Winter bees

At the last count we had two feral honey bee colonies in the reserve, both high up in veteran trees. How will the bees cope with this cold snap?

When the temperature drops, the worker honey bees cluster together in the nest, vibrating their wing muscles to generate warmth. The queen is usually right at the centre of the cluster, her pheromones acting to calm her colony.

The colony will be living off the stores of honey and pollen that they built up during the summer. Commercial beekeepers reported poor crops of honey last summer as a result of higher than average rainfall and lower than average temperatures. Hopefully our colonies will have enough stockpiled to see them through.

The bees rarely leave their nest in the winter, taking occasional cleansing flights to relieve themselves, and on fine days clearing away dead bees and detritus. Despite the cold and the damp, honey bees live longer during the winter: they are warm inside the nest and safely away from all the dangers and stresses attendant on foraging in the fields.

Header image: Feral bee colony at Fiveways by Simon Knight