I'm from Israel and I just love it when you say "it's a beautiful spring day with 40 degrees Fahrenheit.." That's the coldest temperature we had this winter where I live XD
I've deployed to Afghanistan twice and Iraq once, and lived the summer months there... Now I live in Alaska and it is really amazing how the human body acclimates. I remember wearing a jacket and shivering in the summer months of Afghanistan when the temp would drop to 78F. Now I am outside grilling in a T shirt enjoying this spring time 40F.
I love your channel. When I was a lad of perhaps 10 years old, my grandpa and a couple of uncles were bee keepers who pastured their bees at farmers fields for a fee. I wanted to be a bee keeper so I slowly became the owner of 7 bee hives. The first I got from an uncle and the remainder I got from catching swarms. On one occasion a swarms landed on the corner of a neighbor's shed for rabbit hutches. I was only 13 years old and tried to get the swarm into a hive box by sliding a board under the hanging swarm to move it over the hive box; but the swarm moved from the corner of the shed to the board to my arm. I moved my arm over the hive box; shook it and the swarmed went inside. Not one sting.
Cool story @Charlie Boring. We were going to ask @Simple Living Alaska how they did it without the bee suits. Seems like if you stay calm the bees do too.
It's like you live every day with them the farther I go with all this the more involved I get this has really been one of the most Fantastic Finds I found on RUclips
It is always wonderful to see how strong and fearless Arielle is in these videos. I am brave, but not so much with bees hanging out on my face! Thanks for sharing!
Just a quick " check in " with the most loving real couple .... giving us real loving Alaskan life lessons .... Soooo happy on your bees 👍👍 . Stay safe , as I'm off into the B.C.& Alberta bush again . ❤
I'm still laughing when Arielle said "ambiance" with a perfect accent in the middle of a storm of smoke and bees! guys, you are the best! Cheers from Argentina. Fede
Same here lol! Isn't it funny how something so small can cause so much fear in humans? Like we put ourselves in dangerous situations all the time... but the thought of being stung by a bee or wasp leaves us in terror (although for people who are allergic, the fear is more understandable). It really does hurt when they sting, though. Then after the sting goes away, it itches like crazy.
Its wasps and hornets you need to be careful around. They are concentrated evil. But bees are kinda cool. I had some forest property I would camp on. One time I had a pound box of sugar I had left from a previous trip and had gotten wet and hard. So put it on the camp fire. The next day I had lots of pesky bees. They weren't mean or aggressive just persistent. You had to cover your sodas with a deck of cards or a cig pack. These bees didn't even mind a gentle petting
These must be non sting bees. There is no way they can be our African Kamikaze bees!!! They are killers and you just need one to sting you and once the rest smell that sting, all hell breaks loose! They can kill a human being very fast!
I'm Amazed your chickens eat dead bees omg your chickens eat everything. I'm so happy your bees survived Winter T.L.C is what did it. You two are just so Inspirational. Two Beautiful Alaskan Soul's adore you both. Kindest thoughts from Victoria Australia xoxo
Chickens do eat everything, including chicken. But wait! Once I bought frozen broccoli that was brown and disgusting. I threw to the chickens and they wouldn't touch it either.
I have no idea how you can bring yourself to do that and without a suit. You are so so brave. Congratulations on the two making it through winter! I know how hard you worked for this success and you deserve it!
Bees are basically docile creatures, the smoke makes them even more docile. The difference between a bee and a wasp is the bee is a vegetarian and the wasp is not. The bee is not interested in human flesh.
@@charles-y2z6c - That is very interesting! Although I must say all bees hate me. I've been stung by honey bees and the sort as much as I have ever been stung by wasps. Not too sure what that's all about. 🤣
I love honey bees, I kept bees when I was a kid I had up to 15 hives at once, had them in the Florida keys and they produced year round, never had a drought of honey. Thanks guys this was a great video.
