Have you ever wondered how bees survive the winter? While wild bees have different hibernation strategies, honey bees get through the winter together as a hive.
Winter is a critical period for bees. Food in the form of pollen or nectar is not available and in addition they have to deal with the cold temperatures. Bee species have adapted to these adverse conditions in various ways. In this article you will learn where bees are in winter and what honey and wild bees do in winter. We also give tips on how to support the animals and what to do if you find a bee in the middle of winter.
Do bees die in winter? Yes, many bees do not survive the winter. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) hatch winter bees from their eggs around September. These survive the winter. But the summer bees die in the fall. A honey bee colony is only about half as large in winter as it is in summer.
There are different strategies in the large group of wild bees: Many adult wild bees also die in autumn, only a few survive the winter alive in hibernation. In the vast majority of wild bee species, eggs or larvae survive the cold season.
Where are bees in winter?
Not all bees are the same: There are a number of species and the various wild bees in particular have developed different strategies to secure the next generation in the following year.
Where are honey bees in winter?
Honey bees overwinter as a colony in their hive, where they form what is known as the winter cluster.
Where are wild bees in winter?
Most wild bee species are annual, the individuals die in autumn. The vast majority of adult wild bees are therefore dead in winter. The next generation then overwinters as eggs, larvae or pupae, for example in stalks, wooden caves, sand holes or abandoned snail shells. At this stage they are usually much more robust and less sensitive.
There are a few exceptions, including:
Bumblebees (Bombus): Bumblebees form small colonies with a little over 100 animals, of which all but the new one come in autumn die young queen This hibernates alone, for example in abandoned mouse nests, and founds a new colony the following spring.
Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa): Carpenter bees hibernate alone or in small groups in their self-made nests, tree cavities or crevices.
Ceratina bees (Ceratina): Males and females overwinter in common horn bees. Unlike carpenter bees, they usually look for their winter quarters in hollow stalks, for example of blackberries, elderberries, mulleins or dog roses.
What do bees do in winter?
The goal of all bees in winter is to get through it he althy. Different species have developed different strategies for this.
What do honey bees do in winter?
Honey bees hibernate together as a colony. They sit very close together in the winter cluster and usually never leave the hive. As it is cold outside and there is no food, they feed on the food reserves they have stored up over the summer or, in most cases, on sugar water provided by the beekeeper.
Winter clusters in bees: Honey bees hibernate as so-called winter clusters. The queen sits in the middle. She is the only bee that can lay eggs and is therefore the most important bee in the colony. Around them you can find the other bees, which use special muscle movements to ensure a temperature of around 15 °C to 25 °C. They constantly change their places, so that everyone sits further outside and sometimes further inside.
What do wild bees do in winter?
In short, this question can be answered as follows: "Not much." Since the adults of most wild bee species die in autumn, only eggs, larvae or pupae have to make it through the winter. This works in the hibernation. With a few exceptions, the adult animals go into hibernation for the cold season. Since this hibernation depends on the temperature, the animals remain motionless until the temperatures rise again in spring. In doing so, they must absolutely prevent the formation of ice crystals in their bodies, because this would lead to the certain death of the bees. protect bumblebeesprotect themselves from this by wintering underground, where temperatures do not fall as low. Bee species that hibernate above ground can lower the freezing point of their body fluids in a number of ways, allowing them to survive temperatures below 0 °C.
Do bees hibernate?
Hibernation is a state in which some warm-blooded animals, i.e. representatives of mammals and some birds, enter while lowering their body temperature. This also slows their heart rate and breathing rate, so they use significantly less energy than normal. This usually allows the animals to feed on their stored fat reserves throughout the winter.
Honey bees therefore cannot hibernate at all, since they do not belong to the warm-blooded, but to the cold-blooded animals. They, too, reduce their metabolism slightly, rarely fly out and go into a kind of hibernation. However, honey bees remain active throughout the winter to keep the hive warm. It is also completely normal to see bees flying every now and then on a few warmer days in January. They use the warmer days for their cleaning flight or may even collect some pollen from winter flowering plants.
Wild bees survive the winter as larvae or adult animals in hibernation, depending on the species. One could describe hibernation as the counterpart to hibernation in cold-blooded animals. However, there are some differences. In mammals, hibernation is initiated by hormones. If something disturbs them, they can interrupt their sleep if necessary and become active again to go foraging. For this purpose, the body temperature is briefly raised again with energy expenditure. In cold-blooded animals, hibernation depends solely on the temperature, they cannot warm themselves. The body temperature of cold-blooded animals corresponds to the outside temperature. The animals can therefore not move even in short warm phases, because their operating temperature is hardly reached even in mild winters. On the other hand, they need significantly less energy, so they can survive the winter without eating.
Should you feed or support bees in winter?
Also, what bees eat in winter varies from species to species.
ThereHoney bees are active in the cold season, they need sufficient food reserves. If you have your own bee colony and have harvested honey in summer, you have to feed your bees in winter. This is usually done with sugar water.
The situation is different with wild bees, because they do not eat anything during the winter. Nevertheless, you can also do a lot to help wild bees in the cold season.
- Prune flowering meadows, berry and other shrubs, and hollow stalks of deciduous perennials and annuals in spring, as the stalks are often chosen by wild bees as winter quarters.
- Make sure there is enough food available in the garden as early as possible and well into autumn. Early bloomers with pollen include crocuses (Crocus), snowdrops (Galanthus), hazelnuts (Corylus avellana ) or alders (Alnus). Autumn asters (Symphyotrichum and Aster) and sedum (Sedum) ensure a sufficient supply of food in autumn. ).
- Just leave piles of leaves and deadwood lying around. This not only makes it easier for bees to find a place to spend the winter, but also for many other garden animals.
- Insect hotels are adopted for laying eggs and hibernating. We have summarized tips on what to consider when buying or building such nesting aids for wild bees in a separate article.
Other than that, there's not much you can do for the little helpers in winter, which is why it's all the more important to give the bees good support for the rest of the year. One possibility, for example, is the sowing of our Plantura bee pasture. Bees find food here, so that they can start the cold season well-fortified. If you also leave the bee pasture over the winter, it offers plenty of shelter, not only for wild bees, but also for many other insects. Many butterfly caterpillars, for example, also overwinter in hollow stems or dead wood.
Found a bee in winter: what to do?
It's not unlikely to see bees flying on warmer winter days. Since honey bees do not hibernate but only hibernate, they can quickly become active again. They then use the warmer days to empty their fecal bladder and forage for water and foodto go.
It can happen that the bees have enough energy for the start, but then use it up relatively quickly or bad weather makes it difficult for them to fly home. If you have found a bee in the house or apartment in winter that seems powerless, it may help if you put it on a plate with honey or sugar water in a place with at least 15 °C. This allows her to warm up and gain enough energy to fly back to her people. Because only if it makes it back there does the honey bee have a chance of surviving the winter.
However, it can also happen that sick bees leave the hive to die outside the hive. If you have found such a bee in winter, even sugar water and heat can no longer help.
Rarely it can also happen that you come across wild bees overwintering in protected crevices in the wall of the house. Then it is best to leave the animals alone and if possible not to disturb them.
Winter isn't just a hard season for bees. Therefore, we have collected many useful recommendations on how to help garden animals in winter.