Author Topic: Alaska Bee Keeping (Read 109115 times)

yukonjeff · « **Reply #300 on:** May 01, 2019, 04:40:43 am »

Thanks, but you know I did put pollen patties on about month ago. I believe my big hive must of hatched a round of brood. It looks bigger. But at this time not much brood, so not sure whats going on. The Nuc for some reason moved down into the second deep in late winter, and the pollen patty was on the top deep, so they could not access it. I made my own patties, they ate them ok, I hope the natural pollen coming in stimulates them to lay now.

yukonjeff · « **Reply #301 on:** May 06, 2019, 03:46:37 am »

Well both queens are laying now. I think it took the real pollen coming in to stimulate them to lay. Or could be the temps, who knows. I hope the Nuc can rebound. The main hive is doing great. The old queen is laying pretty good now.

My plan this year is to use excluders and a single brood chamber, Of course plenty of supers for space. And see if I can get a decent honey crop if the weather cooperates.

I also have a Michael Palmer queen coming in June, to make a new Nuc.

Here is my going on third season queen. I see the marks about wore off.

yukonjeff · « **Reply #302 on:** June 25, 2019, 01:29:09 pm »

Hope you all are having a great summer.
I thought I would update what's going on here in Western Alaska.

My hives are doing great building up for the fireweed flow that's about to happen here soon. I did get a queen shipped in from Vermont

gibb · « **Reply #303 on:** June 28, 2019, 03:50:19 am »

Excellent pictures Jeff.

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #304 on:** June 28, 2019, 08:53:51 am »

Jeff, I am glad to see that you are building your colony numbers up. In your remote location (it's remote to us in the lower 48) having access to replacement queens could be a real problem. At least with extra colonies, you can temporarily combine if you lose a queen.
Thanks for posting the great pictures.

yukonjeff · « **Reply #305 on:** June 28, 2019, 01:22:18 pm »

Thanks all.
BD Yes I am trying to keep a number of hives, so that after my winter losses, will still have bees in the yard. (I hope)

On next inspection, If I can spare the brood ,I will try to make a small nuc and see if they can make a queen here. I only have one other hive with drones, other than the parent hive. Hopefully this new Nuc I just made will spit out a few drones by the time the virgin goes on her mating flight.

yukonjeff · « **Reply #306 on:** July 14, 2019, 08:47:18 pm »

Here is my Nuc. Fingers crossed

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #307 on:** July 15, 2019, 09:10:16 am »

Have you had drones for a couple of weeks yukonjeff?
Is the Fireweed still blooming?

yukonjeff · « **Reply #308 on:** July 17, 2019, 09:32:47 pm »

Yes I have drones flying for a few weeks now. And since the other nuc came online I have more drone diversity.

And yes the Fireweed flow is on and we are having a beautiful summer, Temps have hit 85 here and a lot of 75 degree days. Nice as it ever gets here, and almost no rain days.

My bees are making honey like I never seen before.

My main hive on the left has had two nucs pulled out of it and has filled two deeps pretty fast,and working on a undrawn third deep. The QC nuc is to the right.

The hive on the left is the overwintered New York queen that dwindled down to a pocket full of bees,has a full deep and working a second of undrawns frames.
Even the nuc I made on the 21 of june has a full deep of honey and drawing out a second. !
It all needs to be capped yet and then I will rob it as they cap it.

efmesch · « **Reply #309 on:** July 18, 2019, 03:50:37 am »

Three cheers for you success. Persistence at doing the right thing the right way is paying off!!!!

Lburou · « **Reply #310 on:** July 28, 2019, 08:04:37 pm »

Exceptional progress given the remoteness of your location Jeff. More hives with different genetics will pay dividends when you least expect it. Keep up the good work.

gibb · « **Reply #311 on:** July 29, 2019, 06:16:38 pm »

Jeff any updates, how was the flow?

yukonjeff · « **Reply #312 on:** July 31, 2019, 04:47:29 am »

Thanks guys, Thing are great here. Been a beautiful summer with just the right amount of rain. I got to watch my queen go out on a mating flight after hatching,of course I waited to see if she would return, and sure enough, she landed on the bottom board, and walked back in within five minuets. Was pretty cool to watch her orientate on the hive, and then circle up and away.
will do an inspection in a couple days, see if she is laying

The nuc on the right started the 21 of June has a deep of honey and drawing and filling a second.

The fireweed flow has been going since July 1 and still going strong. they are drying down boxes now, so I should get a decent harvest. I did steal a few frames and extract the other day. Its a mix of spring honey and fireweed. its real light textured and amazing flavor.

MudSongs · « **Reply #313 on:** August 01, 2019, 10:58:45 am »

Jeff,

I noticed that your deeps are painted not quite black but pretty darn close to black. What colour is it?

I'm on the island on Newfoundland where the summer season is extremely short and often even shorter because of cold and drizzly spring weather. When the bees are so cold, they hardly take down syrup or build up at all. I already paint my hives green, some of them slightly darker green, but I'm thinking an even darker colour like yours might be better. I could keep them wrapped in black roofing felt longer --- or I could use darker paint on them. I'm thinking the little bit of extra radiant heat all year round might help.

