Every tree-hollow would DEFINITELY have one wall/side that would be thinner/less-insulated than the others. Probably not the ceiling. That is all you'd need to know, because moisture would condense on the thinnest wall and be available to slurp up for their various needs. Boom. Insulate with the highest r-value on top, moderate r-value on three sides, one side with no/less insulation than the others to act as a condenser that makes moisture available, and a way for the excess to drain from the bottom without being drafty enough to chill them beyond their ability to tolerate. That's it. Your bees will be happy, given that they were healthy going into winter to begin with.
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.
In Fairbanks Alaska, I overwinter with a 25-watt heated hive stand, 2, 10 frame deep boxes, 4" blue foam insulation on all 4 sides, a veltilated top box full of wood shavings with a 4" sleeve to drop in a mason jar for feeding, and 4" of blue foam insulation on top. Haven't lost a colony.
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.
I am from Canada and I use wood but mostly poly hives and your nailed it to a key insulation is big and I wish I could get some old timers to listen this is the best method I know my my bees eat .5 pounds of food a week and a wood hive with top entrance would eat 3 pounds
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!
Looking great, Tim! Still considering if I want to get into beekeeping down in Juneau. Right now I’m more on the “how do I make my lawn more supportive for wild bees” stage of the game.
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 think everyone is looking for a pure mite resistant strain ,however adding those genetics to exiting colonies could produce better or worse genetics and many inbetween . Diversity of the mongrels may be the best way to ensure species survival . Randys extrodinary effort im sure will succeed at improving the species even if you buy his queens as replacements year after year to hybridiz your own stock . And culling out the failures . You dont lose the hive you only need to replace its queen with one of his queens and away it runs !!!
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.
Well its absolutely true the longer and more you know about bees the more unanswered questions you have about them . In sask we dont pull nucs to slow swarming as much as we use brood manipulation in order to keep the queen in laying space . Our season is short and we need huge hives for our massive honey flows in early July .
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.
There should be a lot more beekeepers listening closely to Randy . The method of rearing large colonies is critical to having large honey crops ,which is honey per hive and is how to be financially viable if you are selling honey .
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!).
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.
@@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).
So you're saying, if I make a split off a 23 queen and 2 months later just combine them, they'll kill the 23 queen and leave the 24 queen? I assume when you say combine you're talking about a something like a newspaper combine? So once they chew through the newspaper, they'll take out the older queen?
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.
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.
I’m in New Brunswick and I’ve spoken with Karen on the phone and email. She’s very kind, helpful and informative. This was a wonderful presentation. Thanks
Great video, thanks! I am on a Hillside in ANC and happy to say that all four of my hives made it through the winter well (so far), with no treatments. It remains to be seen where things go from here. We have several feet of snow as of April 14th, but the bees already had their cleansing flights a week or two ago.
It'd sure be great if more people considered the impact large-scale commercial farming has on agriculture and Nature in general. All the chemicals and diseases and problems it introduces, these government agencies should be regulating in order to preserve nature, yet they are doing the very opposite and destroying everything.
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.
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.
Randy Oliver is the GOAT! Whenever I hear someone wants to get into keeping bees I say learn the basics then read and watch everything Randy has out there. Thank you very much for sharing this video. I continually pick up on things every time he presents. Great questions at the end as well! Wish you all in Alaska a great season!!
Great Video. I live in southern Maine and southern packages and Nucs are brought in every spring by the truck load. How much of the yearly dead out hives are from bees that are not adapted to the environment?
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.
Great video. It is awesome to see beekeepers from different areas within North America reaching out and seeking knowledge from somebody who has spent most of his lifetime working with these fascinating insects, keeping a commercial honeybee operation, studing their biology along with the inner workings of a hive, and applying and sharing his findings in this area of beekeeping for resistance stock. So much to learn and apply to all of our own apiaries and environment. Thanks Anchorage Backyard Beekeeping and Randy Oliver and Golden West Bees of Northern California. Thanks 🐝
This was really great. Randy did a wonderful job. I live in virginia. our flow has started, I am trying to keep them in the box. Anyway thanks so much for posting this. Have a blessed week
I understand the injected transmission of viruses are more virulent than those ingested as the bees digestive system is able to protect against viruses to some effect. (Mentioned in minute 22:00) My question is, why is transmission via trophallaxis such a concern as the bees digestive system is not being bypassed? Thank you for this content and any efforts to reply. I have found this video to be of good value and I've already watched it more than once. Cheers from NJ!
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.
@@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.
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.
Thanks for another great video! I'm in Central Alberta and it's been a whirlwind of ups and downs with the temps here. My bees have been flying so much this winter! I checked last week to see if they needed more sugar. I had huge clusters going in to winter so I'm not upset seeing more dead in front of the hives. Weird fall, weirder winter, and we're forecasted to have a big drought this summer.
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.
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?
When the original hive doesn't make a new queen, I put a sheet of screen above it, then stack the box with the old queen on top of that. The queen and brood pheromones pass through the screen, and soon the bottom portion is convinced they have a queen again. After 2-3 days I remove the screen. You can do the same thing with newspaper, but I like using the screen because, occasionally, I'll find evidence of a new queen (eggs/larva) in the bottom box at the last moment (as in, they had a new queen but she hadn't started laying yet). When that happens, I just separate the hives again. If I only used newspaper, the queens would have fought and only one would be alive (which is fine if you don't need an extra queen).
hey tim, i just opened the hive up, we are having a williwa, and temps are above freezing. peeked in, they had plenty of sugar but i put another 3-4 lbs on the sugar board and closed things back up. the temps were around 88-90 degrees in the hive. (according to the thermometer setup i put in there) so, i would say so far so good, but....its early. i think the varroa mite treatment you put on them and the foam hive boxes and extra on the outside is going to make a difference. i am cautiously optimistic.
Yes, I watched a long video on this. If I used wooden gear, I'd try to build or buy something like this. But in Alaska, my bees benefit from insulation year round, and this type of system isn't designed to be removed and re-installed during inspections. Research shows insulated hives produce more wax, more brood, and more honey - which mostly occur during periods when this device wouldn't be on the hive. I have big problem with the design - it should eliminate the wooden inner cover. Replacing it with Reflectix ensures no upper heat loss (the wood bleeds heat all winter).
If they're well insulated, they're fine. I'm looking forward to Etienne's temperature data. He usually has extreme winters, but this one is even colder (at least in the short term).
