Honeybees in Two Weeks!

Steve Victors first shipment of honeybees to the Interior of Alaska is April 12th depending on a successful trip from Sacramento, California. Beekeepers should have hives built, clean and painted before the bees arrive. I will mix up my 1:1 sugar water on Wed. or Thursday 4/9/14 or 4/10/14. All my equipment will be brought into the house on Thursday and not set outside until after the bees arrive so they are hived in a warm home. From here on out, I'll be posting updates.

Order Your Equipment and Honeybees Now!

To order equipment and/or honeybees I recommend first checking with Steve Victors in Big Lake, Alaska as you can save a considerable amount of money on shipping.
To order, go to:


Steve and Donna Victors:
www.stevesbees.com
907-892-6175








This year we have a beekeeping student who has offered to pick up the equipment and transport it to Fairbanks for a nominal gas fee. Our beekeeping club has done this in the past and we've saved hundreds of dollars doing so. Sierra Runnels 907-978-9752   runnels@gci.net

Beekeeping Classes with Science-Based Art

Science-Based Art
Instructor: Dawn Cogan
Cost: $150 per family

Sat. 2/15/14 & 2/22/14 (4 hrs. each Sat. for a total of 8 hrs.) Monroe Catholic School 1-5PM


• What is beekeeping? How much honey will I get? How much will this all cost me?
• Equipment necessary to keep bees in Alaska
• Biology and races of honeybees
• Members of the hive and their duties
• Where can I get bee equipment? Should I get new, used or build my own?
• Getting equipment ready for arrival of bees.
• Insulation, feeding bees properly
• What to do when the bees arrive
• Is my queen marked? (queen marking tool)
• Management of honeybee colonies in Alaska, the beekeepers calendar
• 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

Order Your Honeybees Early!!

 

Good evening Beekeepers,

Does this rain indicate that spring is on its way?  I hope that your winter has gone well so far.  Days are slowly getting longer.  Normally by this time of year I have sent out notices that it is time to start thinking about ordering bees for the spring.  I have been doing the background work to get our supply reserved and our dates set for this year.  We have also made some significant changes to the website over the past month and it is now up and ready to go.  Putting the final touches on the site and giving it some tests to make sure it all worked delayed us a bit but it is now ready.  Jesse has included a supply order page as well as the bee order page that is able to accept credit card orders.  The option of printing and mailing your bee order is still present for those who wish to do so.  Rather than go through the entire update that is on the site I am providing a link to the front page that will summarize all the details of this year’s order.  Each year we review the process we used in the past and seek to add improvements to it.  This year we added an extra day for those who wish to get their bees as late as possible as well as improving the online ordering process with credit card acceptance and ease of use.

As I normally do, I am providing links to the long range weather predictions for this year from the National Weather Service.

I see that they are predicting a cooler than normal March and then Normal precipitation and temperatures throughout the summer season (April through September)

Temperatures: http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/predictions/multi_season/13_seasonal_outlooks/color/t.gif  

Precipitation: http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/predictions/multi_season/13_seasonal_outlooks/color/p.gif   

Our time frames for delivery are very similar to last year and I have added one extra day for those who will want their bees to arrive late in the month if they wish.  Delivery dates for your area are located on the web page near the bottom.

For those who have bees in my wintering facility I will be doing a colony evaluation near the end of the month so that we can start predicting survival rates.  Not to worry, those who have bees in the barn with me will get ample notice before I release the last of the packages for sale.

Steve

www.stevesbees.com

892-6175

More Colony Collapse Data!!!

Thank you to Ginny Kinney for the following link:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/nature/intraspecies-virus-a-colony-collapse-culprit/

New Evidence for Honeybee Colony Collapse Disease

Thank you to Melissa Shippey for this link!


http://bangordailynews.com/2014/01/22/environment/mutating-plant-virus-linked-to-bee-colony-collapse-disorder/

Beginning/Intermediate Beekeeping Class will take place in February!

The beekeeping season actually starts in January when we clean up our equipment and prepare it for  spring. Honeybees arrive anytime from the first week to the last week of April. This year, I will be teaching only one class in February. This class is 8 hours split between two Saturdays - 2/15/14 and 2/22/14 from 1-5PM both Saturdays. The cost is $150.00 per family. Location: Monroe Catholic School Multi-Purpose Room. To reserve space in this class, please email me at sciencebasedart@yahoo.com.

Please SIgn This Petition to Save Honeybees From Pesticides!

http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11547