How do bees survive winter?

When the temperature drops by more than 8 degrees, the colony will unite in the hive and stay dormant by eating honey. Bees tend to huddle together when they want to spend the winter. They are close to each other in the hive, and the lower the temperature, the tighter the cluster, so that the surface area of the colony is reduced, the density is increased, and the temperature is prevented from cooling too much.

1. Bees store a large amount of honey in the hive before overwintering, and the colony feeds on these honey reserves throughout the overwintering period. if there is not enough honey in the hive, the colony is likely to starve to death, so farmed bees should replenish their feed before overwintering.

2. Bees will breed a large number of appropriate age overwintering bees before overwintering. These overwintering bees are the key factors for the colony to survive the winter smoothly, and the more overwintering bees are, the safer the colony is. If there are too few overwintering bees, the colony may not last until next spring.

3. Bees will form tight or loose clusters when they overwinter. the lower the temperature is, the tighter the colony is, on the contrary, the higher the temperature is, the looser the colony is. in addition, worker bees eat honey to produce heat to maintain the temperature of the colony during the overwintering period.

4. The end time of bee overwintering depends on the local climate temperature. When the temperature is higher than 8 ℃ in early spring, the colony breaks up and begins to leave the nest. At the same time, workers will also feed a large amount of royal jelly to the queen bee, and then the queen bee who stops laying during the overwintering period will gradually begin to resume spawning.