A healthy honeybee colony may contain 50-75,000 bees in midsummer but by midwinter the colony population can diminish to 10,000 or fewer bees. Honeybees communal ‘consciousness’ recognizes fewer bees consume less honey, ensuring the colonies’ survival. (courtesy image: www.greenmatters.com).
By: John Green, Texas Certified Expert Gardener, Orange, TX
A friend recently asked a question regarding bees (while not specific, he was speaking to honeybees…in particular). He stated, “that he never sees bees in the winter, so they must hibernate?” I decided this would become this week’s topic since I’m certain there are many gardeners who might like more understanding regarding our most prolific pollinators: honeybees.
The short answer is “no”, they don’t hibernate because bees don’t sleep. By now most readers know that I don’t like ‘short’ answers (my inquiring mind requires significant details) nor do I provide short answers to ‘complicated’ questions! While it is true that honeybees don’t sleep (hibernate), it is also true that honeybees tend not to leave the hive once temperatures become cold. As temperatures begin falling into the mid 50’s honeybees very seldom fly outside the hive (other bee species use different coping mechanisms for environmental shifts).
Perhaps common knowledge (perhaps not) for many people is that bees prepare for winter by storing honey and pollen within the hive, as a food source to be consumed during winter, but honeybees do much more in preparation for winter. Beginning in autumn, the queen will reduce the number of eggs she lays each day and by the start of the New Year she often will stop laying completely.
A strong hive may contain 50-75,000 bees in midsummer but in the middle of winter the colony population will diminish to 10,000 or fewer. Honeybees communal ‘consciousness’ realizes that fewer bees consume less available resources, which ensures the colonies survival. Honeybees group around the queen and brood, creating a compact cluster inside the hive which undulates based upon temperature. Worker bees are tasked with keeping the hive warm by generating heat. The collective survival goal is to elevate the hives’ internal temperature to sustain the queen, brood, and colony. Since bees don’t sleep, they can’t hibernate…in fact the survival of the colony requires them to remain active! Worker bees flex shoulder muscles and move their abdomens (vibrate) to produce heat. Bees continually rotate their positions within the cluster structure from the cluster’s center to the cluster’s perimeter (outer layer), allowing other honeybees to flex muscles and keep the hive warm.
Honeybees developed a significantly different overwintering strategy from other bee species which allows them to remain within the hive. The hive is a protected environment which allows for this type of optimized overwintering strategy to work and maintain food resources though the winter months.
The combined heat generated by worker bees can drastically increase a hive’s core temperature to 90 degrees! There are two structural segments which comprise a honeybee’s cluster- the dense outer mantle, and a loose inner core. The colony’s reserve of honey must be large enough to sustain the colony for the winter months. The amount of energy required for worker bees to generate heat during the winter to deliver requisite heat to the hive…enormous and exhaustive! Since honeybee colonies do not ‘grow’ during winter months, resources are finite and limited to sustain the colony which means drones (males) are edited (forced out) in autumn to restrict unnecessary energy demands though new drones will be ‘raised’ the following spring.
Our SETX fall temperature will often range between 60 to 70 degrees and there are some bees who will fly. Colony cleanliness is paramount, which means that often the first bees to fly are the undertaker bees removing dead sisters, along with housekeeping bees removing waste from the hive. If the temperature stabilizes, remaining warmer for a few days, more bees will leave the hive searching for nectar and pollen.
Some homeowners might have honeybees colonize an empty space (speaking from personal experience three times during the past few years) in the eave or wall of a home and never know until warm spring temperatures arrive. I have relied on a friend (Master beekeeper) for assistance in removing and relocating colonies. Local beekeepers are often called upon in March/ April to extract colonies, where homeowners state, “the bees just showed up” but upon investigation determined the colony has older combs and a well-formed brood!
Did you Know: The honeybee queen will ramp up her egg laying production in mid-February and by mid-April she will be laying 2000 to 2500 eggs a day. The queen wants the hive size to increase rapidly back to prewinter population of 50-75,000 bees before late May, taking advantage of nectar resources.
For beekeepers, March is a critical time since March is when bee starvation is most likely. When warm weather arrives early in February the queen begins to lay eggs earlier and faster…fooled by the warmer weather and initial abundance of nectar and pollen. Once the colony population increases so does honey consumption…excessive rain or a cold snap in spring can decimate a colony as the bees are exhausted, unfortunately starving the hive. Spring 2019 was a prime example, in late February 2019 honeybee colonies were off to a good start, hives were active with increased brood. A late cold snap with several days of non-stop rain, hives were struggling with nothing to sustain them.
Support local Beekeepers in Orange and Jefferson counties. Purchase honey directly from a local source and not supermarkets! Purchase “REAL TEXAS HONEY”, rather than imported honey ‘products’ which unfortunately are labeled as Texas honey.
Until next week fellow gardeners, let’s go out and grow ourselves a greener, more sustainable world, one plant at a time! Gardening questions answered: jongreene57@gmail.com.
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