Comments on: The Garden Farm Guide To Beekeeping http://www.yourlocalmarketblog.com/2008/11/25/the-garden-farm-guide-to-beekeeping/ Organic Grocery Market, Shop Local, Small Farms, Family Farms Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:01:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kerri http://www.yourlocalmarketblog.com/2008/11/25/the-garden-farm-guide-to-beekeeping/#comment-4111 Kerri Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:18:54 +0000 http://organictobe.org/?p=1151#comment-4111 Alaska has no native honeybees - people who want honey have to import honeybees pretty much annually. I once listened to a talk given by the president of the local beekeepers association and the big question from the audience was about overwintering. The short answer - a CONEX container and don't open it up until April unless you want to provide food for your bees. Nothing starts blooming here until April and that would be the trees. So I'm not going to worry so much about bees and honey but bees and pollenation. Imagine my surprise to find out that there are 95 species of native bees - every one of them the solitary types - and quite a variety of other insects that are useful pollenators. Bumblebees are especially represented up here and are considered somewhat fearfully but respectfully by the Native Alaskans in the Aleutian chain. The Alutiiq word for bumblebee is Uuqutiiq. In the past, the Alutiiq used poisons derived from monkshood to paralyze whales they hunted. That bumblebees could consume the nectar of monkshood and thrive bestowed them with shamanistic power. I'm really thankful I have no monkshood in my yard and that the uuqutiiq are a peaceable tribe of bees. I noted two different types hanging in gangs around my borage plants this past season. If I want local sweeteners, I can learn about tapping birch trees. A friend has 80 acres of land mostly covered in birch so I'd rather go that route than have to import bees every year. Kerri in AK Alaska has no native honeybees – people who want honey have to import honeybees pretty much annually. I once listened to a talk given by the president of the local beekeepers association and the big question from the audience was about overwintering. The short answer – a CONEX container and don’t open it up until April unless you want to provide food for your bees. Nothing starts blooming here until April and that would be the trees.

So I’m not going to worry so much about bees and honey but bees and pollenation. Imagine my surprise to find out that there are 95 species of native bees – every one of them the solitary types – and quite a variety of other insects that are useful pollenators.

Bumblebees are especially represented up here and are considered somewhat fearfully but respectfully by the Native Alaskans in the Aleutian chain. The Alutiiq word for bumblebee is Uuqutiiq. In the past, the Alutiiq used poisons derived from monkshood to paralyze whales they hunted. That bumblebees could consume the nectar of monkshood and thrive bestowed them with shamanistic power. I’m really thankful I have no monkshood in my yard and that the uuqutiiq are a peaceable tribe of bees. I noted two different types hanging in gangs around my borage plants this past season.

If I want local sweeteners, I can learn about tapping birch trees. A friend has 80 acres of land mostly covered in birch so I’d rather go that route than have to import bees every year.

Kerri in AK

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