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I did a web search; looks like a few weeks at the most. OA degrades surprisingly quickly. Your best bet is to throw away whatever you can't use within a few days.

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping Sounds like the right idea, being cheap and trying to use a mix that may have degraded till it was not effective probably not best practice. Thanks for the reply.

Never mind...found updated table in SBC website. But interesting substitute of sugar water for glycerin.

@ Glad you found it

I haven't tried other hive types for 3 reasons: 1. I started with Langstroth mediums, which was a great idea in hindsight (just dumb luck then). Every frame fits every box, which makes so many other tasks easier, including: sharing brood frames, moving nectar frames from brood box to super, and putting a brood frame into a super to encourage them to go through the queen excluder to draw out super combs and store nectar. 2. Some other hive orientations are horizontal, which I think makes overwintering harder. Bees naturally want to cluster in an oval, but heat rising in a horizontal hive (over a broader area) makes that harder. 3. Horizontal hives are much harder to insulate. It's easy for me to get poly boxes for Langstroth, and to add additional insulation above them in an additional box. I'm sure other style boxes work. However, my overwintering success is significantly better than those in my area that used horizontal hives.

Thanks!

Hey Melissa - I'm assuming you are either in Alaska or somewhere with a cold climate. I believe all of the insulated boxes are good. I use Bee Max boxes, but only because that's what I started with and I like all of my boxes to fit together (no mismatches based in different widths) with a wooden screen bottom board. Superior hives are great, but they are also the most expensive, and you have to use their bottom boards (they work fine, but cost more than the wood screen bottom boards). If you haven't already, watch this class - it should help with these decisions: th-cam.com/video/LT-t3sfZ39o/w-d-xo.html

What questions? If you convince me you're not a spammer, I'll share my email address.

I use screened bottom boards, but over a solid surface (i.e., plywood top on hive stand). This creates an air gap below the screen, but prevents any additional ventilation (all they need is a 2-4" x 3/8" opening. I put a Reflectix shield around the boxes that extends all the way down to the hive stand, so the opening is partially covered as well (open enough that they can ventilate and fly if it warms up enough).

I make a 1-2" shim, same external dimensions as my box. I cut a 2" x 3/8" opening into front (either skinny end can be the front). Then I lift the boxes and slide the bottom shim in, with the opening on the top side. The shim provides a place for dead bees to pile up without blocking the winter entrance, which is now 1-2" above the bottom board.

Thanks Mickey - good luck!

If you have a solid 10 or 12 now, you may be good. I'd check again in a 7-10 days. If they're still jam packed, don't condense any more. If they're not, add follower boards until they are. Good luck, and thanks for watching!

Thanks a lot. I will be condensing and insulating tomorrow. Another question came up. I had another local keeper here tell me I should be doing OA treatment every week starting now. My plan was to use your method in Oct. After brood is born, but claimed it would be too cold to disturb them. Any suggestions? Since I'm new and was uneducated I did not do any mite treatment so far. Appreciate the help.

Good luck! Many people successfully overwinter in wood boxes with external insulation. I recommend adding the insulation before it gets too cold (late August or early September). That will help maximize the population of winter bees.

Absolutely agree. I will be installing your insulation method tomorrow.

Do you have a recipe for the small piece of candy you made to cover the hole?

@@akkyrias 8 cups sugar to 1/2 cup water. When mixed, it has the texture of wet sand. Give it 2 days to dry if it's 1.5" thick; longer if thicker

@@akkyrias 8 cups of sugar to 1/2 cup water. SHould be the consistency of wet sand.

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.