Have you experimented with different colours, or have you always gone with the near-black paint?

yukonjeff · « **Reply #314 on:** August 01, 2019, 01:38:57 pm »

Yes they are painted flat black. I had some painted tan as well, but the black attracted more solar heat. I noticed they flew at a lower temp when black, than when they were in the tan boxes. And if you put your hand on them even on a cold winter day when the sun is out, you can feel the warmth. So I painted them all black. It helps a lot IMO

Also this spring was cool here in Alaska, So I left my wraps on until June, and one still had the quit box on the smaller hive.

I also warm the syrup every morning so they take it on cool day.

We don't have hot summers here, so it was not a problem with overheating. I remove the entrance reducer at about 70 degrees F, just to be safe. we got up to 87 here this summer and no melted comb. That might be a problem in warmer climates though.

If I were you, in your location, I would paint one and see what you think.

MudSongs · « **Reply #315 on:** August 08, 2019, 08:16:15 am »

Where I live on the eastern coast of the island of Newfoundland, summer usually starts closing down around the first week of August, and this year it's exactly on cue. For the past few weeks we've had off-and-on temperatures ranging between 20°C and 28°C (68°F - 72°F). Before that the average temperature was well below 15°C (59°F). My bees were more ore less in suspended animation for most of the spring and "summer." During the brief hot spell, the bees kick into high gear and make up for lost time in a hurry. But the warm weather didn't last long. I hope we get another heat wave.

Because nucs aren't available here until mid- or late-July, building a nuc into a full 20-frame colony before winter, especially if the nucs aren't ready until the end of July (the case for most people this year), we're fighting against the instincts of the bees. May to July, they want to build comb, even on crappy plastic foundation. But come August, the bees shift into hording mode and are less keen to build comb (especially once the nights get cold, which is happening now). I have to pull out every trick in the book to get my bees to build comb at times. Lots of inserting empty frames between drawn comb. Spiking syrup with anise to make the syrup more attractive. It can be a challenge for people who don't have a large number of hives to borrow resources from.

Seeing how the temperatures are already taking a dip, I've decided to go with the black paint, at least on the bottom deeps. My hives don't get full sunshine all day, so the extra solar heat from the black paint should help. If they were in full sunlight, they might overheat, but they're not, so I'm going for it. I don't see it as a problem during the odd day when the temperatures goes around 30°C (87°F), which probably won't happen again this year anyway.

I'm also going to keep them wrapped for a long as possible in the spring, instead of unwrapping after the first warm spell.

Thanks for the response, Jeff.

efmesch · « **Reply #316 on:** August 08, 2019, 11:46:37 am »

" I've decided to go with the black paint, at least on the bottom deeps. My hives don't get full sunshine all day, so the extra solar heat from the black paint should help. If they were in full sunlight, they might overheat,"

IMHO, even if your hives were in full sunlight and painted entirely in black, overheating shouldn't be a serious concern. The bees' instincts for cooling the hives should kick into action if things get hotter than comfortable. They'll start bringing water for cooling and keep things under control .
Here, though we don't need to paint our hives dark. we often have temperatures that rise over 30 C (this summer, with global warming in action, we got to 42 C) and they manage to keep things under control. Our challenge is making sure that the bees have access to adequate amounts of water for the cooling process since summer time is rainless and little water supplies are available for hives not located near settled areas. The general practice here is to provide water, when needed, in barrels or tanks set up near the apiaries.

yukonjeff · « **Reply #317 on:** August 11, 2019, 01:33:25 am »

MudSongs It its starting to cool off here already. The bumble bees are burrowing into the ground, and my garden is dying. Good luck and let us know what you think.I found it helps them draw wax as well, when the box is warmer, So I painted the supers too.

efmesch Good luck and be careful in your temps. I think at 42 C you could have a melt down. I should also mention, that I use a small notched upper entrance. That does vent off some of the heat I imagine.

MudSongs · « **Reply #318 on:** August 17, 2019, 03:28:37 pm »

Quote from: yukonjeff on August 11, 2019, 01:33:25 am

It its starting to cool off here already. The bumble bees are burrowing into the ground, and my garden is dying. Good luck and let us know what you think. I found it helps them draw wax as well, when the box is warmer, So I painted the supers too.

Well, I painted most of my hives black. I never ever thought I'd be painting my hives black. What an odd feeling. And what a striking look for a hive. All black. I like it.

I wouldn't do this with my hives that in full sunlight... but maybe I will. It's so darn cold that my nucs and splits do not want to build up. They don't want to draw out new comb. I'm hoping the black will give them the extra heat they need to get into gear.

I'm eager to see how this plays out.

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #319 on:** August 17, 2019, 10:37:37 pm »

Quote from: MudSongs on August 17, 2019, 03:28:37 pm

Well, I painted most of my hives black. I never ever thought I'd be painting my hives black. What an odd feeling. And what a striking look for a hive. All black. I like it.

Are you keeping Goth Bees?