How do wild bees survive the winter?

Winter is the most difficult time to keep bees. If you are not careful, you will die because of temperature, lack of honey and other factors. So is wild honey. How can wild bees survive the winter?

1. Stock up on food

Bees keep busy during the flowering season, constantly collecting nectar and pollen, some of which are consumed as rations, while others are brewed into honey and stored by colonies. These honey stores are the magic weapon of bees against winter. Usually, most colonies have enough honey to survive the winter, while those with weak or weak collection are eliminated naturally.

2. Cultivate new bees

Bees have a rapid breeding period in the last nectar season of each year, in order to cultivate enough overwintering worker bees to prepare for winter. in general, the life span of worker bees is 30 to 40 days, and even only 28 days in the nectar period. on the other hand, the overwintering worker bees bred in late autumn and early winter have not participated in labor because they have only carried out flight excretion, so their life span is much longer, and the longest life span is about 6 months.

3. Overwintering in groups

Honey can adjust the temperature of the colony through agglomeration and fan. When the hive temperature is lower than 10 ℃ in winter, the colony forms a spherical colony. In the coldest time, the temperature in the colony can still be maintained at 24 ℃ or so, and the bee will eat honey and exercise to generate heat to improve the internal temperature of the colony. At this time, the queen bee is the key protected object of the colony, generally in the central position of the colony, while the external worker bees will change the rotation position.

4. Break up and breed.

Early spring is the last difficulty for a hive to overwinter. at this time, the stored honey has been basically exhausted and the end of the life span of overwintering worker bees is getting closer and closer, and the whole colony is at the end of its strength. after that, as the temperature gradually rebounded and stabilized, the queen bee gradually began to lay eggs, the overwintering worker bees scattered and flew out in sunny weather, and the worker bees would come out of the hive to collect honey when the honey source began to flow, and the whole colony would survive the winter safely.