The Buzz about Honey Bees in Alaska
On March 27 and 28, Alaska Bees and Brew and J & G’s Honeybees hosted a beekeeping workshop at the Kenny Lake Community League. The weekend beekeeping class in Kenny Lake was fun and informative. There will be several new beekeepers in the Copper River area, thanks to the shared knowledge and encouragement from the instructors. Dawn Cogan and Jennifer Dawn Williamson of Alaska Bees and Brew came down from Fairbanks, and local beekeeper Brad Kimberlin shared his experiences with overwintering bees in interior Alaska.
Dawn has been teaching classes around Fairbanks and Delta for 16 years, and was joined by Jennifer Dawn Williamson 6 years ago as a business partner and instructor. Together they have written a comprehensive book about beekeeping in Alaska, which was included in the class. This year they branched out and taught classes in the MatSu Valley and Kenny Lake.
About 25 people attended the class, including several inquisitive youngsters. While there were a few experienced beekeepers present, most of the participants will be newbies this spring. Dawn and Jennifer taught us the necessary steps throughout the season, including any diseases or other problems that could arise. By the end of the class, we felt confident in our ability to embark on this fascinating new hobby.
We face unique challenges as beekeepers here at our northern latitude. Every spring, Alaskan beekeepers who have not overwintered their bees will order honey bees from the lower 48. The bees arrive around April 21st, while we still have a few feet of snow on the ground. The hives need to be insulated until it gets warmer, and the bees will generate their own heat by clustering and vibrating their wings, attaining about 104 degrees body heat.
The bees will also need supplemental food in the form of sugar water and pollen patties until our trees and flowers start producing. The first natural food for the bees will be from willow, alder, aspen, birch and cottonwood, followed later in the spring by the dandelions and other wildflowers. Honey bees have a short nectar season in Alaska.
Overwintering honey bees in interior Alaska is a difficult challenge, and options continue to be tested. Honey bees do not naturally exist in Alaska. Alaska’s native bees nest underground, creating natural insulation. Many beekeepers in Alaska euthanize their bees before winter, and order new bees each spring. Maybe down the road there will be another workshop to discuss overwintering ideas.
A four pound package of bees will contain 13,000-15,000 bees with one queen per colony. The queens sole purpose is to lay up to 2,000 eggs per day. A healthy colony should number 40-60,000 by July and 80-100,000 or more by late fall. Without a queen the colony will die off in less than 8 weeks. If the queen bee dies, the workers will act quickly to rear a new queen.
So, why keep honey bees? Besides being highly interesting and educational, there are many reasons. Of course the most enticing reason is the honey. An average harvest of honey in interior Alaska is about 5 gallons per colony, but it can be more or less, depending on location, weather, and proper management. During the first year of a new hive, the bees put a lot of energy into creating the honeycomb, which is the hexagonal beeswax cells that contains their eggs and stores of honey and pollen. In subsequent years, the bees will use that same comb and will be able to produce more honey with their time and energy.
Honey is delicious, nutritious and medicinal. It is a natural antiseptic and good for burns and wounds, plus many other health benefits. By eating 1-2 teaspoons of honey daily from hives located within 50 miles of where you live, it can help with pollen allergy prevention. The bee pollen and propolis can offer anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer properties. Another interesting concept is Bee Sting Therapy, which can provide a natural means of relief for plantar fasciitis, arthritis, MS, fiber myalgia, chronic pain, and more.
We also need bees for pollination of our trees, flowers, berries, and fruits. Many of the country’s crops would not exist, and crop yield and quality would be greatly reduced without honey bee pollination at bloom time. Alaska’s primary native pollinators are bumble bees, wasps, sweat bees, andrenid bees and hawk moths, but the imported honey bees also play a significant role in pollinating Alaska’s crops and wild lands. According to the Department of Agriculture, more than 9 million honey bees are imported into Alaska every year (and with the queen laying eggs daily, that number increases exponentially thru the season). A few people in the class said that their raspberry crops were greatly improved with the addition of honey bees in their gardens. Of course, bears are a worry in Alaska. You can put a good electric fence around your hives, or consider placing them on top of a Conex.
A few more interesting honey bee traits are the bee chain and the bee dance:
When the bees are building their new honeycomb, they will form a chain by joining legs. It is believed that they are actually measuring out distances, essentially creating their own tape measure. It is also thought that this is creating a scaffolding to work from.
The bee dance is a language used to indicate information regarding food resources. The dancer’s body points in the direction of the food source and the sound produced during the dance indicates the profitability of the food. Amazing!
There is so much to learn about bees, and the best way is to keep your own bees to observe and care for. If you would like to have Dawn and Jennifer come to your community to teach a class, you can contact them through their website at: www.alaskabeesandbrew.com
By Bridget Brunner
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