Guys, its unbelievable! Beekeeping during the snow. I keep bees in Scotland and never open hives until it is no less than +10C. Good luck with your bees this season and wish you to have good honey crop. It was really nice to see how gentle you are with handling the bees and brave not to wear the overalls. I never dare it. The only thing I would advise- It is better to use the ready factory made syrup. Here I buy so called " Invertbee ". Sugar with water takes a lot of energy for bees to digest and convert it for storage. It is definitely cheaper but for the bees health and in the cold climates not as good. All the best!
I will never again complain about the price of a quart of honey. I can't believe you did that without a beekeepers suit on. An actual "thumb nail", that was funny. Shout out to Mr. Bandit💓
Me alegro mucho por vosotros y vosotros por la abejas, por aquí por España también hemos tenido un invierno algo más frío de lo normal, aunque ni de lejos lo que tenéis por hay. Saludos y a disfrutar de la estación que ya tenemos encima....
I am from the Philippines and I so love your contents. It seems that I am also joining you in all your journeys! Thank you for tagging us along through your vlogs!❤
Congratulations on the survival of your 2 colonies. At 19:47 on the video you can see an additional queen in with the bees you were installing. Also, if you put your pollen patty face down (paper up) it will keep it moist for longer. It also discourages small hive beetles. Love your videos, thanks. PS- I never heard of cowboy candy before watching your videos. After the 30 day food challenge, hearing "and cowboy candy" so many times I decided I needed to find a recipe and make it. IT IS AWESOME!!!!
Bee keeping is so important. Glad you are paying attention to this enterprise. Three hives! Good luck this summer so that the hives will be strong and nourished for the winter. 🤞🏼
I've watched this video twice!! Just had to absorb it all and how wonderful you guys are and the work you do. Will always be my inspiration to be self sufficient. Thanks!
I'm NOT a bee expert, but I have heard that very often there will be a new queen in the hive. I loved the video, honey farming is a big learning curve.
Just makes me feel good all over to see you giving such good care to the wee bee-sties. Thanks for all you do with all the creatures under your care---oh, and the veggies, too. lol
The music you added at the start of the video with the bees was very powerful. Bees are the essence of life, and the music reflected that. Very well done...
So glad the bees made it. I know you were concerned about them all winter. Thanks for sharing, it sure keeps my interest up, waiting to see what your doing. I don't do TV, for almost 10 yrs. Enjoy your success.
So happy for your bees making it this time! I love how you title your short films with a hint of what we we see, so I can rewatch later, search it out. I have watched some videos of yours three times, especially, canning ones. I see people titling stuff things like, "Its all over," or "We are in trouble," when they are not. I am staying away from clickbait titles like that, but you don't use clickbait, just your story. I am learning something new every episode it seems. So thanks Aerial and Aaron for doing this!
Interesting to watch you two. I used to work as a bee transporter. Taking hives from orchards to orchards. There was a lot of waiting to do so sometimes I'd just sit there and watch the bees and it was fascinating to see how they work together and all seem to have a job in the hive. Also I never got stung once that I remember.
The 2 frames of drawn comb that you pulled out when you installed your new package bees was mostly Drone cells which will cause the queen to raise Drones instead of workers. You need to make sure you replace them with worker comb or foundation for the hive to survive well..keep up the hard work. I really enjoy watching your channel. I've he bees for about 45 years. Much of it in the mountains of Colorado. Thanks Carl.
Great video I'm not sure how your bees survive up there, wow they must be hardy. I mix up 50/50 sugar syrup in a spray bottle and spray new packages before I install them. Less flying and they have full bellies when they start drawing out comb. It all is a good way to capture a swarm, just spray them down real heavy and make a big funnel that will fit the package that the bees came in and just shake them in and seal it up. I can hardly wait for the garden, I'm very envious of the growing season you have up there. Thanks for great entertainment
I'm huge fan from Israel and the highs for this week are going to be in the 100's. So jealous of your snow even though I believe you probably get sick of it
I’m not sure if anyone already said this but all you need to do is pull that red cap off the queen cage. There’s already queen candy in the opening. You don’t need a marshmallow. Congratulations on successfully overwintering both your colonies.
