Beekeeping > General Beekeeping
Alaska Bee Keeping
Lburou:
It is true that queen cups can be found in almost any bee hive. When you get those Russian hybrids, you will likely see more. I've read that they have active queen cells most of the time, just in case they are needed.
Have you made any mite counts yet Jeff?
yukonjeff:
Thanks guys, I will keep an eye on them and hope they don't make a queen cell, that was the beginning of my problems last summer.
And no I have not done a mite count I hate to kill bees yet while I am trying to build them up, but I do plan to do MAQ treatment after the main flow in August unless I see deformed crawlers around, and then sooner.
Well we have had great weather here this spring, my bees flew almost everyday since I hived them, still getting down to the mid 30s f and high as 60,supposed to get a little snow flurries in the next few days.
Here is my bee's on the blooming Labrador tea and another flower not sure what it is.
efmesch:
That last picture looks to me like a species of Rubus (rasberry). There is plenty of it all over Alaska.
In the early summer (May-June) of 2010 my wife and I did some extensive touring of Alaska. Nowhere did I see any honeybees in action, in spite of looking really hard. BUT there was an awful lot of flowering plants to see everywhere.
I wouldn't want to be discouraging, but, in my opinion, the only way to keep bees in Alaska would be "migrating". Bring them in for the summer season and take them down south, where they will have a reasonable chance to survive the winter. If you try to keep them in Alaska all year long You might, with a great deal of effort, be able to get some hives to a stage where they will have enough honey to survive the winter, but I don't think you would be able to produce enough honey to share it with them.
Perry:
Amazing.
You could always just set up some sawhorses or something like that with wire on them to keep bears out till the ground softens up a bit.
Lburou:
The bear is a real threat to your bees, I hope you get that sorted out. as long as it comes in the daylight and you are there, the 7mm fence will be effective. I would expect the bear to smell the brood and curing of the nectar into honey...get ready for that Jeff :o
Ef has good points about overwintering. In my Alaska experience, the one hive did not make any excess. However, I have since learned that feeding in spring makes a huge difference, plus, we did not have the deluge of blooms available to you on the tundra. Your results may vary. You mentioned on another forum something about a shed. A shed could help you overwinter for sure. :)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version