No insulation in Alaska

[Finski]

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As you see, they do not use insulation in Alaska, at least not all.

Finland and Alaska are at same latitude. We all have insulated hives.
We do not kill colonies before autumn and bye new in spring.

Beekeeping Alaska Style #2

[Brian D. Bray]

Although there isn't the same percentage of beekeepers per general population in Alaska as in the lower 48 only a few kill off their bees and buy new in the spring.  Bees overwinter just as well, if not better, in Alaska as in parts of the lower 48 (Dakotas) and insulated boxes are not required either.

In my discussions with Alaskan beekeepers, as well as those from the other 49 states, I have yet to find a place where bees are required to be overwintered in insulated hives or with  more than 2 deeps or the equivalent.  Buy insulated if it makes you feel better, but they are not required.  How much stores the bees consume are predicated on 2 basic factors, the size of the cluster, and the free (unoccupied) space within the beehive.  Too much space or too large of cluster will kill the hive much quicker than lack of insulation.

[Finski]

 Buy insulated if it makes you feel better,

No, it makes bees feel it better. I know that.

Like Canadians wonder, wrap the hives or use insulated polystyrene boxes. We need not wrap hives here.
We do not wrap with black tar paper to catch sun rays. You have there so much magic.

[Finski]

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http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/112706/sta_20061127007.shtml

Alaska beekeepers work to preserve hives during winterNationwide shortage drives up the cost of importing fresh beesBy JEANNETTE J. LEE The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE - Honeybees aren't built to survive winter's subzero temperatures, but with a shortage of bees nationwide, more beekeepers are trying to nurture the fuzzy insects through Alaska's most notorious season.

 
Sound off on the important issues at With parasitic mites preying on the U.S. bee population, the price of importing fresh bees to Alaska from farms to the south has risen steadily in the past several years.
Most beekeepers in Alaska kill their colonies with chemicals or soapy water after the brief summer honey harvest because keeping them alive through the winter is so difficult. Come spring, they send away for fresh bees from northern California, where many large-scale commercial beekeepers are based.

"It's usually more economical for people to get new bees, but the cost of bees and queens are going up every year," said Dick Allen, a retired helicopter engineer who kept tens of thousands of bees in 11 hives this summer in his suburban backyard.

Allen is typical of the hundreds of hobbyists who make up the bulk of beekeepers in Alaska. Honey, pollen and slabs of beeswax placed in neat rows on his kitchen counter await the odd customer lucky enough to spot the "Honey for Sale" sign planted in the snow along his residential street.

Allen never expects to make a profit.

"I'm not real aggressive about having a lot of hives," Allen said. "For most people here it's a hobby, a cottage industry."

In comparison, commercial beekeepers in the U.S. typically tend to 2,000 to 4,000 hives, with some managing up to 20,000 hives, said Marla Spivak, an entomology professor at the University of Minnesota.

But the parasitic mites are a problem for beekeepers large and small, from Alaska to Florida.

Various studies have shown the wild and domestic honeybee populations have declined dramatically in the past few decades, largely because the two species of bloodsucking mites have proven impossible to eradicate.

Varroa mites clamp, vampire-like, onto the bodies of adult and larval bees, while microscopic and fast-spreading tracheal mites hatch, feed and die in the bees' breathing passages.

In 2005 honeybees had to be imported from outside North America for the first time since 1922, according to a report released in October by the National Research Council.

"It's a bad situation and it's not getting better," said John Foster, a second-generation bee farmer who runs 12,000 hives in Esparto, Calif., 30 miles west of Sacramento. "The mites are a constant battle. It's taking so much more money to run these bees that it used to."

Steve Victors of Big Lake imports millions of bees from Foster each spring for hundreds of beekeepers in south-central Alaska. California agricultural officials inspect Foster's colonies for mites before they leave the state, but the pests always manage to hitch a ride.

"We're bringing up 9 million bees, so there's always going to be a few mites," Victors said.

When Allen started beekeeping 10 years ago, a 4-pound package, with 3,500 bees per pound, cost $55.

This year, a bulk order of several hundred packets that includes shipping and insurance will cost $92.50, said Victors.

The higher prices have beekeepers experimenting with various containers and insulating materials to protect bees through the cold months.

Victors said he is trying to keep 80 of his 100 colonies alive through the winter for the first time, despite the fact that the bees spend all their time clustered together for warmth among the waxy combs and produce no honey.

He moved his hives into a refrigerated container used originally to transport fruits and vegetables. Fans and thermostats hold the temperature at a precise 40 degrees. When hives get too warm the bees will try to leave the hive to pass waste. If it's too cold they refuse to break from their cluster, not even to retrieve honey or sugar syrup stored in hexagonal niches just inches away. They don't so much freeze as starve to death.