My dream is to live like this one day. I currently live in a city and I’m working towards a career of a dental hygienist. I’m going to work until I can afford property where I can create my own homestead one day. I know it’s a long road ahead but for now I live my dream through watching your channel and others like it, along with taking care of my balcony garden. 🙂
been watching alot of your videos :D you 2 are amazing people.. its funny, you call it "simple living alaska" - what you do is not simple :) its inspiring and amasing - go you :D
glad to see you taking advantage of your chickens, what a lovely machine the are , pretty remarkable converts waste to food , it dosent get much better than that
A lot of channels I watch are looking like it's almost summer. We're getting 20cm of snow tomorrow and it's comforting to see I'm not the only one still in snow! (We have much less overall though lol) so happy about your bees!
Great job on the Bees Controling moisture, insulating and providing nourishment. Happy Ladies indeed!!! Our New Hampsahire Bees just starting to leave the colonies, inspite of 8" of spring snow today. Maple Tree buds will provide nourishment. Keep going guys your doing great.
I think your pallets have settled. Your hives don't look level, on camera at least. I would definitely check that and shim them up level asap before the ones you have get out flying this spring and building new comb all cattywampus or your new hive gets off on a "crooked foot!" : - D They WILL build perpendicular to level regardless of whether the hives/frames are level, and that can make a real mess when you end up with crooked comb or even cross combing. We always harvest our honey in the spring after the nectar flow really gets going rather than in the fall. We find that the bees do so much better eating their own honey throughout the winter until the nectar starts flowing than when living on just sugar. If they still have honey stores left once the nectar flow is really rolling and there's plenty to be had, we harvest that surplus for ourselves. Michigan isn't as cold as Alaska, but we had SO many more hives survive the winter on their own honey than on sugar when we lived there. Oregon is milder, but we've continued the same practices. We even feed them back their own honey if we still have any on hand if they run low in later winter/early spring rather than giving them sugar water. They just always do so much better on their own honey. Bee's honey is so much more than just sugar. It's a complete food and herbal medicinary for them, containing pollen/protein, propolis (powerfully medicinal), enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and micronutrients from all the plants they've gathered and made it from. It has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and other healing properties that are instrumental in the health of the hive. Sugar/sugar water only has pure glucose and fructose and nothing else. It's as hard on bees' health and immune system as it is on humans', and even though feeding them that through the winter is common practice in the industry, it's a total mistake in our experience. (Ask me how we know...) It's the difference between eating great, nutritious, home grown, home cooked food like you do and trying to survive on junk food. It's ok in a pinch to get by, but not for very long or very often if you want your bees to be really healthy and resilient, especially in a place as harsh as Alaska.
Hahahah i love this. I did almost the same thing today. James sprinkled some ashes around our bee yard. Andi removed the screens off my inside covers. All of my hives wintered over too. I am so happy for you that they wintered over. Great job. Yup every spring when you clean out that bottom board the site of all them dead bees is very alarming. But you figure some of those are the remains of the summer bees that died off during the winter. I love the way your package came. ours come in cardboard tubes. So are they pure Russians, i would love to get them but harder to get in BC. Anyways i could go on and on but wont bored you. Great job you guys.
I'm from Israel and I just love it when you say "it's a beautiful spring day with 40 degrees Fahrenheit.."
That's the coldest temperature we had this winter where I live XD
Same here, I live south west America. It's already getting up into the 100s F, recently it dropped back to the high 80s and it was glorious.
Bud in the Northern US it gets from -20F to 110F yearly..... Where this video is they can get to -40F or more with Windchill! Crazy.
I've deployed to Afghanistan twice and Iraq once, and lived the summer months there... Now I live in Alaska and it is really amazing how the human body acclimates. I remember wearing a jacket and shivering in the summer months of Afghanistan when the temp would drop to 78F. Now I am outside grilling in a T shirt enjoying this spring time 40F.
It's in the 80's f in Georgia, USA and I love it 😀
40 feels wonderful in Alaska. Especially in the sun after our long, cold winter.
