer, mobile app or room device

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 283 634 081 181
Passcode: 64oFK2

Download Teams | Join on the web

Learn More | Meeting options

Recovering from a Nectarless Spring & Adding honey supers

HONEY SUPER BOXES:

I will be adding honey supers this week. These are the medium boxes on the top of the upper brood box.

I predict two medium honey super boxes will be sufficient this season.

In the first seven or so years, I used a queen excluder to keep queens from laying eggs in the honey frames. 

I no longer use a queen excluder for this purpose because it creates a challenge for the bees to squeeze through the steel grates to store nectar. This slows them down, decreasing honey production. For new honey frames with no honeycomb, the bees tend to seal off the queen excluder with wax, creating a ceiling which impedes honeycomb from being built and utilized for nectar storage. 

Most always my experience has been that if a queen lays eggs in a honey super box, she only does this in two or three frames, not the entire box. She seems to know this is where the honey will be stored. After the initial two or frames of pupa hatch out, the wax cells are recycled to be used for honey stores.

What I use queen excluders for is storing equipment to keep rodents from eating the honeycomb and building nests in the boxes during winter months. They allow fresh air to flow through the hive bodies which prevents mold and mildew. 

NECTARLESS SPRING:

The spring 2023 beekeeping season started out with one huge challenge . . . unseasonably cold temperatures which contributed to:

• A nectarless spring, which I have only seen two other seasons in my 20 years of keeping bees in Interior Alaska;

• Lack of food stores;
• Low brood population build-up.

During nectarless seasons, flowering plants/trees only produce enough nectar for their own food sugars. They simply don't have enough sun to photosynthesize enough to produce extra nectar for pollinators. Pollinators then fly several miles per day with little success of finding enough nectar to bring back to their colony. 

Fortunately, Fairbanks has experiences several warm days in the past week and it appears as though we may continue to see ~70*+ days with minimal rain. This should help our honeybees to find an abundance of nectar. Keep in mind, however, the very best seasons are ones with daily sunshine and a good rain shower every day or two through out the summer.

What we can do for the rest of this season is make sure our colonies have plenty of water nearby. If you don't have a natural source of water in the near vicinity, I recommend you create a water source. 

Here are some great container options for providing water:

• bird bath
• kiddy pool 
• large bowl or shallow tote
• 5 gallon bucket

I always float twigs, or wood in the water to help bees refrain from drowning. You can add rocks or moss to the water as well.

Here's a fun NASA website to explore:

https://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/Honeybees/Basics.htm

I'm being very careful to stay on top of hive checks every 10 days!

Let's pray the ladder half of summer provides a perfect balance of sunshine and rain for surplus nectar supplies. Our colonies desperately need to make up for lost time!