Overwintering Bees

The week of freezing temperatures was a trainwreck. We all saw it coming, and we all flinched. The bees had been getting out in the warm spring air, coming back into the hives with pollen and nectar – and I don’t even know where they were getting it – when a week-long freeze showed up in the forecast.

A normal winter looks like this: Worker bees kick the drones to the curb in the fall, and they stock up honey for the long winter. As temps drop, they gather into a tiny ball and warm themselves by vibrating wings. The temperature inside the ball is a steady 95 degrees. The temps can drop to sub-zero, and it doesn’t matter. The workers on the outside will eat the honey they can reach and turn it into heat energy, alternating between warm inside and eating outside. They do this all winter long.

In a mild winter, things actually get worse. Without the cold temperatures, the bees will go out foraging. But with no flowers blooming, they are just wasting energy. They will come back to the hive and consume more honey, and eventually the hive will run out, with nothing to replace.

But perhaps the saddest scenario – and what happened during our freezing week – is when the bees have to deal with a hard freeze after a warm spell.

Warm weather and early flowers mean that the bees come back to the hive with pollen collected (protein) and nectar (carbo-loading). When they do that, they signal to the queen and she starts laying eggs. And she goes mad with egg production. The numbers have been small throughout the winter, and they have served to keep the hive alive, but now… IT IS EGG LAYING TIME.

The worker bees then are divided into groups that have two jobs. The first group goes out foraging for nectar and pollen to feed the troops. The second take care of the brood.

That is where our heroines were when the cold weather of the past week hit.

What happens when you split your attention between two essential tasks?

Freezing temps, COLD.

Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper is one of the earliest stories we teach our kids – planning ahead is important, industry is important, and just goofing off doesn’t pay off in the long term.

I argue that the bee provides a better analogy, by far, than the ant. The hard work to provide pollen and nectar for the winter months is far more the moral tale for the benefit of industry than the ant.

But even if the bee prepares perfectly, Mother Nature calls the tune. And sometimes, the tune is a harsh one.

When the bees have divided loyalties, the older worker bees focus on keeping the hive warm. The younger worker bees – the nurses – focus on caring for the babies. Splitting the focus means nobody survives. The cluster does not have enough bees to keep warm. The nurses cannot save the babies, and they die, bodies trying in vain to protect the next generation.

I almost think that the quick freeze was the kinder of the two. My other hive survived the freeze, and a week later when I opened the hive, I found the queen, wandering around the hive with all of her next generation gone. She was beautiful and proud, and had no interest at all in hiding from me.

I closed the hive back up and waited for two weeks.

In that time, she had not laid any more eggs. She was an older queen – in her third year, and had limited time left – this year was probably going to be the last of Catherine the Great.

But I opened the hive today, and I when found no new brood, I sadly acknowledged the death knell of her reign. The remaining bees will fight off the hive beetles as best they can, but it is a losing battle. No matter what they do, their numbers will decrease.

It is a sad day for my bee yard. The last two hives – the ones I did not lose last fall – are gone. I have plans, and I have next steps. I have ordered Italian bees through the mail. I have removals and swarms that I will be able to use to fill my boxes, and there are at least two swarms that my Russian girls cast off to the local ecozone. Her genes are represented.

I will still miss Catherine. She was a good girl, and a good queen. I will always remember the freeze of 2021 as the late winter that did her in.

The Queen is Dead.

Long Live the Queen.