Currently Enrolling New Students for Spring 2012

Welcome to Science-Based Art! To view class schedules, please click on the class titles above. Each class is two hours long once per week for 15 weeks. All classes require a 15 lesson commitment and the cost is $25.00 per class which includes all science and art materials. Class sizes are limited to a maximum of six students. Spring 2012 classes start the week of January 9th-14th.

Finishing Up the Season

For students who are not wintering over their honeybees, now is the time to shop-vac your bees. As long as your queen has been caged for 21 days, its time to kill off your hive. Fill your shop vac half way and wait until it is cold (i.e. early morning or evening) This keeps the bees from flying around so much and ensures most if not all are in the hive. After the bees are gone, tape off the end of the vacuum hose with ductape to ensure any that haven't drowned will not fly out and leave the vacuum outside. A couple days later, dump the dead bees "organic vermiculite" into your compost or garden site.

Beekeeping News Hot off the Hive!!!

Of all my beginning beekeeping students this year, student Ginny Kinne gets my congratulations!! She checked her bees every 10-12 days, had no swarms and her hive is full to the brim with fireweed honey. She started with mostly or all bare

New Classes Starting Soon!!

Science-Based and Literature-Based Art classes will begin the week of August 22nd. Science-Based Art Classes designed for students in 4th through 12th grades. They are each 2 hours in duration and cost $25.00. Literature-Based Art classes are designed for 1st through 3rd grades. This class is 1.5 hours once per week and cost $20.00. Each student is required to sign up for an entire semester - 15 lessons. Materials are included.

Fall Beekeeping Tips

The summer has really flown by!! I have been robbing my hives for the past week or so. It is a great year compared to last year, despite the rainy weather! This is the week to cage your queen(s) if you don't plan on wintering your bees over. It can be difficult to cage a queen. First find her.Then remove the cork on the queen cage. Gently try to coax her to climb into the box. She will not want to but keep cornering her and guiding her into the box without hurting her or smashing her. Once she is in the box, push the cork into the hole of the queen box and put a pc. of ductape over the cork being careful not to cover the screen. This will ensure she can still be fed by her workers. If you lost your cork, a wine cork can be carved to replace the original cork. Any questions can be asked by calling me at 374-8984.

Writing from Florida

My daughter and I are in St. Pete, Florida right now. It is HOT! The beaches are blanketed with white sand and tons of tiny sea shells. A couple hours in this sun and you have to eat lots of ice cream, dump cooler ice on your head and seek out the nearest shade! I look forward to working with honeybees when I get home. Fairbanks summers are really hard to beat!

June brings us to a consistant checking for swarm cells. I found several in each hive this afternoon. Before removing them I made sure the queen has been laying eggs consistantly. I look for several stages of larva and freshly capped pupa. I like to locate the queen as well. Once I'm sure I still have a queen and she is doing her job well, I remove all queen cells with my hive tool. Also, making sure each hive has a top and bottom entrance/exit is important for proper ventilation. Supers and queen excluders will be added around the 18th of June. I am leaving town for a couple weeks but will post again upon my return.

Pre-June Tips

What a fantastic season we are having so far. This afternoon I removed all my entrance reducers. I no longer have any insulated inner boards or outer insulation. Sugar feeders are removed since we now have chokecherry and dandelion nectar to draw from. I put my bottom boxes on the top and tops on the bottom. June is the most likely month for swarming so I will keep watch for swarm cells by checking my hives every 10 days. I tend to remove queen cells unless I'm having a queen problem. I always make sure I have a water source nearby.