An Update About our Saskatraz Bees. They’re Doing Incredible!

I have had a lot of interest from readers and friends about our experience with Saskatraz bees. I wrote an article here about my experience with this new race of bee after we had raised them for one year, and it has generated a lot of interest and questions. Right off the bat, I will tell you that Saskatraz bees have done better than any race I have raised thus far.

As you may know from my previous posts, I have had experience raising several bee races, including Carnolioan, Russian, Italian, and Saskatraz, most recently however, I had switched to solely Russian and Saskatraz. This article is an update regarding how these bees have done this past year, now that I am two years in.

Both my Russian and Saskatraz colonies were doing fine until we had a cold snap in early Spring. The temperatures had warmed up for a good week or two, but then plummeted overnight to below freezing, and stayed that way for about a week. Sadly, the Russians died, which surprised me because they had done really well all winter long. This happened with both of our hive locations, and upon investigation I believe they froze.

Within a few weeks of the Russian hives dying however, the Saskatraz bees at one location had split, and taken over the previous Russian hive.

Meanwhile, a close friend had requested that I establish an apiary on his property, so I had ordered additional bee packages for him. From the previous Fall’s harvest, and because of how well they were doing during the winter, I had ordered both Russian and Saskatraz races again. So, now, I have multiple Saskatraz and Russian hives.

It has been illuminating to observe and compare the development of both Russians and Saskatraz colonies side by side, and compare the two. I will be equally interested to see which hives will produce the most, and best quality of honey this Fall……I will definitely keep you posted as this happens.

We installed our additional bee packages (bought from a local distributor of Olivarez Honey Bees) in early spring, and are about 6 weeks in. Thus far, the comparison of the Russians and Saskatraz has been fascinating, and the Saskatraz have by far outperformed the Russians.

We have used Langford-style hives with ten frames in each deep super, and the frames of the Saskatraz bees were filled out with combs and several frames even had capped honey. The Russians hives however, though healthy, had only filled out 6 ½ -7 frames per super with comb.

You can watch a video of one of our early summer hive inspections to see whether we needed to add another super here (video will be uploaded later this week). (To establish a strong hive, it is always recommended that you use at least two deep supers to support the colony). As you can see in the video, both the Russian and the Saskatraz bees were ready for additional supers, however, the Saskatraz hives were outperforming the Russians.

The Saskatraz bees were more active. They had built out more comb, more bees were noticable, and the energy level of the hive was visibly higher than the Russians. Interestingly, both hives have acted similarly gentle in temperament as we have checked on them during the summer. (We’ll see if this continues when it comes time to harvest).

One thing to learn from our inspection, and you will want to be aware of, is that your hives may become honey bound. Which means, that your hives will grow out of room to store honey, brood, bee bread, or to expand the colony. If this happens, it can hamper the health of your hive. Some races will swarm, and some colonies will be lost or become overly aggressive. This will also limit your productivity. To avoid this problem, or treat a honey bound hive, you can expand it, add a super, or pull honey early.

If you have the time and resources, I would recommend you pull the honey when you can. We actually will add another deep super to give the colony more room to grow as needed. With an initial colony, you will generally only need to inspect them every 11-14 days, but with the Saskatraz race, it may warrant checking weekly, because they seem to be very productive. (If you are using medium supers you may need to check more often, as medium supers are smaller, and will fill up faster). We have written another article about honey bound hives “here”.

If you are going to start with a Saskatraz hive, I would recommend using deep supers because of their productivity. If you are using medium supers, you may be more likely to find your colonies becoming honeybound.

The second thing I am going to recommend with Saskatraz bees is that you inspect them more often. As mentioned above, because your supers may fill up faster, you will want to stay on top of where your hives are production-wise.

I would also note that the energy level of the Saskatraz bees is visibly higher than other breeds I’ve worked with, so you will want to keep this in mind as you decide where to establish a hive. Though not overly aggressive, this energy and excess movement may spook livestock or larger animals. Additionally, your human neighbors are more likely to notice these bees than other breeds. The Saskatraz colony seems to have a higher traffic rate, and will attract more attention.

Because of this energy level, I think that the Saskatraz race would be exceptional solution to use as contract pollinators. (Bees that are rented out by farms and food growers to pollinate their crop) such as the almond and blueberry farmers in California and other locations.) You can read more about contract pollination here in this forum from beemaster.com.

One other thing I think is worth mentioning, is that I was warned when I purchased the Saskatraz bees that they were prone to swarming, and I was going to take precautions against this. I had planned on inpesecting them early in the Spring to guard against this, but as I mentioned, my Saskatraz colony had already split and taken over the old Russian hive. I wonder, if they hadn’t had access to the Russian hive, if they would have swarmed. And I would have lost them. It is worth noting, as you will want to take your own measures to prevent swarming if this truly is something in the Saskatraz nature. You can read about swarm prevention in this article.

Getting back to my bees…..upon our initial inspection, just like the previous year, the Saskatraz bees had built more propolis in the hive itself, (as compared to the Russians and any other race I’ve worked with, including Italian and Carnolian) and according to this article, propolis is essential to hive health and resistance to bacteria, viruses, mites and other things that may harm bees.

Another question we have been asked, has been regarding how our Saskatraz bees did during the winter. From our experience, the Saskatraz did well. They covered the upper hive entrance with propolis entirely. Whereas, our Russian hive only half covered the top entrance with propolis. The Saskatraz bees appeared to be more proactive in protecting and preserving their hive. All outward inspections revealed a healthy buzz throughout the winter, and I checked them (exteriorly) every week.

This winter on our homestead was exceptionally cold and wet, with some sub-zero days, and warm days interspersed. It was a heavier precipitation (snow year) than we’ve had in years. We also experienced a great deal of inversion, or air trappage, which I think can affect bees as well.

When it was warm enough, (above 42 degrees) I also observed the Saskatraz bees making various cleansing flights as expected. Incredibly, I actually watched them gathering what appeared to be pollen from unknown sources (perhaps a greenhouse or evergreen trees) during the warm winter days as well. Perhaps this was fungus, or tree sap, but they were actively gathering something.

We have talked a lot about the new packages of Saskatraz bees I installed this spring, but as I spoke of earlier, I installed new packages because I was impressed with the colonies that I started over a year ago. Of the two hives I started over a year ago, both are thriving. Their energy levels are high. They are incredibly resourceful, and I have observed these bees taking many gathering flights in and out of their respective hives. They aren’t aggressive towards others, or defensively, but they are aggressive workers. As mentioned above, when my Russian hives died after a cold snap, the Saskatraz bees took over their supers within a matter or weeks. You can watch a video here (video will be uploaded this week), of one of my inspections of the older Saskatraz hives and see for yourself how well they are doing.

Regardless, I hope this information is helpful to you as you continue your own adventures in beekeeping, and look into trying the Saskatraz race. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about them.