Local beekeeper challenges long-held view that honeybees can’t survive Alaska winters
On a 22-degree day in mid-March, Anchorage backyard beekeeper Tim Huffman dusted 2 inches of fresh snow from his outdoor beehive boxes. He unfastened the ratchet straps securing a box to its wooden platform, pried the frozen lid open with a metal tool, and peeled back layers of insulation to reveal signs of life.
Dozens of honeybees meandered over a mound of sugar on a shelf above their insulated, 78-degree hive. One brave bee flew up, momentarily escaping its habitat, then immediately retreated back inside.
“I love seeing live bees in the winter,” Huffman said, swiftly re-securing the box, made of a heavy-duty Styrofoam called polystyrene. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that.”
In Alaska, hundreds of hobby beekeepers have pivoted from traditional practices by sustaining tropical honeybee colonies through sub-Arctic winters. Their teacher? Huffman, a beekeeper since 2018 who has culled knowledge from the internet and other northern practitioners on how to successfully and consistently sustain his hives year-round.
Longtime Southcentral Alaska beekeepers said that for decades, and even still today, many Alaska beekeepers have killed their insects each summer. They started hives anew each spring with bees shipped up from California.
“The prevailing wisdom has always been, ‘Oh, you can’t get bees through the winter in Alaska.’ Or, ‘It’s so rare, why even try,’ you know? ” said Nathan Broumley, a local beekeeper who has overwintered his hives with varying degrees of success since 2011.
But with the rising cost of bees and a growing body of advice from northern beekeepers who have kept their bees alive long enough to troubleshoot some of the difficulties, more beekeepers are devoting themselves to a sustainable practice. “We’re in a war of ideas,” Broumley said.
About half of Alaska beekeepers try overwintering their hives, according to Southcentral Alaska Beekeepers Association president and Big Lake bee dealer Steve Victors. But they don’t consistently see success.
Often hives will experience die-off midwinter from a parasite, or if they do survive, they are too weak by spring to produce honey, said Huffman. He experienced it himself.
In 2018, he said he got two hives through the winter, then lost them in the summer. Afterward, he got to researching why.
“Winter is when our bees die, it’s not why our bees die,” Huffman said.
Particularly important was learning about a pervasive parasite called the varroa mite, he said, and its treatment: a plant-based substance called oxalic acid, which kills mites but doesn’t hurt bees or contaminate their honey supplies.
“If your mites are under control, your bees are mostly healthy,” he said.
Another key to healthy bees is feeding them. What makes Alaska challenging for overwinter beekeeping isn’t the temperature, it’s the length of winter, Huffman said. It means beekeepers need to start feeding their colonies in late July or early August, when temperatures begin to drop and flowers’ nectar supplies dwindle, Huffman said. It also means making sure bees have a sufficient supply of sugar water and sugar throughout fall and winter.
It’s worked: Huffman said he hasn’t had to buy new bees in three years, meaning he consistently gets at least 80% of his hives through the winter.
He uses them to make more hives during the spring and summer to keep his practice self-sustaining. To do that, he goes into winter with more colonies than his target of 10 hives he needs for the spring, to account for some die-off. This winter, he expects 13 of the 15 hives he manages to survive, and will sell the excess.
“I’m just doing what other people have done in other places,” Huffman said, crediting many of the methods he’s cobbled together to Canadian beekeeper Etienne Tardif. Tardif is based in the Yukon and has meticulously researched and adapted his overwintering techniques he shares on his YouTube page, North of 60 Beekeeping.
“I’ve gotten good at copying (other people), and … taking technical knowledge and translating it to what it means for local beekeepers,” Huffman said.
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In the years since, Huffman has become something of a sustainable beekeeping spokesman. In 2018, he partnered with Broumley to create the Midnight Sun Sustainable Beekeeping Club, with a tagline to “practice and promote” sustainable keeping. The club now has 1,600 members, and markets T-shirts that read “My bees live in a no kill zone.”
Huffman also was hired by 49th State Brewing to manage their bee colonies in 2020, which he’s done ever since. He started a YouTube channel that has garnered 2,000 followers, Anchorage Backyard Beekeeping, to share free information on topics including “10 Recommendations for New Beekeepers,” “Checking on Your Bees in Winter (Without Killing Them)” and “Ventilation vs Insulation.” He’s also hosted local, free or low-cost workshops and delivered lectures on the same topics.
“He’s brought so much attention to sustainable beekeeping,” said Broumley, who said he never got more than about 60% of his bees through the winter until he began following Huffman’s guidelines for treating hives for mites each October.
“That made a big, big difference,” Broumley said. “Last season I got 80% of them over the winter.” This season, he’s expecting the same success rate.
Other beekeepers are starting to see the difference by adapting some of Huffman’s curated techniques, too.
Linda Gorman, a Homer beekeeper since 2007, was consistently getting about a 50% survival rate each winter using wooden hives. Then five years ago, she made the switch to polystyrene boxes, which trap heat better than wood. “That’s changed everything,” she said.
With the hive change, she’s mastered a winter feeding schedule, and began treating her bees for mites. After that, she said she’s consistently gotten about an 80% survival rate. She adopted Huffman’s specific feeding strategies this past winter — to leave a reserve layer of sugar on the hive’s top shelf, which bees can fly up to and eat if they go through their winter honey supply — and it’s shaping up to be her best year yet.
“Tim Huffman, granted, he’s a new beekeeper, but he’s really gotten into it, and really investigates stuff and brings ideas forward,” Malone said. “I just think he’s the cat’s meow in beekeeping right now.”
Ben Burton, a Fairbanks beekeeper since 2013, was close to quitting before he found Huffman’s group. He was following the local practice of killing his bees at the end of each summer, and it was killing him, he said.
“It never really crossed my mind to try to overwinter them — until I found Huffman’s page,” he said. Two winters ago, he switched from wooden boxes to polystyrene boxes, and followed the group’s advice on feeding, insulation, and hive setup. Now, he said, he’s had two successful winters.
“It’s exciting to be able to keep bees through the cold Fairbanks winters without external heat sources,” he said.
Economic factors have also contributed to more beekeepers turning toward a sustainable model. One package of bees, which translates to about one hive and typically includes 12,000 honeybees and a queen, costs about $250 each.
Mark Saddler, a Wasilla beekeeper, said he’s been following Huffman’s recommendations since 2020 and is seeing his best year yet, with eight of his nine hives enduring this winter.
“The best thing about doing this sustainably is, you don’t have to buy bees every year. You can split from the stock you have and just create more hives,” Saddler said. “You’re that much ahead if you’re able to get them through the winter.”
Correction: This article has been updated to correct Homer beekeeper Linda Gorman’s last name.
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