What do honeybees do in the winter?

Just before the first days of March, a lot of snow has fallen in Romania. A few hours of intense snowing were enough to cover the ground and make a heavy snow blanket, reaching almost 1 meter.

After it stopped snowing, my parents had a busy time removing the snow that almost covered completely the hives, making sure the honeybees inside will be safe. Or at least, doing all they can to make the outside environment a little bit more friendly.

I haven’t written in a while about my parents and their passion for beekeeping. So I thought this is a great opportunity to write a few sentences about these wonderful, tiny creatures that work so tireless all year long, not only during the summer.

Meantime, the snow has melted and I didn’t get a chance to share some thoughts and photos with my parents and their latest “winter related honeybees activity”.

So, here it goes...

During the cold season, like every other animal, honeybees have a distinctive way of handling harsh temperatures. It may seem nature is lifeless, but is just an appearance and honeybee do not actually rest.

Although they do no leave the hive until the outside temperature is over 10°C (50 Fahrenheit), honeybees are active all winter long.

Working together

Inside the hive, worker bees form a cluster, surrounding the queen and making sure she is warm and safe. Worker bees vibrate their wing muscles and shiver, generating warm that maintains the center of cluster around 33°C (93 Fahrenheit). All this movement requires a lot of energy. The needed energy is obtained from eating honey.

It is very important to make sure that the hive has enough food to survive the winter, and if not, to supply it with sugar syrup, fondant, sugar cake or other appropriate winter bee foods.

Worker bees rotate from the outer side to the inner side of the cluster, so that everyone can eat from the honey supply and in this way no bee will freeze.

Hives, completely covered with snow...

Equipped with a couple of shovels and enough cloths to keep them warm, they started clearing the space surrounding the hives.

Slowly but surely they manage to remove the snow that was surrounding and covering the hives…

Just in case you wander why I didn't gave a hand, it's because I was a little bit far...

Bellow, you can see my mother clearing the snow from the back of the hives...

After a few hours, and 100 hives later …

The next day, temperatures started to rise, enough for the bees to want to get out, explore and to expand their wings and fly.

In the meantime, the snow has melted and Spring has officially began. Bees have started their outside journey, a journey that affects many species. If it weren't for these amazing little creatures, life would be much different than it is today.