Victors started keeping bees about eight years ago after one of the huge wildfires characteristic of an Alaska summer blackened hundreds of thousands of acres in his region, about 60 miles north of Anchorage.

He brought in bees to his homestead to help pollinate new plants and replace the insect population, which he said "was pretty well wiped out."

"We started with a couple hives and the honey was so good, we expanded to a hundred," said Victors.

Many of the techniques used to over-winter bees come from Canada, according to Spivak. In the mid-1980s, a ban on importing American bees forced Canadian beekeepers to invent ways to keep the colonies alive through the cold months.

Victors, for instance, is modeling his winter set-up on that of a beekeeper in Ontario who he said has reported winter survival rates of 98 percent.

Alaska beekeepers face a paradoxical dilemma in the choice to prolong the life of a hive after the fireweed, berries and dandelions have withered: Bees that are cooped up for the winter succumb more easily to the mites and tend to be weaker than packaged bees that have been busy gathering nectar in warmer climes.

Some say hive preservation is an art that goes beyond economics. They feel it's a duty and a welcome challenge to help the bees survive.

"It's so easy to get bee packets," said Allen. "To my thinking, it's called 'beekeeping.' You keep the bees."

[Brian D. Bray]

I guess I need to move to Alaska with my 8 frame hives to prove the experts wrong.

How much stores the bees consume are predicated on 2 basic factors, the size of the cluster, and the free (unoccupied) space within the beehive.  Too much space or too large of cluster will kill the hive much quicker than lack of insulation.

10 Frame hives have half again the unoccupied space within a beehive over an 8 frame hive.  My finding is that using 8 frames hives instead of 10 frame hives has increased survivability expotentially. 

When everybody is doing the samething, and getting the same results, ie large hives and high winter losses, then laugh at the poor smuck who is using different equipment and getting different results doesn't validate their position.  Rather, it illistrates their inability to recognize "genius", that is, the ability to think outside the bee box. 

I know you've spent a lot of time learning what works for you, using 10 frame hives, that's all well and good, but I've spent a lot of time comparing results from different hive configurations so have come to different conclusions.  It's those comparisons that have resulted in my using 8 frame hives and nothing but medium boxes.  Everybody thought I was crazy, then I got on here and found that Michael Bush was using 8 frame hives and nothing but medium boxes for a lot of the same  reasons I was.  He has colder winters than I do, but I would venture that his lossses during winter are lower using 8 frame than using 10 frames.  Why?  Because it is a ratio of Bees and comb, bee spacing, and cubic inches/meters within the hive.  Exceed a certain "comfort" factor and the survival rate drops derastically, 8 frames are within the zone, 10 frames on on the edge, and 12 frames are beyond it. 

[Finski]

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Wintering photos from Alaska

http://www.alaskabees.com/WinterBeePictures.html

[Finski]

I guess I need to move to Alaska with my 8 frame hives to prove the experts wrong.

It is not needed. I use 10 frame boxes and normally I lose no hives for starving.
If I loose a hive in winter, the reason is that queen lays all the winter. Genes from south.

I use 20 kg  sugar on average/hive winter my yard. It is enough from September to May. I even capped food frames in Spring between hives when needed.

I get queen damages every winter and some queen are not able to lay as much as they did former summer.

I have kept bees in 30 mm thick wooden boxes. They use 50% more winter food  than polyboxes.
In polyboxes spring build up is 2 weeks aheas of uninsulated boxes.


Just now I have -31C on my bee yeard district.
After 2 weeks cleansing flight season starts. It happens when sun is bright and temp is +5C
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[Brian D. Bray]

That's nice Finski, You're showing me pictures of 10 frame hives being kept in conventional cold weather methods but you're answering my assertions about cluster size in relation to hive size, ratio of free space verses occupied space.  So we are talking apples and oranges.  You can show me all the pictures and stories about conventional wisdom you want, that doesn't necessarily make it the best option.

I invite you to try the experiment of 8 frame hives, without insulaton, and no more 2 boxes for overwintering.  I think if you tried it you would be surprised at the results.

[Finski]

I invite you to try the experiment of 8 frame hives, without insulaton, and no more 2 boxes for overwintering.  I think if you tried it you would be surprised at the results.

No I am not arquing with you with your methods. They are surely best.

8 frames in 10 frames box will be a chaos.

I have one or 2 boxes during winter depending how strong are colonies. Never 3 box.

I have bought insulated polyhives and I will use them. No idea to put them in a store room and keep bees in cold boxes.

[Finski]

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After cleansing flight I clean the bottom boards and I put elctrict heating on bottoms.
With patty feeding I get 3 fold speed in spring build up. I love that.

When natural beekeepers just start to get brood in their hives, in my hives lots of new nurser bees emerge. Emerged bees get fresh  willow pollen and then brooding explodes.