From Alaska to Scotland: in Search of History, Honey Bees and Sustainability

Lisa Hay

Recently I traveled to Scotland with my son in order to spend some quality time with him and to introduce him to some of the history of our family. Being a beekeeper, I asked the Scottish Beekeepers Association if I could meet with some of their beekeepers in the interest of exchanging ideas and learning how they keep their bees during Winter because overwintering is one of my particular interests. I was also interested in what the Scottish Beekeepers do about moisture in their hives during the cold season. We live in the Interior of Alaska, which is considered part of the subarctic and while we have a flourishing beekeeping community in this area of our state, there has been little information or research done on overwintering our bees, so anything we can learn from other areas that might be applicable is worth its weight in honey. Even though I live at latitude 64 and Scotland is around latitude 56, we beekeepers share some common beekeeping issues. One in particular, that is on the list of what kills our bees during the Alaskan Winter months, is what to do about the moisture that builds up in a hive when the bees are clustered inside and the temperature outside is too cold for them to fly.

Being an online member of various beekeeping forums, following blogs, Instagram and Twitter accounts of different beekeepers and associations has enabled me to not only continue my ongoing learning of beekeeping but also to be able to ask specific questions of beekeepers that I would have never come in contact with otherwise. The Scottish Beekeepers Association is one of the Twitter accounts that I follow and that is to whom I reached out to request an apiary visit while we were traveling the country.

Michelle Berry, the Development Officer and Magazine Editor for the Scottish Beekeepers Association was kind and generous enough with her time to respond to my message and set up some introductions with various members of SBA around the country. I was contacted by a handful who offered to make themselves available to us for an apiary visit and a chat about Scottish beekeeping practices. Because my son and I were traveling around the country, staying a few days here, and a few days there, we weren’t able to coordinate schedules with anyone other Ann Chilcott, Scottish Expert Beemaster, in Nairn, which is close to Inverness, where we were staying at the time. Ann is also author of the blog called The Beelistener, as well as many articles on beekeeping in various beekeeping publications. She teaches classes on different aspects of beekeeping; she hosts beekeeping researchers from other areas of the world and she speaks internationally on the subject. Ann supports beekeepers at local level and chairs Nairn & District Beekeepers’ Association.

Before we left to visit Ann’s apiary, I read her latest blog post which was on her dissection of a wasp that she found at her office. Included in the blog post was a photo of the eviscerated wasp with its vitellogenin spread out. I was immediately excited because one of the major focuses on Interior Alaska colony management as Winter approaches is doing all that we can to encourage the development of Winter bees. Winter bees are laid by the queen at the end of the season, typically mid-October, as we are preparing to hive them up for our Winter which can last into April. Hive up time is when the daytime temperature is a consistent 32°F/0°C. That’s our cue to seal them up if we’re wintering them outdoors, where our Winter temperatures can reach -60°F or get them in the bee barn, where the temperature is maintained between 41-43°F.

As we drove to Ann’s, we continued to be charmed by the Highland landscape. I was eager to meet Ann. Our emails to each other after the introduction from Michelle were formal, but I was excited about what I would learn from her and the conversations I was anticipating. I’m always excited to meet other beekeepers. Particularly in places outside of Alaska. We beekeepers have a language of universally known terminology and a passion for everything involved in tending to honey bees. It makes it easy to talk bees, compare notes and experiences and share knowledge, regardless of where we live.

When we arrived, Ann and her husband were outside to welcome us. They greeted us by coming out to our car with big smiles and a warmth that made me feel like I was meeting with old friends. Ann guided us towards her home and told me of the agenda she had planned. She said that she would show me her apiary and how she prepares her colonies for Winter, we would meet with Cynthia May who keeps bees at a local distillery and then also visit a free-living bee tree. Honey bees are not native to Alaska and we don’t have any bee trees. Not only was I was honored that Ann hosted our visit and I was absolutely thrilled to be able to spend time with her and pick her brain, but being able to see wild living bees was thrilling.

