On a sunny December day, a layer of crisp snow covers the roof at the warehouse of 49th State Brewing Co. in Anchorage. Tim Huffman demonstrates the bees he cares for from the top. The brewery hired him to maintain bees to produce sustainable honey that can be used to make beer.
“I have eight hives that will last through the winter here in this area,” Huffman said.
Each hive box is constructed from polystyrene, which is a foam material that holds warmth more effectively than wood. every stack of boxes were packed with foam insulation across all sides. Huffman pointed out a small gap at the bottom of one of the hives.
“If it were a bit warmer, maybe five or six degrees we might be able to see them crawling about in the tiny doorway,” Huffman said. “They’re in there, comfortable and warm.”
This insulation is among the most important factors in getting these bees through winter. Bees produce heat by moving their flight muscles, and the well-insulated hives keep them inside, ensuring that the colony stays warm.
Huffman estimates Alaska has a minimum of a thousands of “backyard” or non-commercial beekeepers. A lot of them keep colonies for honey and beeswax. Huffman claimed that in certain places honeybees are able to survive the winters that are cold in the wild, as long as they have an environment that they can inhabit, like an opening in the trunk of a tree. He said that the winters in Alaska are long.
“North Dakota,” Montana, Michigan -There are bees living in the wild that can successfully survive winter by themselves in these conditions,” Huffman said. “But they also experience warm spells where they are able to fly out. They also have early pollen and nectar, much earlier than we do.”
Alaska beekeepers need to ensure that their colonies have enough food for the winter. Huffman offers his colony additional sugar in autumn to ensure they have it to use in the winter months and then he adds sugar inside their hives before they go to bed in winter to make sure they’re starving.
Huffman stated that it’s standard customary in areas with winters that are long, like Alaska beekeepers get rid of their bees as the temperature drops by sweeping them away or submerging the bees in a soapy pool. However, he said he did not intend to do either of those things. He explained that learning to keep the bees buzzing throughout the winter months has required many trials and trial and.
“People should use the latest technology and techniques,” Huffman said. “I have my bees throughout the winter months, and not because I’m a genius who came up with a technique. It’s because I’m stubborn and I’m proficient enough to utilize online resources.”
Huffman is determined to impart this information to the most people in Alaska as he can. He’s a part of local beekeeping societies and manages an Youtube channel that has educational training videos for those who keep bees.
Anchorage Beekeeper Christine Wilcox, one of Huffman’s converts, struggled to keep bees going throughout seven years.
“Not being able overwinter was a huge disappointment and I worked very difficult,” Wilcox said. “I used wooden equipment as most people begin with, and that’s what was readily available.”
In previous years she’d finished the winter by putting together a small group of bees that huddled together to warm themselves but not enough bees to last the entire year. However, last winter she was introduced to Huffman’s method and made the switch to insulated polystyrene boxes for hives. Her colonies were filled with food items before the temperatures got cold. When she opened her boxes in the spring of last year, they appeared different.
“When the frames are open up, when you can see plenty of bees on uppermost part of your frames, it’s an indication that you’ve got a good density,” Wilcox said. “And they were extremely dense, and so it (was) hundreds of thousands of bees.”
Three of her colonies remained alive through the winter of last year.
“I had a ball,” Wilcox said. “When you realize that your bees had been able to stay in the winter, I was thrilled. I’m connected to bees an odd way. Even if they hurt me, they’re my friends.”
On the roof of 49th State Brewing, Huffman looked at the hundreds of dead bees that were scattered across the hives’ enclosures with snow.
“You can see dead bees, which is good,” Huffman said. “There (are) dead honeybees throughout the winter. They entered winter with – I’m not sure if it was 25 or 30,000 bees and then they’ll emerge from this winter with 15,000 hives.”
However, Huffman declared that so long as there are enough bees to survive until the time of spring, the colony will last another year.
