:shock: A young bear, probably, was the culprit in knocking my hives over in the middle of the night. There is no greater excitement than putting back together a hive of angry bees. Everyone looks fine, no damaged frames. Putting up hotwire today, they were sitting in my dog kennel. Only a few stings on my hands, but otherwise only my nerves are rattled!
Hello Beegirl,
Welcome to the forum and I just checked out your blog. Looks wonderful and I will go back and look it over carefully. Thank goodness the bear did not do much damage. How long you been beekeeping and how many hives you have??
You seem very relaxed. Stay in touch
Annette
I LOVE Alaska, Alaskans and All Things Alaska! Frankly I didn't even think much about Alaska until I started dog mushing a couple years back, and now I am enamored with your wonderful state! Welcome to the forum, and good luck keeping the critters out out of your beeyard. It will be interesting to hear of your experiences with bees in the wild and intense land of AK. Nice blog.
Well, my 20 gauge is loaded with buckshot and I'm going out to put up my hotwire. I have a few stings on my hand but no worries! My dogs are edgy today. It had to have been a small black. The browns are down on the creeks looking for salmon. We don't have any other likely predators so I'll sort it out.
Mushing is pretty awesome, we have nice trails around my house for the dogs. I skijour with my labs and back country ski. I only have two labs so wouldn't put them on a sled. There are a few people around with dogyards in my neighborhood. I like the sprinters! They are pretty amazing.
I'm not too happy how Alaska has been represented the last year or so. We're kind of environmentalist Alaskans, and take a pretty measured approach about what's happening here right now. We're not in the scrape, drill, kill group! Although we hunt a little for subsistence, and fish is pretty much our main diet. I'm a nurse at the local native hospital in the emergency department.
Nice dogs!
I used to live in Alaska, but never kept any bees while I was there. I had have some (mostly wolf) team dogs and I miss them so much! They were not the petting kind, so I just loved them from afar....easier to keep your fingers and hands that way.
It is nice to hear from you! Keep us posted on your bear problems. I would much rather have a bear problem that the mess the tornado left me in my bee yard.
Brenda
20 ga buckshot for bear?? I think I would use a .338 mag.
Let us know how your yard turns out after you wire it.
I want to shoo it, just a blackie, not kill it. I don't want any clean ups here!
Shoot, I'm trying to hang my tape, and they keep diving me.
Im jealous.... you get to harvest fireweed honey!!!! I picked some up last year when I was in AK and its wonderful!!! Good luck with the bears!!!
I hope I'll have fireweed honey! The bears are running all around the hillside. A juvenile pair ran into an open garage and took a bag of garbage! (not ours)
Try emptying the buckshot and filling the shell with popcorn. I use Orville Retinbacher. It'll sting like hell but no damage to the pest or your shotgun. I would carry something on your hip though, whether popcorn or buckshot your liable to p!ss it off. Critters have a way of doing the unexpected.