Great to see that they have bee-hived themselves over winter.
Hahhahaha this made me chuckle
You are a level 10 dad and I know it.
😂
I love your channel. When I was a lad of perhaps 10 years old, my grandpa and a couple of uncles were bee keepers who pastured their bees at farmers fields for a fee. I wanted to be a bee keeper so I slowly became the owner of 7 bee hives. The first I got from an uncle and the remainder I got from catching swarms. On one occasion a swarms landed on the corner of a neighbor's shed for rabbit hutches. I was only 13 years old and tried to get the swarm into a hive box by sliding a board under the hanging swarm to move it over the hive box; but the swarm moved from the corner of the shed to the board to my arm. I moved my arm over the hive box; shook it and the swarmed went inside. Not one sting.
Cool story @Charlie Boring. We were going to ask @Simple Living Alaska how they did it without the bee suits. Seems like if you stay calm the bees do too.
It's like you live every day with them the farther I go with all this the more involved I get this has really been one of the most Fantastic Finds I found on RUclips
It is always wonderful to see how strong and fearless Arielle is in these videos. I am brave, but not so much with bees hanging out on my face! Thanks for sharing!
Isn't she brave! I, personally, have found the ability to dig deep several times thanks to Arielle and her ways. Thank you!!
Same here!
Just a quick " check in " with the most loving real couple .... giving us real loving Alaskan life lessons .... Soooo happy on your bees 👍👍 . Stay safe , as I'm off into the B.C.& Alberta bush again . ❤
I'm still laughing when Arielle said "ambiance" with a perfect accent in the middle of a storm of smoke and bees! guys, you are the best! Cheers from Argentina. Fede
You guys are always so brave. One bee sends me running and there you are with a bee on your face as if it's nothing.
Me too🤣
Same here lol! Isn't it funny how something so small can cause so much fear in humans? Like we put ourselves in dangerous situations all the time... but the thought of being stung by a bee or wasp leaves us in terror (although for people who are allergic, the fear is more understandable). It really does hurt when they sting, though. Then after the sting goes away, it itches like crazy.
Its wasps and hornets you need to be careful around. They are concentrated evil.
But bees are kinda cool. I had some forest property I would camp on. One time I had a pound box of sugar I had left from a previous trip and had gotten wet and hard. So put it on the camp fire. The next day I had lots of pesky bees. They weren't mean or aggressive just persistent. You had to cover your sodas with a deck of cards or a cig pack. These bees didn't even mind a gentle petting
These must be non sting bees. There is no way they can be our African Kamikaze bees!!! They are killers and you just need one to sting you and once the rest smell that sting, all hell breaks loose! They can kill a human being very fast!
Just magnificent creatures. Lovely to see.
Happy to hear that your hives made it through the winter. Have seen many hives that didn't make it. Thank you for taking us along. 🍀
I love the way you're working with the bee's now, you even got Eric in there, and no suits
Hello ! Loving all the great humor here in the comments ! This "armchair Alaskan" learns alot every single video !
I'm Amazed your chickens eat dead bees omg your chickens eat everything. I'm so happy your bees survived Winter T.L.C is what did it. You two are just so Inspirational. Two Beautiful Alaskan Soul's adore you both. Kindest thoughts from Victoria Australia xoxo
Chickens do eat everything, including chicken. But wait! Once I bought frozen broccoli that was brown and disgusting. I threw to the chickens and they wouldn't touch it either.
You're a bee charmer, Arielle. Truly.
I have no idea how you can bring yourself to do that and without a suit. You are so so brave. Congratulations on the two making it through winter! I know how hard you worked for this success and you deserve it!
Bees are basically docile creatures, the smoke makes them even more docile. The difference between a bee and a wasp is the bee is a vegetarian and the wasp is not. The bee is not interested in human flesh.
@@charles-y2z6c Thanks Charles it's good to know it...
