Have you ever wondered what bees do in the winter?
July 13, 2021
Well, I can tell you what they don't do… they don't pack a bag and head to Florida.
The world of honey bees breaks down into three social classes: worker bees (all female), drones (male bees whose only job is to mate with the queen), and the almighty queen (who can live up to 5 years and her only job is to lay eggs). Worker Bees start to prepare for winter when working their hardest in the Spring and Summer. And the only reason they work so hard is to make sure they have honey to survive the winter. When temperatures start heading to 50 degrees and below, it's time to go to the hive.
While collecting honey is one of the essential jobs honey bees have, there is another job just as important as storing their precious honey. That is to protect, serve, and provide for the queen and the hive.
Doing this (I will explain the crucial work of nurse bees and all the work they do in another blog) involves the worker bees kicking out the male drones (who eat way too much anyway) in late Autumn because they don't have enough food for everyone. Quite frankly, the hive sees them as worthless, so out they go. As we learned, honey is mandatory to survive during the winter. Also, making sure there is enough food and keeping their queen warm and snuggly is very important. She will, after all, go back to her duties colonizing the hive come spring. So, her court of female worker bees will surround the queen by shimmering and shaking and doing all they can to keep that hive warm for her "Majesty the Queen." The colder it gets, the more intense the worker bees will dance to stay warm. Everyone working together for the health of the hive. The honey bees will form a cluster and are continually moving from the outside to the inside, ensuring that no one gets cold. Interesting fact, winter worker bees, which differ from summer worker bees, are a little bit plumper and can bring a bit more heat to the hive, allowing them to live longer than the average 4-6 weeks. This diverse cluster, when working correctly, is a well-oiled machine. A perk while working on the inside of the beehive is you get to feed off the stored honey. Yum!
As we all know, all work and no play makes a honeybee burn out. So, when it is a nice day, the honey bees will fly away for a short distance to take a break, do a little exercise, and get rid of some body waste, but they always fly right back again; why? It is all about the hive, keeping the queen and her brood warm. But, there is a downside to taking this mini-vacation. If the worker bee comes back and its body temperature has gotten too cold, it will be out of luck and exiled from the hive. There is so much more that we know about the nature of honey bee hives, but we can discuss them in future blogs. Until then, here are some interesting facts, according to Texas A&M University Honey Bee information site:
HONEY BEE FACTS (MOST FROM THE TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY HONEY BEE INFORMATION SITE )
Bees have 5 eyes.
Bees being insects have 6 legs.
Male bees in the beehive are called drones.
Bees have the ability to fly about 20 mph.
Female bees in the beehive are called worker bees except for the queen.
The queen can lay as many as 2,000 eggs per day.
Bees will die if they lose their stinger.
Bees have been around for around 30 million years!
Bees carry pollen in the corbicula back to the hive.
The average beehive holds around 50,000 bees.
Forager bees must collect nectar from around 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.
The average forager bee makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
The average per capita honey consumption in the US is 1.3 pounds.
Bees have 2 pairs of wings.
The primary form of communication for honey bees is through chemicals called pheromones.
Bees are essential because they pollinate approximately 130 agricultural crops in the US.
Bee pollination adds about 14 billion dollars annually to improved crop yield and quality.