Ann then showed me her hives and we talked about the differences between hers and mine. She showed me a WBC hive, which I had never seen, along with the traditional Langstroth hives and polystyrene Nucs she uses. Her bees were still a bit active at the end of October, but we were able to open the tops so she could show me the wool she uses for insulation. In Alaska, we use foam board insulation panels inside our hives and a moisture quilt, wood chips, corkboard or whatever else we’ve found that works to keep heat in and absorb the condensation produced by the evaporation coming off of the bees. After looking at her hives and talking shop, we went on a hike to the bee tree.

I have always been interested in how bees survive in the wild. They construct their hives in ways that work for them. We put them in hives that work for us. I have wanted to make my hives closer to what a honey bee would build inside of a tree but haven’t gotten the time yet. I’ve even saved some sections of a 100+ year old tree that needed to be taken down due to an infestation of carpenter ants that had eaten away the inside of the base. These sections will be made into hives similar to what I’ve seen in pictures of Eastern European tree hives. In the far North, most of us use traditional Langstroth hives or polystyrene hives of the same shape. Some have experimented with top bar hives but they are difficult to insulate and awkward to move. We have to house our bees with practicality and Winter in mind. By themselves, the wood Langstroth hives have an R value around one and if wintered outdoors require a lot of insulation both outside of the hive as well as inside the top of the hive, whereas the polystyrene hives have an R value at least six times that amount and require less added insulation. An actual bee tree gives us an excellent example of how bees construct their home. It is very different than the hives that beekeepers use and I was anxious to see it, photograph it and take notes.

Ann told us that she discovered the tree while out on a walk. She had noticed some bees that were too far from her apiary to be her bees so she figured that they were living in the forest. She followed the bees, and kept her eyes out for a tree that would accommodate them. It wasn’t long before she discovered the hive. As we walked, I too, kept my eyes open for a tree that bees would be attracted to. When we finally reached the bee tree, which was large and had a split in the middle, maybe from a lightning strike, we approached it slowly so as not to disturb the bees. Ann and I sat in front of the hive and watched them. I was mesmerized. The hive was not too far up the tree. We could see a few bees coming in and out. The opening was a slit in the tree and it had two holes. They were vertically spaced and a few inches apart. There was enough room for bees to enter or exit one at a time. Propolis sealed the rest of the opening.

The bees came and went and were still bringing in a gold pollen that Ann said was from the ivy that grew on the sides of buildings nearby. It was very apparent to me that the things that I do and have learned to do with my hives, particularly in Winter, were not being done by these bees. The amount of air circulation going on in the tree hive must’ve been minimal. There was a bottom and top entrance but they were tiny. There was also no place for dead bees to be hauled out by workers. Of course, I did not know how big the hive was inside of the tree and how many bees were inside. The breed looked to be similar to a Carniolian. They were not aggressive with us and even though the temperature was below 57°F/13°C, they were still foraging.

As we walked back, we talked more about bees, and specifically about wintering. I mentioned to her that up where I live, there are some who kill their bees after the honey harvest, because they have been taught and they believe that bees can’t be overwintered in the subarctic. She was shocked. This was also what I had been taught by my first teacher, but I was determined to find a way to do it and knew that just because it might not be being done in Alaska, didn’t mean that it was being done in other countries around the world. This led me to gathering any research I could find on overwintering in areas that have Winters as severe as Interior Alaska. There wasn’t much information available, and information on wintering as far South as Anchorage didn’t apply because their Winter temperatures are closer to those of Montana, whereas ours are closer to Russia, Greenland and Finland. Gratefully, I was able to find information on overwintering that applied to us from a beekeeper in Yukon Territory, Canada. Because the Interior of Alaska is very much like a small town, word got out that I was looking for information and I was able to make contact with people in the area who had been successfully overwintering their bees both indoors and outdoors for many years. Indoors meant a root cellar, basement, a garage, a shed or some other structure they had built to keep their bees alive during the long Winter. Not many other people knew about these techniques that had been being used to overwinter honey bees for generations in the Interior of Alaska. I believe the information had not gotten around in part because of the lack of communication and lack of gatherings for beekeepers in our area. Before the Internet, information traveled through mail, phone calls, word-of-mouth etc. Now we have online forums. However, many of these old timers don’t use the Internet and certainly are not involved in any online forums. As a result, their knowledge is becoming lost. Their methods were originally brought from other countries like Russia, Germany and Finland and then adapted to Alaska by those who had enough curiosity and sense to realize that overwintering is not impossible here. Fortunately, the paradigm seems to be changing. I, and a handful of others, have been working to make the information on overwintering colonies available to anyone who wants to learn and we have been spreading the news widely.

