Wintertime can be taxing to a honey bee hive. They may freeze or starve or simply lose too many of their members to be strong enough to start over in the spring. Beekeepers keep a close watch on their hives help ensure survival but in the wild the hive must rely on having enough resources to support the colony.
Tasks in the Honey Bee Hive
While honey bees are well known for their ability to make honey, it is sometimes overlooked that the purpose of their task is to create food to sustain themselves. In the warmer months, much of a honey bee's life is spent collecting pollen and nectar and raising new bees. The constant activity takes quite a toll and an individual bee may live only four to six weeks in the summer. As there is less opportunity to forage and the temperature starts to dip below 50 degrees bees remain in the hive and work to keep the queen and any brood warm. Although it is hard work keeping the hive warm there is less risk involved while remaining in the hive so bees that overwinter will often live for several months.
How Honey Bees Keep Warm
Contrary to popular belief, bees do not "hibernate" in a scientific sense. Their metabolic rate remains normal as they cluster together to maintain a hive temperature of around 90 degrees. Worker bees will create a cluster with the queen bee at the center. The workers flex their wing muscles - although they do not actually use or flap their wings - to generate heat. The ball is constantly moving as the bees on the outermost edge of the cluster move inward to warm themselves and those on the inside move out. The cluster will remain over brood to keep it from becoming chilled and dying and will also move to areas of honey stores in order to eat.
If brood and honey are spaced too far apart and there is a dearth of warm days in which the bees can move about more freely, the bees will often remain over the brood and ultimately starve to death. This can be the case even when the hive may be otherwise full of honey.
On the occasional warm day, bees will take "cleansing flights" to defecate and may remove debris and dead bees that have accumulated within the hive. It is often detrimental to have a winter with many highs and lows as the bees will fly more to look for forage which requires use of the honey stores as they need to eat prior to flying from the hive.
Beekeeping Tasks for Winter
While beekeepers spend a lot of time inspecting hives and processing honey in the warmer months, keeping tabs on a bee hive in the winter is a crucial chore. As the days get cooler, beekeepers will check the honey stores of their hives. In the mid-Atlantic region, most hives require about 60 pounds of stored honey to make it through the winter. If a beekeeper finds a hive to be low in stores and the nectar flow is nearing its end, the beekeeper will feed the hive a sugar syrup to help them make up the difference. However, even hives that have enough honey in the fall may face the danger of running out of honey if there is a prolonged or late cold snap. Under these circumstances, beekeepers may provide "emergency feed" by pouring straight granulated sugar on top of the frames of the hive so that bees can consume it directly to maintain their energy until plants begin to bloom.
Jessica Ferguson - Jess-of-all-trades! You name it, I'm probably interested in it. 15+ years experience as a gardener and naturalist and all that comes ...
