I haven't even finished listening to the entire video and I want to say again....I'm so glad I found this channel. I'm running those wooden boxes(in central Alberta) and one insulated layens hive. This lecture is teaching me why my layens hive(which was a late installed queen into a split, late July, if I remember right). It came through winter so strong and full of honey. The wooden boxes were insulated with alpaca duvet strip, then Typar on the outside to stop the wind. Sugar on the inner cover, then a box of wood shavings on top. Of 3 hives, I lost one to starvation and fed the heck out of the other two this spring. I'm going to have to run those wood boxes till I can build up my layens hive boxes to house my bees. Can anyone recommend where to get those sensors to monitor the hives? I'd sure love to implement some of your Alaska methods and keep records of the temps in the hives this winter.
You can order the BroodMinder temperature sensors online. The link is below. They are spendy, but really worth it in the long run. I'll be doing videos in July and early August about overwintering. broodminder.com/
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.
I see you set your boxes up like I do minus the sensors , I used to run 1,500 colonies, I couldn’t afford the fancy stuff lol , but I’ve been in so many arguments with female bee keepers that have been keeping bees for 4.5 years and are pros lol example , I just made a request for some wool for insulation and instead of answering and being helpful it lead to an argument about why I don’t need to insulate my hives in my area , I told her I can have 10 boxes in the summer and only one very partially beards when it’s 100 Fahrenheit outside, because the bees can regulate air flow and you don’t have 3/4” sides radiating heat on your outer frames , she kept referring to This person telling her so , I said I’ve been keeping bees since 1971 and I will have live bees next spring while you are cleaning up your dead outs , sorry for venting, I’m having a hard time with these whipper snappers that got one of their hives out of the two that they own critiqueing my need for insulation in a hive 🤣
LOL, David, some folks just love to argue. Insulation keeps colonies cool in the South and warm in the North. There's even research showing insulated colonies produce more honey. One of the cool things about beekeeping is that there are so many ways to do it. One of the bad things about talking about beekeeping is that some people insist on pointing how you're doing it wrong (because it's not how they do it). Best of luck, vent any time, and good luck this year.
@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping everything you just said lol , I live on the east coast in southern Maryland by the way, pleasure to meet ya ! I subscribed because I like your style!! Thanks for sharing what you do , Dave
@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping you got it brother! I’m trying to get some colonies built back up , I started bee keeping in 1971 with my uncle /mentor/ boss who built an apiary up to 1,500 colonies for the families orchard that was 6 acres that backed up to another orchard of 600 acres and bees we’re always swarming back and forth , there were no mites , moths or beetles and you always had 10 new colonies every winter and not dead outs , bee keeping was amazing back then , my uncle’s apiary was sustained and built from 10 colonies back in 1940, we never bought bees , because we would trap swarms in Tennessee and bring them up here for new genetics . I developed an allergy from getting stung so many times in my career and then I had 6 kids and 4 grandkids and I’m barely 60 , and I decided a couple years ago I’m going to trap bees , keep them and I bought the first bees ever this season and between last years swarms and this year’s packages I have 8 colonies so far and I’m hoping the 4 traps I have out will do good and I’m buying two nucs soon because I want to start a Queen yard , there is a huge demand for queen’s in my part of the state, so here we go!! 🤓🙂
Thank you, great info! I'm in Finland, so this applies to my conditions!
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this 👍
Thanks. I'm hoping it's fun for folks from outside Alaska to see how we have to do it up here.
@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping it is. I try to take a little from everywhere if I can. Keep it up, thanks 👍 God bless
I haven't even finished listening to the entire video and I want to say again....I'm so glad I found this channel. I'm running those wooden boxes(in central Alberta) and one insulated layens hive. This lecture is teaching me why my layens hive(which was a late installed queen into a split, late July, if I remember right). It came through winter so strong and full of honey. The wooden boxes were insulated with alpaca duvet strip, then Typar on the outside to stop the wind. Sugar on the inner cover, then a box of wood shavings on top. Of 3 hives, I lost one to starvation and fed the heck out of the other two this spring. I'm going to have to run those wood boxes till I can build up my layens hive boxes to house my bees. Can anyone recommend where to get those sensors to monitor the hives? I'd sure love to implement some of your Alaska methods and keep records of the temps in the hives this winter.
You can order the BroodMinder temperature sensors online. The link is below. They are spendy, but really worth it in the long run. I'll be doing videos in July and early August about overwintering.
broodminder.com/
Have you tried Layens hives or similar?
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.
I see you set your boxes up like I do minus the sensors , I used to run 1,500 colonies, I couldn’t afford the fancy stuff lol , but I’ve been in so many arguments with female bee keepers that have been keeping bees for 4.5 years and are pros lol example , I just made a request for some wool for insulation and instead of answering and being helpful it lead to an argument about why I don’t need to insulate my hives in my area , I told her I can have 10 boxes in the summer and only one very partially beards when it’s 100 Fahrenheit outside, because the bees can regulate air flow and you don’t have 3/4” sides radiating heat on your outer frames , she kept referring to This person telling her so , I said I’ve been keeping bees since 1971 and I will have live bees next spring while you are cleaning up your dead outs , sorry for venting, I’m having a hard time with these whipper snappers that got one of their hives out of the two that they own critiqueing my need for insulation in a hive 🤣
LOL, David, some folks just love to argue. Insulation keeps colonies cool in the South and warm in the North. There's even research showing insulated colonies produce more honey. One of the cool things about beekeeping is that there are so many ways to do it. One of the bad things about talking about beekeeping is that some people insist on pointing how you're doing it wrong (because it's not how they do it). Best of luck, vent any time, and good luck this year.
@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping everything you just said lol , I live on the east coast in southern Maryland by the way, pleasure to meet ya ! I subscribed because I like your style!! Thanks for sharing what you do , Dave
@@DavidWilliams-wr4wb Thanks so much. I really enjoy interacting with beeks from other places.
@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping you got it brother! I’m trying to get some colonies built back up , I started bee keeping in 1971 with my uncle /mentor/ boss who built an apiary up to 1,500 colonies for the families orchard that was 6 acres that backed up to another orchard of 600 acres and bees we’re always swarming back and forth , there were no mites , moths or beetles and you always had 10 new colonies every winter and not dead outs , bee keeping was amazing back then , my uncle’s apiary was sustained and built from 10 colonies back in 1940, we never bought bees , because we would trap swarms in Tennessee and bring them up here for new genetics . I developed an allergy from getting stung so many times in my career and then I had 6 kids and 4 grandkids and I’m barely 60 , and I decided a couple years ago I’m going to trap bees , keep them and I bought the first bees ever this season and between last years swarms and this year’s packages I have 8 colonies so far and I’m hoping the 4 traps I have out will do good and I’m buying two nucs soon because I want to start a Queen yard , there is a huge demand for queen’s in my part of the state, so here we go!! 🤓🙂