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Due to the strange world of teaching remotely. I have decided(really the wifey decided) that we should raise bees. We bought two hives of IRS (improved Russian Strain) honey bees and hived them in Langstroth hives. We live in the middle of nowhere in on top of a hill above Fairbanks so they have a lot of fields but they also have a lot of predators. We got the bees that will kill yellow jackets. They are supposed to be a bit meaner than the other bees but they seem to be very nice right now.

It is still cold at night, dropping down to 20F, to we have a number of quilts over the tops with just a tiny bee entrance and exit. We have pollen patties and candy boards on the tops of the frames and the queens are held in by pollen patty and should be free in the brood by tomorrow night. It gets up to 55F during the day and they do fly. They are a lot more gentle than the wild bees. We will see how this experiment works. It is interesting.

Just wondering if others here raise bees.

I used to help at an orchard I worked at.

Want promptness from the United Stated Postal Service?

Order 25 one half pound boxes of bees. They call the minute they arrive.

Really enjoyed it. Would open the top of the Caucasian bees hive for my little nieces so they could see them work.

The Italians however......I’d swing a scythe to cut the weeds in front of their nest and run like hell.
Mean lil bastards.....

Have you checked the Rural Living forum down near the bottom of the list. I started a thread the other day as I was looking for bees to start a hive. My friend found some today, due to arrive May 11? or so. They've raised bunches of them in the SF Bay Area. I had a hive near the coast in far NorCal 20 years or so ago.

Where did you order your bees from. By the time I started looking almost everyone was sold out for the season.

While our weather here is not as extreme as yours, we do get chilly every year. I've seen -25F here a couple of winters back. Last couple have been milder -5 to -10, this winter it only got down around zero a couple of times. My friends and I will have some learning to do, but there an active beekeeping club up the road 100 miles in the "big city", so I know where to go for help.

Here's to good luck for the both of us. Maybe in a couple of years, if things go well for us we can work out a swap. Modoc honey for some Arctic honey.

There's a guy here outside of Portand OR, Steve. Maybe he'll chime in. He's got it relatively easy over there, with that mild climate.

Geno

From what I gather everyone that raises bees up here, they lose them in the winter. I did have a bud who said he never lost his.. but he’s no longer up here moved few yrs back. I need to get some because we have apple trees, I need to get them pollinated.

79S,

Consider Mason bees if you aren't in it for the honey.
Mason bees fly at lower temperatures than honey bees, are more efficient pollinators. Also, they don't sting.

I have both here in western Oregon. Have kept honey bees for 15 or 20 years. It used to be a lot easier to make honey..

Thanks for the info, yeah we aren’t really after honey. Just need to pollinate.

There are keepers that overwinter successfully. Most will kill the bees September-ish time frame and harvest the honey. Bees fly quite a distance for nectar. I'm surprised there are none in side a 5-10 mile radius of you.

The packages here are flown up. That usually works out ok. One year the shipment of hundreds of pounds of bees,for a big % of keepers in southcentral, was left out on the tarmac in SLC maybe, in 90°+ heat and they all perished.

Last yr our trees didn’t produce much.. our cherry trees, did not so great. Our apple trees, I’m not sure if a late frost got them or lack of bees. Our crabapple tree, yr before tons of crabapple last yr zero.. like i said not sure if it was frost or lack of bees. This is our 3rd yr with the trees and I really like to see our Apple trees produce something, they are honey crisp.

On the topic of things Alaska what other fruit trees do well up here?

Seems like it's been a while since I've heard about anyone here in the lower 48 being attacked by the African Honey Bees. I wonder if they have died off?

I just saw something on Youtube. It seems the African Bees are gradually losing the ultra-aggressive trait on their own. They're adjusting to a life of abundant resources and a lack of predators by mellowing out.

Let's hope MS13 reacts the same way.

No...

I have 25 hives right now here in North Alabama. Best of luck...I'm sure keeping bees in your area presents some real challenges.

Just starting beekeeping this year. Ordered a nuc locally and am supposed to get it late this week or next. I think I have everything ready for them but we'll see.

I'm planning on getting a starter hive and trying them out here on the AKPEN. In the last ten years or so the fireweed has taken off where you see miles of pinkish purple. The problem is that 55 F is a very warm day out here and bees usually aren't active unless it's unusually warm and calm. A friend told me about the Russian Strain and that they do better in colder climates. Where did you get them if you don't mind me asking?

Keith Malone. He is based in Chugiak. http://alaskahoneybee.com/Site/ALASKA_HONEY_BEE.html He has a lot of extra packages right now. He sells his own Alaska over winter hybrid, Improved Russian Strain, Italians, and some Carniolians. He sells them in a 5lb package for 252 so its a little more than outside but they are doing well and we have a lot of them.

That's cool. Do you know if anyone has tried the "Saskatraz" variety some sellers down here are offering? My understanding is they are a variety developed in Saskatchewan. I had hoped to get some to try here due to our sometimes quite cold winters but the suppliers I tired had sold out. I was wondering how they might do in AK.

Good luck to all you AK folks with bees, hard enough at times to keep a hive going down here.

Geno

My brother out Chena Hit Springs Rd raised- or kept- bees for some years.

One year I put up a lot of blueberry syrup and jelly from his overgrown fieds. The syrup came about when the recommended amount of pectin did not jell the contents, but I got it to work by diluting 1/1 the blueberry juice with water. Excellent jelly- those were some powerful berries!

That winter several cases of the stuff - jelly and syrup both - froze and broke the jars. Bill just put them out in the spring where his new batch of bees could work them, and had light blue honey from them. Most excellent it was, too.

Bill did not feel it effective to overwinter bees up here. He resupplied each spring.

I've tried the Saskatraz. They were no better than the carni mutts I have. Died out due to mites, but that was my fault for not keeping on top of them.