Video

thanks, and good luck

Also - when I'm done, I drain the wax cappings as much as possible, and then set the cappings out for the bees to clean up. I don't 'process' the wax until they are pretty much dry.

@@CNBarnes I've always done the same thing, but this year I'm trying a few non-robbing strategies to get them cleaned up. I'll let you know if any actually work ....

Thank you so much!

thanks for watching. Here are the cut stories: 1. I brought the wrong Reflectix shell. It took a few minutes of wrestling with it before I figured it out, so I cut that part out. The short explanation is that I wrap the hive with Reflectix, Tyvek tape the top to the top box to prevent heat from escaping, and cut a flap out to allow access to the bottom entrance (reduced to about 2" in winter). 2. Not sure why that got cut out, but I the answer is 50-60 lbs in a poly box, and about 100 lbs in wood (they eat far less when insulated well). The folks that insist on 100 lbs in poly aren't keeping up with the research. Etienne Tardif's bees in the Yukon only consume about 35 lbs of syrup all winter.

I'm in the North of England and after your prompt reply I approached two local beekeepers for their winter setup. Once again, I received conflicting advice. One advised to retain one full honey national cedar super placed on top of the standard national cedar brood box, retain queen excluder and don't insultion the roof. The second beekeeper advised a similar setup, except remove the queen excluder to allow the queen to move up with the other bees as they gradually use up their brood box honey stores. She also recomended to place some insulation in the roof space. After listening to you and watching other presentations on condensing v ventilation hives, I am on board with the condensing theory. It just makes sense to me and more like their natural living conditions. So should I follow their advice with regards to retaining a full honey super or just go into winter with just a national sized brood box? Other beekeepers on the tube advise compacting the colony into one box. If you advise super do I I leave the queen excluder on or off. It's so confusing. I currently have two national hives after capturing a bee swarm this year followed by a split with help from the beekeeper who advised the insulation approach. She has lent me two national hives but I think I will buy two Anel fully insulated Langstroth hives which have only just become available in the UK.

@@jnjjsdanv I'm convinced this is old fashioned thinking by folks that winter in wood (which requires more food storage because the colony has to work so much harder to heat it). In an insulated hive, the colony can store all the food it needs in the brood box (or boxes, but the point is that they don't need an EXTRA box for food). In fall, they'll use the middle 3-4 frames for brood and store food in the outside frames. Late fall feeding allows them to backfill the brood nest somewhat after the queen stops laying (that happens in September here, I'm sure it's different there).

Absolutely. I use only mediums, which are about 2/3 of a deep. Two weeks ago my colonies filled 3 brood boxes plus at least 2 supers. Now they're nice and tight in two mediums. I want those boxes packed with bees going into fall.

thanks for watching

One side of a natural tree cavity may be thinner, but perhaps only marginally so. I use poly hives with an R value of about 7.5. I add 4" of insulation above. I've added 2" of insulation on all sides, and other times 2" of insulation on sides (leaving the front R value at. only 7.5). I haven't noticed any difference between insulating 3 and 4 sides. If they're healthy, crowded, and well fed, they survive.

It's just part of his bio. He doesn't claim his nursing education equates to beekeeping expertise.

I'd like to hear more. Could you give me more info on how long you've been doing this and how many colonies you manage?

There are two reasons: 1. They have a firm belief that moisture in a colony is the biggest threat. 2. They've successfully wintered with top entrances, and they want to stick with what works. I had upper entrances on all of my colonies until 3 years ago. The science got me to try bottom entrance only. I didn't overwinter more colonies, but my overwintered colonies were much stronger. I'm a believe now.

Thanks for watching.

We know from Etienne's research (and may anecdotal accounts) that a well insulated colony only goes through 25-30 lbs of resources all winter. keep spreading the word!

I lived in Juneau for awhile, and I recall that the climate is less than suitable for grass lawns :). I'd bet that planting a combination of local plants plus some non-native flowering plants would look much nicer, and definitely be more bee friendly.

I should add that honeybees in SE is quite a challenge. The first honeybees imported to Alaska were in Sitka long before statehood. The notes indicate that the bees only flew15 flying days one season (other days were too wet or too cold). I think it can be done, but it would have to be out of love for bees, not pursuit of honey.

I believe mite resistant stock is the future. When more colonies survive winter, commercial beekeepers make more money (and spend less on treatment) and backyard beekeepers don't give up in frustration after losing colonies several years in a row. There are many apiaries with stock that is so resistant that their "treatment" for high mite counts is to re-queen, not treat. It will take years, but I hope to get there myself.