With 40 degree temperature honey bees don't fly around except for cleansing flights. The smoke mask the pheromones that bees put out
@@charles-y2z6c - That is very interesting! Although I must say all bees hate me. I've been stung by honey bees and the sort as much as I have ever been stung by wasps. Not too sure what that's all about. 🤣
@@josephfydenkevez8839 - Thank you! That makes a lot of sense!
Unbeelievable!
Haha!
Theme puns
"BEE"
Funny???!!!lol
Soooo happy for you guys! Congratulations on successful overwinter in a tough location.
So nice to see you again in your life. 🌹👍
I love honey bees, I kept bees when I was a kid I had up to 15 hives at once, had them in the Florida keys and they produced year round, never had a drought of honey. Thanks guys this was a great video.
Thanks for sharing your journey with everyone, I wish you all great success
Guys, its unbelievable! Beekeeping during the snow. I keep bees in Scotland and never open hives until it is no less than +10C. Good luck with your bees this season and wish you to have good honey crop. It was really nice to see how gentle you are with handling the bees and brave not to wear the overalls. I never dare it. The only thing I would advise- It is better to use the ready factory made syrup. Here I buy so called " Invertbee ". Sugar with water takes a lot of energy for bees to digest and convert it for storage. It is definitely cheaper but for the bees health and in the cold climates not as good. All the best!
So interesting! Love that your bees made it through the winter! Fun to see what you do for their survival! Welcome new bees! You will love it there!
I will never again complain about the price of a quart of honey. I can't believe you did that without a beekeepers suit on. An actual "thumb nail", that was funny. Shout out to Mr. Bandit💓
Awesome that the bees survived!
Super job with the honey bees. Good luck keeping them.
Me alegro mucho por vosotros y vosotros por la abejas, por aquí por España también hemos tenido un invierno algo más frío de lo normal, aunque ni de lejos lo que tenéis por hay. Saludos y a disfrutar de la estación que ya tenemos encima....
Great to see that the bees survived the winter! 🎉
I am from the Philippines and I so love your contents. It seems that I am also joining you in all your journeys! Thank you for tagging us along through your vlogs!❤
I’m grateful you kept the bees alive.
one of your most waited video i think... Thanks you !
#FreeBee #SaveTheBee
Lovely video
Wonderful bees congratulations xxx
Look forward to seeing them throughout the year xx
Feeding bees to the chickens... so resourceful!
Thank you!
Arielle is the bee whisperer 💛
That’s awesome. Glad your bees made it through the winter.
I beekeeping this year for the first time and grateful for the washington weather!
Woo Hoo!! They survived! Nice job installing the new hive, too :)
Very educational video on bee care!
You two are AMAZING! Like your personalities too.
Congratulations on the survival of your 2 colonies. At 19:47 on the video you can see an additional queen in with the bees you were installing. Also, if you put your pollen patty face down (paper up) it will keep it moist for longer. It also discourages small hive beetles. Love your videos, thanks.
PS- I never heard of cowboy candy before watching your videos. After the 30 day food challenge, hearing "and cowboy candy" so many times I decided I needed to find a recipe and make it. IT IS AWESOME!!!!
Wow! No mask no gloves! Bees are really quiet but you are really brave 🤩👌
Great to find your channel from Lumnah Acres in New Hampshire. I'll be back. Looking forward to watching your Spring come alive.
That was so enjoyable to watch, thank you for sharing!
Amazing job. Many beez alive.
I can tell your the master and l know who is afraid of the beeeZs, your hubby! Ha ha
Great job
So awesome! I am Installing our packages today!
Bee keeping is so important. Glad you are paying attention to this enterprise. Three hives! Good luck this summer so that the hives will be strong and nourished for the winter. 🤞🏼
Ambiance.....oh Ariel your sweet. Both of you are special to work with bees
Great job. Can’t wait to see you all harvesting honey.
You guys are so inspiring with all that you do in such harsh conditions. Love your canning videos too. Cheers from Australia xx Cathi xx
I've watched this video twice!! Just had to absorb it all and how wonderful you guys are and the work you do. Will always be my inspiration to be self sufficient. Thanks!
