How bees regulate heat inside the hive
Fonmon Apiary news with Harold Williams
The colonies have reacted to the recent cold snap and have assumed the normal winter format, forming a cluster (ball) towards the centre of the hive.
Sticky flakes of wax in the underfloor debris trays indicate that the bees are consuming their in-house winter stores that their summer sisters provided for them. Low temperatures means bees remaining inside the hive in a comatose state and regulating the internal temperature to ensure their survival throughout the winter months.
How do they regulate the temperature? Well, the cluster can be reduced in size by the bees squeezing together and if the situation demands, they will dislocate their wings from their flight muscles and put the muscles to use by way of shivering.
We humans do exactly the same. When you emerge from your bath/shower you start to shiver! This is your muscles working to generate heat and warm you up. However, when the temperature outside the hive increases the bees respond by loosening up the cluster and in doing so temperature regulation is maintained.
The workload of the winter bees is virtually nil. There will be no foraging, no wax production and theoretically the Queen will not be laying any eggs, so caring for the demands of larvae is not on their work sheet – they can expect to survive for a good five months.
With milder winters quite the norm these days the contents of the under floor debris trays reveals that the Queens are still laying and our winter bees have a changing workload to contend with. A sudden upsurge in temperatures thanks to the southerly winds has seen a great deal of external activity from our winter bees. Foragers are observed returning with pollen and no doubt with nectar as well.
How will the bees react if the temperatures plunge once again? Will the cluster reform? Will eggs and larvae be abandoned? I will not be opening the hives to check. The contents of the debris trays will be my guide. Watch this space.
Harold Williams
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