My mouth is watering just thinking about fresh honey! Jeff, if your hives produce, and you want to sell some, PM me. Right now I get one of my wife's brother in laws from FL to send me some from time to time. Just think, before sugar, honey and fruits used to provide the bulk of sweet things in the world.

Jeff,
I let drawn comb be. Easier for the bees if they don't have to draw out new comb every year.
I've never seen mites on any of my bees I get from Steve Victors.

Ya, I bought an electric fence to put around the hives that are not by my cabin.
Bummer to lose a hive with the price of bees now!

FL cracker I used to buy orange blossom honey from a Florida bee keeper on here was great stuff ! although he said the cane was better. will keep you in mind if I get any extra this year.


CM One consolation prize for my dead out was drawn comb, bee keepers gold. so I have a better start this year.

My bees are from Steve this year, and look like great bees.

The mites are not very visible they attack the larva under the capped cell, they build with the bee population, then as the bees decline in they fall they get bad, deformed wing disease, bees crawling on the ground, its a bad deal. I used MAQ strips they are nitric acid I believe kind of nasty stuff, but worked great. My hive got healthy again after I used one. They normally treat after the honey harvest.

Does anyone know how far upstream the hooligan get in the kenai?I heard they get above Soldatna.I am at river mile 26 and was wondering if I might be able to get a few this spring.

Hello is the anybody out there?

I have seen them up at Bings Landing which is about 40 Mile of the Kenai river. However since you are a non resident it would be illegal for you to participate in the Hooligan personal use fishery.

Thanks!! I know just looking to get a few with hook and line.

Going to have yellow feet soup.

Yukonjeff, you can split to avoid swarming, here in Wi its about the end of June. If you have good nectar flow and good laying queen you can get honey for yourself and enough to leave on hive for winter or you can feed like the dickens before October and bees will take in but advise to feed a winter type pollen paddy so bees will be healthier than just the straight sugar water/ Feed one to one sugar water so bees dont have to evaporate so much moisture. Also make sure you have good venting so moisture in hive gets out and bees dont die from wetness in hive and die fm hypothermia. Fun keeping bees alive now days.....good luck

Lucky! I have to wait a little bit longer before I can have some of that good soup.

Thanks RDFX they swarmed on me last year and didn't make much honey, I will try to avoid it if I can this year. I also have a Russian queen coming in June, so might try to split if things look good,so far they are doing great.

Ryan
They just started really pouring in here the last couple days, my first time out, no snows,or many cranes and ducks here yet, lots of swans and geese.

YJ- Hopefully we start seeing a few next week once it starts warming up. I based my time off for this years hunt on last years timing of the geese run and if the geese don't start showing up before next Friday then me and the kids will be kind of bored waiting around for geese.

awesome, i am missing out on bird hunting at home, in brevig mission right now for art and culture expo for the school district.

Tender enough, falls off the bones.

awesome!!! makes my mouth water. three more days of dreaming of hunting birds then I will be able to head out and hunt.

What do you guys think of this as a camp/berry picking gun? I want one, but I can't tell if I want it because it's "cool" or if I'd have a use for it.

Be a handy truck gun in the city.

If it was nickel plated or stainless, it would make a good camp/canoe trip gun. Having to deal with a gun that will rust is no fun when you are travelling in the bush for extended periods of time.

i went out this weekend, just tickle a few, wind slowed down my pellets and rolled off the birds. hopefully this weekend I will have better weather to head out.

Having a good spring up here in Kotzebue.
Figured I'd share since I enjoy reading the journals on this site.

2017 April 29 Saturday
Kids and I took off out of Kotzebue around 1:30pm. Kids were a little apprehensive about the water and slush on top of the ice, but got used to it pretty quick. We were looking to meet up with our friends, Dom & Bobo... but they hunted farther upriver. Saw quite a few birds around… geese, swans, ducks. This spring seems to be a little behind last year, but still a week or two earlier than normal for melting & birds showing up. The weather was mostly calm & clear, sloppy trail once we got into the river. We hunted at the kinnaq island mud spot for about 3 ½ hours. The kids did pretty well in the blind. They sat on their green plastic chairs and played with the slime from the JNES Spring Carnival. We caught a speck & two Canada geese. The kids retrieved all the birds and “helped” pluck one. Heard a few shots from upriver, but we seemed to have the most action… at least in the vicinity.