Great example of how local climate matters. The Saskatoon average high (May - August) is 15 degrees (F) warmer than Anchorage! And our swarm season and nectar flow mostly overlap, so it's dicey (especially for backyard beekeepers) to build monster colonies without swarming. Our season is short enough that a queen right split in mid-June barely impacts honey production, because the nectar flow is generally over by the end of July.

Agree completely for commercial beekeepers and extremely experience backyard beekeepers. For less experienced beeks, the guarantee of not swarming outweighs the cost of losing a swarm (and a viable queen). For them a queen right split in mid-June guarantees they keep all of their bees in their boxes, and going into winter with 2 colonies makes it much more likely that they'll come out of winter with one. With good gear and methods (and a bit of experience), they can get both through, then sell one the next spring (local nucs go for about $375!).

Thanks so much.

Hi from Alaska. It may surprise you to know that I'm a member of the Texas Friendly Beekeeper Facebook page. I like learning how folks keep bees in other areas.

Randy recommends treating them anytime there is no capped brood In Alaska, those times are: 1. 7-9 days after releasing the queen in a new package (before 1st larva are capped) 2. 24 days after splits. When a queen is removed from a colony, all of her eggs will hatch in 24 days (drone lifecycle). The new queen may be laying, but her larva will not be old enough to be capped. 3. After the all winter brood has emerged. That's about October 7-10 here. I wait until mid-month just to be sure.

@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping good to know, what do u recommend for treatments? Thank you

@@denisedee6377 I use oxalic acid vaporization. It doesn't harm brood, and it doesn't persist in honey or comb. Synthetic miticides (i.e., apivar) break down into compounds that do persist in comb. Our relatively short Alaska brood season allows me to completely control varroa by treating during summer brood breaks (usually June) and in fall after all winter brood emerges (2nd week of October).

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping thank you

I'll clarify: In Alaska, there aren't enough drones to ensure successful queen mating until about the 2nd week of June. I so my splits then. I remove the queen and a few frames of brood (depends on how strong I want to make the split). The original hive will make a new queen on this calendar: queen larvae are capped 5 days later, and emerge 10 days later. She hardens off for a week, takes a mating flight, then starts laying about 2-3 days later. So it's 26 days from the time you make the split until she starts laying. It may take a few more days, especially if the weather is bad, so I check for eggs 30 days after the split. There are two possible outcomes: 1. The original colony successfully re-queens itself. If so, I go into with with 1 large and 1 small colony. If either dies overwinter, I already have next year's bees. 2. The original colony does not make a new queen. If I don't find eggs at 30 days, I check again 7 days later. If still no eggs, I combine them with split containing the original queen. Some people use newspaper, but I had a bad experience. I put a sheet of screen (#8 hardware cloth) above the original hive, with queen-right split above the screen, and an upper entrance so the top hive bees can come and go (it's the only time I use an upper entrance). After 5 days, I remove the screen and the upper entrance (it's just an inner cover with a notch in front). I recommend against combining them with two queens (to let them fight it out) because I want insurance going into winter. If both colonies survive, it is not a problem to sell the split (along with th e2023 queen) in spring, then repeat the process every year.

Thanks for watching!

Sometimes the bees cooperate, sometimes they don't. One of my mentors likes to say that they read different beekeeping books than we do ....

Thanks for watching!

I think he's awesome, too.Thanks for watching!

I get mine from Nathan Broumley at Rigeneration Nutrition in Eagle River. You can get them online, but the shipping charges are outrageous. Nathan's prices are often less than the cost + shipping when you order online.

Thanks so much. I really liked Karen's information. I think I'll asking her back for an encore later in the year.

Totally agree. Good luck with your bees this year.

Thanks so much, and thanks for watching.

Congratulations!

I'm not sure which chemicals you're referring to, but I generally agree that we should be way more transparent about the health risks of herbicides and pesticides.

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping @56:30 you begin to talk directly about the pesticides and chemicals for instance, yet this is the same throughout all agricultural fields.... cattle, poultry, produce, apples, you name it, it is being destroyed by chemicals, engineering, and mass production.

@@Dan.Parker thanks for clarifying. I think we're on the same page.

Absolutely! Putting them in a nuc to start gives them less space to heat. They can keep it warmer with much less effort, which means they'll build up much faster.

Thanks so much - and good luck with your bees as well.

Thanks for watching!

