Honey bees are very active, working hard all day long to make honey and pollinate plants. So do they sleep? In short, yes. But it’s not like humans sleep where the bee just shuts down for a while.
Honey bees sleep and often do so at night. Bees normally sleep inside their hives for protection, but they may also sleeping the field because they fatigue just as other animals do. A sleeping bee can easily be identified because bee sleep looks like that of other animals.
Honey bees have a different type of slumber that is called “social rest.” This means that the bee will stop flying around and instead hang out with other bees in a cluster of flowers or near their hive entrance. They’ll also sometimes groom each other during social rest periods, which is another way they stay clean and healthy.
How Can You Tell if a Bee Is Sleeping?
When thinking about bees, people usually think of one thing: honey. Honey is made from the nectar collected by worker bees and then deposited into a beehive or home that they live in. Honey and other bee products (such as wax and propolis) provide humans with some helpful resources. Bees also help flowers to pollinate and grow seeds which we tend to eat on a daily basis, such as fruits and vegetables.
But how do bee communities make these sweet products? Worker bees are responsible for collecting food sources such as nectar, pollen, water vapor (from water collected from dew), tree sap, dandelion milk, fruit juices, and animal droppings. When she collects this food source, she uses her long tongue or proboscis to suck up the food and carry it back to the beehive. She is able to collect such a large amount of nectar that her abdomen gets stretched out and eventually becomes too big for flying.
To be able to fly again, she needs to go hibernate in a safe location in order to not become prey and so that the cold temperatures don’t affect her in any harmful way. While in this state, worker bees live off of their fat supplies from when they were collecting food sources during warmer seasons. Once she wakes up from hibernation season, she will continue with her daily routine at the beehive until another cycle comes around. Although this lifestyle pattern is fascinating, people may also wonder: how can you tell if a bee is sleeping?
What Time Do Bees Go to Bed?
There is no fixed bedtime for bees. Like humans, they need sleep and rest to function properly and stay healthy and energetic.
Bees, like many animals (humans included), need to coordinate their activities with the natural cycle of day and night. Bee behavior includes periods during the day when most worker bees rest inside the hive, as well as periods when adult bees may leave flowers for food or nectar, as well as taking care of any brood that needs attention. The bee’s internal clock tells it whether it is time to come out of the hive or return to it – even if there are still hours left before dusk or dawn.
Adult bees might be more active at night than during the day. During summer nights and autumn nights, the night shift of worker bees may sometimes gather at a hive entrance to perform cleansing flights, fanning their wings to ventilate the hive. This might be because there are more insects flying at night or because it is cooler outside at night than during daytime.
Whether they sleep inside the hive or not, adult bees might rest for hours after dusk and before dawn in nearby vegetation, inside flower petals, and under leaves and stones. However, since nocturnal (night-active) wasps and other predators like praying mantids can easily reach resting queen bumblebees sleeping in such locations if they remain stationary, it is important that they keep moving all night long to keep themselves safe. When asleep inside a flower such as a night-blooming cereus, the queen bee is encased in a cocoon of honey and pollen. Queens sleeping inside such flowers may even sit on top of the flower’s anthers to keep themselves safe from predators that hunt at dawn and dusk.
During diurnal (daytime) periods when there are no insects foraging or nectaring, most adult bees rest inside the hive, where they may hang together in clusters and sleep with their heads down and abdomens pointing upward. If disturbed while hanging like this, they will wake up quickly and rush away from the threat within seconds. Daytime sleeping behavior enables bees to react quickly if they detect predators nearby; it also allows them to avoid wasting energy by staying in one place for too long.
The sleep schedule of bees can affect the health and vitality of the hive. Experiments where light is artificially lengthened or shortened show that it is important for bees to get enough sleep at night so they can be active during the day. Bees deprived of nighttime sleep will stay in their cluster, but if these “sleepyheads” are given time to rest when it gets dark, they will return to work with all their energy restored.
How Much Do Honey Bees Sleep?
Honey bees sleep during the night in three different ways. The first is known as “Quiet Sleep” or QS, which is just the honey bee closing its eyes and buzzing adorably slowly. This period of quiet can last from several minutes to several hours depending on how long it takes the honey bee to get into deep sleep mode.
Second, honey bees have a state called “Slow Wave Sleep”, or SWS for short, which is when they shut their eyes and buzz adorably very slowly (see: Quiet Sleep). During this time, their antennae twitch periodically and there are moments where one might think they’re waking up… except that if you check them again 60 seconds later they’re still in SWS.
Finally, honey bees have Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, which is when they appear to be moving their eyes around like they’re dreaming. Their antennae move freely and their wings flutter several times per minute, which was previously thought to be related to other neural activity within the brain but has since been discovered not to be.
Napping during the day doesn’t count because I did some research on it down below so you can stop reading this article about honey bee sleep patterns if you want to go read that one instead.
Where Do Honey Bees Go at Night?
One of the most common questions beekeepers get asked is: “What do honey bees do at night?” For centuries, people have been wondering about this. To answer the question directly, there are a lot of theories as to what happens at night with honey bees. One belief is that they all sleep in structures made out of wax within the hive called “honeycomb.” A similar theory is that they group together in one place so they can keep each other warm without flying around at night when it’s cold outside.
Some believe that queen bees head off on their own somewhere deep within the hive where she lays hundreds of more eggs for her colony to feed on while she rests. Some even say that she releases pheromone signals to calm the colony, which makes them all lie down and rest without moving for the night.
Despite these theories, beekeepers don’t really know what honey bees do at night. Because of their hives’ dark interiors, it’s hard to see what they’re up to inside.
Conclusion
The truth is, no one knows for sure how much sleep bees need. It’s possible that honey bees do not sleep in the same way as humans; they may enter a state of suspended animation where their brains are active without resting or rejuvenating them. But if you want your hives to be productive, it pays to make sure there are enough places for them to rest inside and outside the hive. If you’re unsure about what size hive will work best for your needs, contact us today! We’ll help you choose the right type of bee box based on how many colonies you need and which types of flowers grow near your property so we can get those sweet pollinating jobs done effectively and efficiently.