In Alaska, regardless of if someone overwinters their bees or not, if someone wants to start an apiary, or replace lost colonies, they must order bees from a bee dealer. Since honey bees are not native to Alaska, the bees that Alaskans are able to get are shipped up from California, typically in four-pound boxes. We are not able to get nucs because of state regulations that are aimed at preventing the transmission of foul brood. According to our Department of Agriculture, more than 3,000 boxes come into Fairbanks alone, each Spring. This amount doesn’t include Anchorage, Kenai, Palmer or any other area of the state. The cost of each box runs from $200.00-$250.00.

Some of the bee dealers offer classes in beekeeping in Alaska. Only one bee dealer teaches a beekeeping class that discusses overwintering and what they teach is that it’s not worth it. The rest of the classes don’t include information or resources on how to overwinter bees in our state. I am not a bee dealer and started teaching a class on overwintering in 2021. Because of our environment and climate, it is likely that we will have to keep importing four-pound boxes of bees until beekeeping becomes sustainable. That may be some years off, but not as long as some think due to climate change.

Alaska has been feeling the impact of climate change in big ways. Our Summers are now filled with wild fires. Ice flows are not as available for polar bears or walruses that need them as a place to rest and eat, so both are being found more inland. The growing season for gardeners in the Interior of Alaska has increased by a month in the past thirty years. So even though honey bees are not native to Alaska, I predict that in the next ten to fifteen years, we will see some wild honey bees in the far North. Interestingly, a few years ago honey bees were found to have hived up in a tree near Palmer, Alaska. Palmer is about 400 miles south of where I live. The colony must have been a swarm from someone’s hive. It did not survive, but it had found a place where the bees thought they could survive. This past Summer, a swarm from a fellow beekeeper’s hive set up in a nearby tree and drew out comb that was hidden by the tree leaves. It wasn’t discovered until Autumn when the leaves fell off the tree. The bees where still amongst the combs but they had died in our frigid temperatures. These might be signs of our changing conditions.

Upon our return to Ann’s house after visiting the bee tree, Ann introduced us to Cynthia, who is Ann’s bee buddy. She keeps her hives at a local distillery. Cynthia was also kind and generous enough to take us to her apiary and show me her hives and talk about wintering bees. After that, we returned back to Ann’s home for Scottish hospitality that included tea and some honey tasting. It had been an amazing day for which I am grateful. I am also grateful for the sharing of camaraderie, warmth and communication that happens between beekeepers from completely different areas. We are all enchanted by this magical creature. I would encourage any beekeeper who is fortunate to travel to different areas to look up beekeepers and request a visit. So many of our bees are vanishing for so many different reasons. Beekeepers sharing knowledge and supporting each other’s efforts can only help towards the survival of all of us.

Lisa Hay is the Alaska Director for the Western Apicultural Society. She hosts A Subarctic Beekeeper podcast, as well as moderates two online beekeeping forums: the Alaskan and Subarctic beekeeper forum and the Interior and Northern Alaskan beekeeper forum. Lisa teaches classes on beekeeping in Alaska as well as a class on overwintering honey bees in the subarctic. She tends to her bees on her family-owned farm called Happy Creek Farm.