Great question. I haven't bought bees for 4 years, so all of my colonies are theoretically have the genetics to survive Alaska winters. But I still have a few dead outs a year. It could be that my virgin queens mated with non-winter hardy drones with dominant traits, but it could be several other things, too.

Thanks for watching!

Thanks, I appreciate that.

Thanks for watching, and good luck to all of us keeping them in the box!

Thanks for watching. Transmission by trophallaxis is less of a problem, but it's still transmission. Varroa change hosts a lot, so each mite is infecting many bees - and the bees themselves are infecting each other. Bees have more defenses against trophallaxis transmission, but are overwhelmed when the load gets high and spreads through both methods.

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping I'm receptive to all of that minus "bees infecting bees" as it recycling the problem at question. I'm trying to stay 'no chemical' or "treatment free but smart" as Sam Comfort may say so I use screened bottom boards, cull drone brood, do brood breaks, preform frequent inspections for added mite drop and next may be crisco on the inspection board to possibly mislead mites. I want to manage mites so the bees adapt well enough for me to not use chemicals, organic or otherwise. I need to get down to 'brass tacks' as it were so I can establish cardinal principles with bee keeping and let the bees do the work. PS: your reply was much appreciated and very prompt. Thank you again.

@@atlas4225 Best of luck. I fully support your efforts, and I'm confident that the future of beekeeping is successfully propagating mite resistant stock and getting away from treatments. I started TF, then transitioned to IPM + OA because it was the only way I could consistently get them through our long winters. If I could get resistant stock, I'd go back, but our California suppliers don't select for mite resistant traits. I'm in conversations with a few TF queen suppliers, but for now they don't ship to Alaska.

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping Integrated Pest Management is a should be a requirement for anyone applying chemicals, organic or otherwise. As for Oxolic Acid, its an approved method in the US and could prove effective. I know my bees to have been a package made in Georgia and combined with a foreign queen of Southern genetics and sent North. It will take years but I hope to breed more resilient stock into their line. To be totally frank... I don't care about Veroa, but I will manage disease and I will cull a colony that can't toe the line. I haven't purchased bees, including any queens for 3 years and have doubled this year, as I did the previous year. IMP can mean screened bottom boards, brood breaks, harvesting drone brood and regular inspections rather than Forming Acid, Oxolic Acid, Kumafos, Amamtraz, Thimol, etc.

It's nice to be sustainable - I haven't had to buy bees in 4 years. Thanks for watching.

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping finally enough of the cabin completed to be able to start the apiary this year up here in Alaska. Still have little ladies in Louisiana at my other place.

@@a-k-jun-1 Nice. We have another former Louisiana beekeeper in the club. It's exactly the same here, except for all the ways it's different ....

If you're in southcentral Alaska, contact Nathan Broumley at Rigeneration Nutrition in Eagle River. I know he hasn't sold out yet.

I use the Broodminder temp sensor. I think they're really good, but not perfect. Sometime this summer I'll do a video on how I use them.

Thanks Rick

I made two changes this year based on Etienne Tardiff's advice: 1. Seal all of the seams with Tyvek tape; 2. wrap the hives in Reflectix, and tape the top of the Reflectix to the top box with Tyvek tape. It makes sense to me, as the thinnest part of the boxes are at the seams, the Reflectix helps keep in some of the heat that inevitably escapes.

Stay warm!

Thanks for watching. I'm glad you colonies are hanging in there, too.

Yes, thanks

I'm a member of several FB groups. In Alaska, I recommend Midnight Sun Bee Club. I'm also a member of SBGMI (Sustainable Beekeeping Guild of Michigan), which has really good northern beekeeping content.

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping Thank you!

:) @@Twinkyboy

Thanks Rick.

I can't tell what "a lot of drone comb" means. I recommend you take pictures of the frames and post them on the Midnight Sun FB page. That way I can tell if you have a normal ration of drone to worker comb, or if a previous laying worker colony ruined a lot of worker comb by laying it up with drones.

1. Queen excluders allow workers to pass through, but not queens or drones. They're most commonly used to keep the queen confined into a lower brood area, and let workers store honey above. We can't extract honey from frames that have brood in them, because it contaminates the honey. 2. I would use OA vapor on an overwintered colony in late April just to assess the mite load. If the drop is low, I'd treat again during a summer brood break. If not, I'd treat every 7 days for 4 weeks.

And What do we do if we have a lot of drone comb? We have a lot of frames with only drone comb. From my understanding they will not lay workers bees in drone comb? So how do I make the frames available for worker comb?