​@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping I would still say 'Keep Local Bees'. When Folk in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 finally realised 'our Local Native Black Bee' was way better than New Trendy 'Imports' : Bees Thrived & Survived our Winters again.😊 Guess 'Small Black Bees' were not proper Bred 'Italian' or Carniolan, or Buckfast etc. . . Just your Local 'old Fashioned Feral Natives' (!) Not Cool... But these AMM are as Hard as Nails. Does what it says on the Tin ! 😄 Where and How you keep your Bees and What Colony Input you do to Reduce VM, also helps. Yes O/A has it roll. But so do Genetics, Health, Diet, Weather, Proactive Splits, doing New Queen Input all plays a Part in beating the VM and its associated Viruses etc. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Hope the Beeks in Anchorage will embrace "Local Mutt Bees" 🐝 So much better than 'Imports'. 👍

@@ME_MeAndMyBees I fully agree with the idea, but it's not that simple in Alaska. There are no feral colonies here; the winters are so long that they can't survive without spring and fall feeding. So we're trying to propagate from California colonies that survived our winters (albeit, with assistance). I haven't bought bees in 5 years, so it seems to be working. Maybe someday we'll convince enough people to overwinter that we can actually develop local (somewhat adapted) stock. Then my virgin queens will have a better chance of mating with survivor drone stock instead of new package California drone stock.

​@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping I wish you well with your Endeavours. 👍 Could Beeks your way learn say from very Far Nordic Countries (like: Iceland, Greenland, Northern Sweden etc.) These places must have Bees. Interested to see if you gain any Hints & Tips from Colder places than Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🤭

@@ME_MeAndMyBees I try to research extreme northern beekeeping everywhere. We're mostly headed in the same direction as far as insulation and feeding. To the best of my knowledge, the most northern beekeepers can be sustainable with their own populations, but occasionally bring in new (i.e., non-local) for genetic diversity.

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!).

Here in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 we Raise Bees for Honey : Famous "Heather Honey" in the Highlands & Scottish Borders. But we also Raise AND Sell Bees ! Way more £££'s $$$'s in Bees than the Honey ! 🍯 In the UK today : News said of x35 Sources of Honey only x1 was 'GENUINE' ! All others were FAKE !!! All via Blends from EU / Most from CHINA ! 😠 Seems amazing in this Day and age "Fake Food" can't be Caught more easily. . . My Supermarket 'Honey' at £2 Jar might as well be Icky Syrup. It tastes like Syrup and 'glows' like Syrup. It's disgusting ! 🤮 If you like Honey : go find your Neighbourhood "Beekeeper" their Honey is for REAL 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 I live x2 Miles away from Scottish Heather Moorland : Know my Bees collect and make PURE "Heather Honey" 👍

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.

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 ....

Some time later. . . Why didn't you 'Inspect' within the Time the Queen Cells were Sealed (?) That way, you could of 'Cut Out' and Transferred 'Spare QC's to Hopelessly Queenless Nucs : And made more Colonies rather than losing them to Swarm Casts !? 😮 It's all about "Reading your Bees & what your Local Environment is doing. . . 😉 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Guess Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 is nearer to Canada / North USA than Randy's Locality. . . 🤭 But I do 'Artificial Swarms' by watching & knowing what Resources are coming in. Guess I " Read my Bees" ! Started with x4 Hives. Now have x14 Colonies, using several Hive Types Hives Include : UK Nationals, USA Langstroth, French Warre and a DIY Home Built Horizontal Hive on Jumbo Deep Langstroth Frames. All made from Pallet Wood / Insulated with Sheep's Wool. Lots of Sheep here. 😆 Don't think anybody in Scotland, or the UK for that matter 'Buy" Bee Packages (!?) It's make our own Bees / Colonies, or Sell / Buy others Nucs. 🤔 Interesting Talk. . . Gives a different perspective re other Localities. Finally : Why don't you Guys Raise & Breed 'Local Mutt Bees'. Aka the ones that should do well in your Hard Harsh Winters !!! Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Has the Amazing little Native Black Bee (AMM) these Fluzzies are as 'Hard as Nails' and Come through our Long Wet, then Super Cold Winters. Raise Local, Live local ! 🐝

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!