So that was what all the buzz was about ..... beez! They'll bee bizzy pollinating your garden for sure. Take care Eric & Arielle.
Yay!!! Happy to see they kept!
I'm NOT a bee expert, but I have heard that very often there will be a new queen in the hive.
I loved the video, honey farming is a big learning curve.
Just makes me feel good all over to see you giving such good care to the wee bee-sties. Thanks for all you do with all the creatures under your care---oh, and the veggies, too. lol
The music you added at the start of the video with the bees was very powerful. Bees are the essence of life, and the music reflected that. Very well done...
Congratulations on wintering your bees 🐝
What fun! Lived in Eagle River in the early 90's, but I only recognized the mountains in the video . . . I guess they don't change much . . .
So happy they over wintered successfully!
So glad the bees made it. I know you were concerned about them all winter. Thanks for sharing, it sure keeps my interest up, waiting to see what your doing. I don't do TV, for almost 10 yrs. Enjoy your success.
I’m so impressed with your confidence in handling those bees. Another great video.
I love the light weight foam.
So happy for your bees making it this time! I love how you title your short films with a hint of what we we see, so I can rewatch later, search it out. I have watched some videos of yours three times, especially, canning ones. I see people titling stuff things like, "Its all over," or "We are in trouble," when they are not. I am staying away from clickbait titles like that, but you don't use clickbait, just your story. I am learning something new every episode it seems. So thanks Aerial and Aaron for doing this!
I am glad to see that someone else also really appreciates how they title their videos. Always delivers what's promised, and no cheesy clickbait
Keeping bees is a life long series of lessons. Congratulations on your hive survival this year!
Interesting to watch you two. I used to work as a bee transporter. Taking hives from orchards to orchards. There was a lot of waiting to do so sometimes I'd just sit there and watch the bees and it was fascinating to see how they work together and all seem to have a job in the hive. Also I never got stung once that I remember.
The bees are happy.
The confidence on Arielle handling the bees without a bee suit is outstanding. I can't do that.
BLESSINGS 💖
that's the bee's knees
Hi guys I really enjoy your videos. Thank you for sharing! May God bless you and your families!😁❤️
The 2 frames of drawn comb that you pulled out when you installed your new package bees was mostly Drone cells which will cause the queen to raise Drones instead of workers. You need to make sure you replace them with worker comb or foundation for the hive to survive well..keep up the hard work. I really enjoy watching your channel. I've he bees for about 45 years. Much of it in the mountains of Colorado. Thanks Carl.
The chickens also eat dead bees? Damn, is there anything chickens won't eat?
nope. They will even eat each other if one gets wounded.
We had one eat a snake whole, right in front of us last summer.
Watched on of my hens catch and kill a mouse then proceed to swallow it down 😳
I have a clip of one of my two month chick swallowing a one foot long snake!!! The snakes tail was left hanging out for a while...it was CREEPY!!!
Mine won’t eat flys or bees. All depends how well fed they are.
I love your videos. Keep up the good work. God bless y'all.
When I was watching this RUclips ads were "Save the Bees" kits from Friends of the Earth!
Great video
I'm not sure how your bees survive up there, wow they must be hardy.
I mix up 50/50 sugar syrup in a spray bottle and spray new packages before I install them. Less flying and they have full bellies when they start drawing out comb.
It all is a good way to capture a swarm, just spray them down real heavy and make a big funnel that will fit the package that the bees came in and just shake them in and seal it up.
I can hardly wait for the garden, I'm very envious of the growing season you have up there.
Thanks for great entertainment
I'm huge fan from Israel and the highs for this week are going to be in the 100's. So jealous of your snow even though I believe you probably get sick of it
Love the variety of your programs. This one on the bees was quite interesting. And thanks for the 1 or 2 second close up of Pepper!
Thanks guys for another awesome video!!!
BEAUTIFUL
So glad your bees have made it. I heard some people didn't fare so good.
Thanks for sharing. Bless you kids.
