I keep getting the question about what my bees did when it was so cold. How'd they survive? I'll tell you! But first, enjoy this random picture I took today... this group of bees was clinging together by their sister's leg. Bees are pretty incredible!
I love the first peek into the world the bees have been shut up in for the last few months. I dream about this moment weeks before it happens. So... what have they been up to? How did they survive the brutal temps we had last month in northeast Kansas? (and everywhere!)
Unlike many insects that die when it's cold and are survived by their young, bees live through the cold by making a cluster. They move their bodies by shivering and flapping their wings to create warmth with the queen bee somewhere in the center of that tight cluster, where they maintain a constant temperature in the 90's. (The queen is enjoying her time at the sauna even when it was -20!) The outside bees trade places with the bees on the inside to maintain a rotation of temperature and so they can get a meal. It takes a lot of energy to keep the cluster warm, and they have to eat their stored honey. (This is why they make honey in the first place!) The cluster moves around the hive eating their winter stores as they go.
I did lose a couple of hives during that cold snap. One hive was small going into winter. Sadly, their cluster was just too small to make it and that loss wasn't too unexpected. The other hive I lost most likely starved to death. This hive was HUGE, they probably had around 60.000 bees inside. Before it got too cold, I noticed their numbers were booming going into the coldest part of winter. I was excited! That many bees need a LOT of food. I had a candy board and pollen patty placed so I wasn't too worried. When I checked that hive after the cold snap, they had no food left that I'd given them and the bees had eaten all of the honey around them and had died with their heads buried in the comb looking for another drop to eat. The sad part is that just a frame away were several more frames of honey. My best guess is that they couldn't break the tight cluster during those cold cold days to move over a couple of frames. :( Beekeeping is both a joy and sorrow. I am getting better at not getting too emotional over them, but I'm still sad when I lose a hive over the winter, especially that big one I had planned to split into two hives. All isn't lost with their loss though. I will get more bees to put in those hives and they can get right to work since there is already built-out comb and honey. Losing bees is part of beekeeping, and I learn from each loss how to be a better beekeeper so I will hopefully lose less or maybe none at all the next year.
The good news is I still have six (counting the 4H hives I care for!) healthy hives. Today I fed them some 1:1 sugar water and looked at a couple of frames in each hive. I saw eggs, larva, capped brood, and even a couple of the queens! There are a couple of hives I plan to split and I would like to add a couple more hives to the back of our property so I am getting ready for those. Bee math is kind of like chicken math... What's one more beehive, or chicken? Right?
After checking the hives I worked on updating my records. It's important to keep track of what I see in each hive so I know what steps I need to take to make sure they have a successful spring and summer. Here's my shameless plug to my Beehive Inspection Notebook! :) If you have bees or know a beekeeper, this book is for you!
I hope you learned a little about bees. Have a treat today with honey! It's almost allergy season and it will help... not to mention it's pretty delicious.
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