Honey Bees Surviving Cold Winter

Thermal Image of Bee Cluster on 15 Degree Winter Day

Last fall's 600 pound lavender honey harvest is either bottled or awaiting to do so in 13 gallon stainless steel bottling tanks. This year's honey vintage from our hard working bee partners has even more hint of lavender than last year...but with the same smoothing out of honey's sometimes too sweet initial hit on the tongue. Maybe the fact that we are now pushing close to 4,000 lavender plants gave the summer bee sisters more plants to spread out among. Also, our fall was mild so they were able to stay on the late blooming lavender varieties, like Buena Vista, longer.

Thankfully, all those plants are now covered in 3 feet of snow, which insulates them from the plants becoming too cold and causing the center most stems to die out. Won't know for sure if the snow was enough to protect them from our recent near zero degree days until this spring. Speaking of surviving winter, it looks like our fall bee colonies have all made it this far through our Northern Michigan winter. Which is great, because in the back of my mind, I am often wondering out our honey bee winter survival efforts.

Just before our most recent cold snap, I went out with our son on a balmy 15 degree day to see how our 7 surviving hives from the summer were making out. We started the season with 10 hives, but lost 3 in the fall to the Varroa Destructor Mite. The mites are like little bee ticks that do not kill the adult bees, but overtime, as they lay their eggs in with the bee brood and feed on them under the wax capping's, the colony becomes weaker...due to increased susceptibility to viruses and other bee ailments. Somehow, the bee colony knows when they are losing the battle against the mites and so they abscond (leave the hive in hopes of finding a more sanitary hive, before winter.)

So, how did we get proof of life for our remaining 7 hives? You can't tell if a semi-dormant colony is still kicking in the winter just by looking at a snow topped hive. And, it isn't a great idea to pop the top and take a look and potentially let all that hard work heat leave the colony's winter cluster. So, what can you do? We used a little technology this time. We took thermal images of the bee brood with a small thermal imaging camera. All 7 hives, including the weakest hive from the fall harvest, showed nice sized bee clusters and all registered around 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the center of the cluster. NICE!

I don't know for sure, but I assume the queen mostly stays nice and toasty at the center of that cluster...being fed and groomed and warmed by the worker bees. The worker bees take shifts shivering their flight muscles to generate all that bee heat...and when out of fuel slowly move toward the top of the comb to feed on honey and bee bread...and maybe rest up a bit before their next shift starts.

Bees are masters at teamwork. And the goal of winter bee's teamwork is to keep the queen healthy enough through the winter to begin laying eggs again when spring is about to be sprung. Wishing you well, bee sisters, with your continued winter work.