Outdoor adventures are pleasant during the spring and summer seasons. However, rogue bees can ruin this feeling during outdoor outings; this will not be an issue during the winter because, just like other creatures, insects have to survive the winter, more so honeybees. During this season, bees employ different strategies to help them deal with the cold climate and find food to eat since much of their movement is reduced to only inside the beehive. They don’t fly around. So how do they survive during the winter?
Honeybees do not hibernate. Instead, bees are able to raise their body temperatures at will, and they survive the cold of winter by remaining together within their hives and living on the food stored within and the heat generated by the bee population therein.
If you are looking for the same answer, then stick around for detailed insight about honeybees during the winter.
What happens to honeybees in the winter?
Have you wondered what happens to honeybees during the winter?
Well, I have an answer for you.
First, they survive by using what they have. By saying this, I mean they stay together in a cluster to generate heat or warmth. However, not all bees manage to survive. Some of them die during this period. The formed cluster is used for two purposes (to keep them warm and to surround the queen snug in the middle show that she does not die. The honeybee generation has to continue beyond the winter period.
Even though the honeybees form a cluster to keep warm, they remain proactive inside the beehive, and honey production continues. In some incidents, the beekeeper supplies them with some medications to overcome diseases caused by cold weather. In this case, honey can be harvested, but one must ensure the bees have enough honey to feed until the summer is back for the bees to go out and look for food, such as nectars.
How do honey bees survive winter?
Although most insects hibernate during the winter; honeybees stay put and fight the cold weather during the winter. As a result, there are several strategies they employ to counter the cold. Despite the strategies proving successful from time to time, in some incidents, the majority, if not all, the honeybees die, leaving the queen as the sole survivor. Some of these strategies include diapause and hibernation, but in this article, we seek to answer whether the honeybees survive during the winter and how.
Honeybees always manage to survive during the winter. They remain super active during this period. The first strategy must solve the equations surrounding the coldness and how to generate warmth. To counter the cold season, the honeybees come together and form a cluster in their hive. In this period, the queen stops laying eggs in the early stage of the winter to avoid producing many bees, which will increase the demand for food and lead to the shortage since they cannot go out to search for food. Food consumption is wise and carefully utilized to see them through the winter.
The second issue is the food they will feed on. As the cluster is being formed, the movement of these bees is restricted; thus, the only available food is their honey which must be adequately utilized to see them through the cold season. However, when the cluster forms enough temperature, the bees outside the cluster can separate and search for the food before they come back and join the others in the cluster. Their main survival is dependent on the honey and the cluster for food and warmth, respectively.
At what temperature do bees die?
Probably you are wondering does the cluster produces enough temperature to keep honeybees alive and what happens if the temperature is too much? All these are figured in this article. First, you should know that honeybees are very tolerant when it comes to cold. They are the most tolerant insects around. This nature has enabled them to survive different weather conditions across the globe. However, their weather tolerance does vary across the species. For example, honeybees in a tropical climate are tolerant to hot temperatures.
Consequently, honeybees in a cooler climate are highly likely to survive when it becomes cooler. As you can see, honeybees have evolved to adapt and survive in different weather conditions. Bees are said to be more tolerant to high temperatures than other conditions because when it becomes hotter, they produce a heat shock protein that helps their cells from suffering a condition called thermal-induced stress. However, if the hot climate persists for long, they are likely to die due to severe water loss from their bodies. Despite the honeybees’ survival mechanisms, they die when the temperature passes what they can handle.
According to several studies, when the temperature rises to 40°c, they are likely to survive for less than five days, and when the temperature rises to 45 °, they will not go past 48 hours. As the temperature drops down, for example, to -2 degrees, bees will die within an hour. Whenever the temperature drops below 56 ° F, they become sluggish and die from the condition known as hypothermia. The good thing is that the bees are brilliant because when the temperature starts to exceed the normal one, they will regulate it by taking a break and come back when things have normalized.
Sometimes you might get many immatures bees in the hive; the mature ones take the responsibility of protecting them since they don’t know how to regulate the temperature if they are left alone. In most cases, immature bees suffer or even die when the temperature becomes unbearable. It is clear that some bees die when the temperature goes up or drops from the normal temperature, but they don’t die quickly without fighting.
Do all honey bees die in winter?
Finding a beehive full of dead bees can be heartbreaking for a beekeeper and something that you cannot comprehend easily. Fortunately, when this happens, a beekeeper is likely to lose a lot of money. However, the bees are likely to die during the winter because of the weather and various conditions caused by the winter. For example, honeybees are likely to die if the colonies are unhealthy and lack enough food. Sometimes it becomes too difficult to diagnose the cause of death because numerous factors can cause the death of honey bees. Honeybees don’t die all during the winter; some die, and others survive.
As we have mentioned above, during the cold, some bees, such as bumblebees, overwinter the mated queens, which after the cold seasons, goes out to start another generation of bees. The same applies during the summer because other bees die, and the queen, as usual, has to start over again. It is not normal that all bees will die during the winter. There must be some that will carry on when the storm is gone. Also, those bees born at the later stage of the winter are highly likely to survive. According to numerous studies, these bees are likely to survive for over six months, meaning they will be there when the storm has gone. They are called fat winter bees. Usually, summer bees live for only six weeks, but the fat winter bees live for up to six months which something unusual.
Averagely, a beehive with enough honey storage and in good health is likely to feed at least 90 percent of bees, if not all. However, the number of honey bees that die during the winter has increased in recent years, which is a wanting record, and something ought to be done to cape this ever-growing trend. Due to changing climate, many countries are experiencing extended winter and extreme cold that is the reason for the death of some honeybees. Do all honeybees die during winter? Yes, they die but not all of them because of various mechanisms and survival tacts that help in minimizing the death rate.
Conclusion
Honeybees are intelligent species of insect family that can adapt to various temperatures. Instead of hibernating to look for a better climate, they opt to stay and face the situation head-on. This shows how clever they are. Their adaptation nature to various climatic conditions is something to admire. The survival mechanism of the honeybees makes them more tolerant to high temperatures and more adapted to winter. As a result, they can survive for a long time and even produce enough honey for the keeper and their food. We have seen how bees have evolved over the years, thus making them more tolerant to any conditions.
The protective nature of the bees’ queen and the immature ones keeps them going regardless of the weather or season. There is no doubt that honeybees survive any condition provided they have enough food and the beehive is healthy. Therefore, it is the beekeeper’s responsibility to ensure that the hive is in good condition. The bees have enough honey to carry them through the winter by not harvesting too much because their survival largely depends on available food. If it is not enough, they are likely to demise. As the beekeeper, you always want what is best for your investment: the bees, for that matter.