I’m not sure if anyone already said this but all you need to do is pull that red cap off the queen cage. There’s already queen candy in the opening. You don’t need a marshmallow. Congratulations on successfully overwintering both your colonies.
That was awesome. Good job.
My dream is to live like this one day. I currently live in a city and I’m working towards a career of a dental hygienist. I’m going to work until I can afford property where I can create my own homestead one day. I know it’s a long road ahead but for now I live my dream through watching your channel and others like it, along with taking care of my balcony garden. 🙂
So happy they survived
Good job you two
been watching alot of your videos :D you 2 are amazing people.. its funny, you call it "simple living alaska" - what you do is not simple :) its inspiring and amasing - go you :D
glad to see you taking advantage of your chickens, what a lovely machine the are , pretty remarkable converts waste to food , it dosent get much better than that
Loved learning!
A lot of channels I watch are looking like it's almost summer. We're getting 20cm of snow tomorrow and it's comforting to see I'm not the only one still in snow! (We have much less overall though lol) so happy about your bees!
Just watching this as a bee allergy mom I had my epipen ready!
Congratulations on a successful over wintering of your bees 👍👍
Awesome, I Love ow wood ash can be used for many things. Thank you for sharing
You just insulate the same this next winter, you will be just fine I’m sure. Stay faithful and positive, it all works the way it should.
✌🏻
You maybe the bravest woman I know and the most patient and the most tolerant.
Great job on the Bees Controling moisture, insulating and providing nourishment. Happy Ladies indeed!!! Our New Hampsahire Bees just starting to leave the colonies, inspite of 8" of spring snow today. Maple Tree buds will provide nourishment. Keep going guys your doing great.
Thanks for the answer!
I think your pallets have settled. Your hives don't look level, on camera at least. I would definitely check that and shim them up level asap before the ones you have get out flying this spring and building new comb all cattywampus or your new hive gets off on a "crooked foot!" : - D They WILL build perpendicular to level regardless of whether the hives/frames are level, and that can make a real mess when you end up with crooked comb or even cross combing.
We always harvest our honey in the spring after the nectar flow really gets going rather than in the fall. We find that the bees do so much better eating their own honey throughout the winter until the nectar starts flowing than when living on just sugar. If they still have honey stores left once the nectar flow is really rolling and there's plenty to be had, we harvest that surplus for ourselves. Michigan isn't as cold as Alaska, but we had SO many more hives survive the winter on their own honey than on sugar when we lived there. Oregon is milder, but we've continued the same practices. We even feed them back their own honey if we still have any on hand if they run low in later winter/early spring rather than giving them sugar water. They just always do so much better on their own honey.
Bee's honey is so much more than just sugar. It's a complete food and herbal medicinary for them, containing pollen/protein, propolis (powerfully medicinal), enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and micronutrients from all the plants they've gathered and made it from. It has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and other healing properties that are instrumental in the health of the hive. Sugar/sugar water only has pure glucose and fructose and nothing else. It's as hard on bees' health and immune system as it is on humans', and even though feeding them that through the winter is common practice in the industry, it's a total mistake in our experience. (Ask me how we know...) It's the difference between eating great, nutritious, home grown, home cooked food like you do and trying to survive on junk food. It's ok in a pinch to get by, but not for very long or very often if you want your bees to be really healthy and resilient, especially in a place as harsh as Alaska.
Got to hand it to you two...I’d be freaking right out soon as I got near the hive!!! Much less allowing them to touch me!!
My your summer honey season Bee extra productive!
You guys really know your stuff and have carved out an amazing life in the wilderness...
Hahahah i love this. I did almost the same thing today. James sprinkled some ashes around our bee yard. Andi removed the screens off my inside covers. All of my hives wintered over too. I am so happy for you that they wintered over. Great job. Yup every spring when you clean out that bottom board the site of all them dead bees is very alarming. But you figure some of those are the remains of the summer bees that died off during the winter. I love the way your package came. ours come in cardboard tubes. So are they pure Russians, i would love to get them but harder to get in BC. Anyways i could go on and on but wont bored you. Great job you guys.