Taylor & Caleb's Goose Hunt w/Dad

2017 May 5 - 7 FRI - SUN
Friday
My wife went to Fairbanks for her good friend's UAF graduation & the kids are in Noorvik with "Noorvik Aana" & Taata. Bobo and I decided to check out the Jones’ Trail to see if it was travelable for a trip to the WTK Flats tomorrow. Left town around 6:30pm. The weather has been up & down… couldn’t see Jones’ Hill when we left Kotz. I was so excited & rushing to get out that I forgot my goose calls. Luckily, Bobo brought his & saved the day. Couldn’t reach the tundra portion of the trail… too much water. We saw a few geese around and decided to hunt toward the end of Paul’s Slough where I hunted last year.
Dropped a speck and had to water-skip to pick it up. My machine has the DS-2 skis without ski-skins & it wants to dart when breaking through the thin ice on top of the water… very tippy. I need to swap the skis or try the ski skins. Makes me wonder if the T-Motion suspension has anything to do with the tippy action. I can probably mess with the preload on the suspension to lighten up the ski pressure too.
Two specks landed in the decoys while I was outside the blind hauling willows & Bobo was standing up in the blind looking through binocs! I scooted around the blind to my shotgun (knee still isn’t 100% from the patellar tendon tear in November) and we got both geese. I had to help Bobo out with his… his Remington Sportsman shells weren’t quite up to the task of killing a landed goose at 20 yards.
Started packing up decoys & getting ready to leave… and as it always seems to go, more geese showed up just after we started packing up.
Didn't bring the Go Pro on this hunt.




Saturday
Got up early (6am), packed up the sled & made the quick trip back to the blind. Brought a few more decoys and gear than yesterday. The weather is supposed to warm up by 10 degrees. The backcountry is still a little scary to water skip with… I need to adjust the suspension or swap skis. Seems to do OK if there is no ice on top the water.
Bobo came out for a few hours to hunt before graduation, shot two geese before he got there. The birds were very active, but the 15 mph NE wind was making it hard to get them to come in to the decoys. Several groups came in, but would be just out of range since the wind would push them down the slough. We moved the decoys closer & that helped a little. Bobo dropped a speck before he had to take off for town.
I wing-shot a Canada goose and it landed out in the wide-open flat, just wounded enough so that it couldn’t fly. About 2 minutes later a couple of snowmachines drove up, didn’t see my blind, but they spotted the goose. The guy in front stopped (looked like my buddy Beanie) & got his shotgun out and drove up to the goose and shot it. The guys looked around & it seemed like they spotted my blind where I was standing up & looking with the binocs. I was expecting them to come over & trade the goose for a shotgun shell or something… instead after a few minutes they started up their machines and drove off with the goose. Couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Started seeing big flocks of snow geese show up later in the afternoon. 10 – 15 flocks of 50 – 150 snow geese each. Some flocks were traveling and heading north, but other flocks were circling the tundra & the flats and sticking around. Didn’t get any chances at them, but got 13 specks & 5 canada geese for the day. Packed up the sled & took off for home around 11pm. The action was picking up quite a bit as I was packing… I even shot one speck after I had all the decoys picked up and my gear piled up outside the blind.


Jones Trail Goose Hunting 2017

Sunday
Didn’t set an alarm, but woke up at 6am wide awake… decided to make a quick trip back out to the blind & hunt before the kids come back from Noorvik at 2:30. Rode the wide-track (with the good skis & ski skins) this time… waterskipping over the partially frozen water was much better.
Still windy, but I was able to call geese down & they would circle the blind a couple of times getting lower & lower until they were in range. Got 5 snow geese out of two flocks that were on the edge of shooting range. Only brought a box of shells today… having to pick & choose my shots. Ended up with 9 specks in addition to the snow geese. I had to use the Go Pro footage (previewed in the iPhone app) to find one of the specks that I spent about 30 minutes looking for & couldn’t find.
Lots of fun & lots of action for less than 4 hours of hunting.


Jones Trail Goose Hunting 2017 Part 2

Happy hunting & be safe out there.