Bob Binnie presentation to Alaska's Midnight Sun Bee Club 4/10/23

Bob's presentation to our club covered many areas, including harvesting (and curing) uncapped honey, sugar syrup chemistry, optimal rations for comb building and brood rearing, double screened boards for nucs, adverse effects of using old syrup (yeast cell counts), advantages of using drone foundation, He also reminisces about the 6 years he lived in Alaska, where he first became interested in beekeeping over 40 years ago.

[@bomchickawahwaaaaah]

Bob Binnie has a wealth of knowledge. Thanks for sharing!!

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

We loved talking with him.

[@framcesmoore]

Bob Is the greatest really enjoyed this video thanks for having him I live in Virginia and watch all his videos I have learned so much from him.

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

Thanks - we're also big Bob fans, and we're so glad he took the time to meet with our club.

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

Thanks for watching.

[@ippolitius]

Very interesting discussion

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

Thanks Bobby.

[@bradgoliphant]

Great content! Hey Bob. When it comes to open mating and drone congregation areas, is it possible that virgin queens or mated queens from another apiary could follow my drones back and enter my hive? Grateful.

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

Bob doesn't monitor this channel, but I can tell you that is extremely unlikely to happen. Drones follow queens, not vice versa. Newly mated queens sometimes return the wrong hive, but I've only heard of that happening when they return to the correct yard, but not the correct hive.

[@DavidWilliams-wr4wb]

I have a commercial dehumidifier for mold remediation and it works GREAT for making thick dry honey

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

Beekeeping often involves finding additional uses for gear that wasn't specifically designed for the task at hand. Well done.

[@DavidWilliams-wr4wb]

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping I’ve done many things in bee keeping where my trades have helped me tremendously since 1971 😀

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

@@DavidWilliams-wr4wb Who knew we were preparing for beekeeping when we were doing all those other jobs?

[@DavidWilliams-wr4wb]

I was wondering, how long of a season do you guys get in the anchorage area and how hard is it to overwinter your bees? I imagine it’s a lot more work than here midway at the east coast, I’m a few hours north of Bob Binney , our seasons are fairly the same

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

12 of 14 overwintered last winter, 29 of 35 over last 3 years. I don't think it's more work here, but the methods are different. All 4 seasons are colder, so I think about heat efficiency at every step. I now think that, with healthy bees and cold weather methods, overwintering success is comparable to most other places.

[@tomfuller9010]

Check with ian stepler on over winter nucs he says that is a win in many ways

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

Ian is great. I've overwintered nucs successfully in insulated boxes outside (Ian winters inside, so it's a bit different). I got both through last winter; 1 six frame medium, and 1 twelve frame medium. Next year I'll be making a lot more.

[@bub1683]

Those double screen boards, works good as ordinary bottom boards too.

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

I've used them that way, too.

[@tomahawkmissile241]

Chuck Norris has Honey Bee bring honey to him with a bag of Beat Sugar for his green tea.

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

!

[@tomahawkmissile241]

just another sugar if cane sugar is not around not sure how hard it is to extract sugar from beets but it is the same if it grows up there from beet sugar beets

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

I don't have any experience with beet sugar, but I know others that have said it's fine. Bottom line for winter feed: the purer the sugar, the better the overwintering success. If beet sugar is as pure as cane sugar, I'd expect the results to be similar.

[@tomahawkmissile241]

@@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping their both 99.95 percent glucose sugar thats about it. Beet sugar is from different areas compared to cane sugar depending on what is flown in. Might be able to grow sugar beets in alaska. It is complicated do not bother making sugar my bad. need to filter, add additives, heat to a liquior then seed it with sugar and have it centerfudiged dry to get the pure sugar just like making cane sugar except it does grow in colder climates i just got sick thinking about trying it lol

[@ricksutton2902]

I think you guys just told a big fat lie you're saying Bob Benny was a former Alaska beekeeper he never had bees in Alaska it is on your monologue

[@anchoragebackyardbeekeeping]

Hey Rick - thanks for watching. Bob lived in Alaska for 6 years. He worked as a taxi driver and a welder (among other things), but never kept bees here. However, it's where he first became interested in beekeeping. If you can show me any part of the video where we state or imply that he kept bees here, I'll edit i to make that clear.