Winter

The quiet time for beekeeping and the quiet time for the bees! Bees don’t necessarily hibernate but they do slow down and spend most of their time inside their hive during winter.  

In autumn and early winter the population of the hive reduces. Once the temperatures are below 14 degrees Celsius all the remaining worker bees in the hive form a cluster around the queen, buzzing to keep her warm and rotating so that each gets a turn at being in the middle. The colder the day the tighter the cluster. On cold days they won’t come out of the hive but on warmer days, above 14 degrees Celsius, they will come out, stretch their wings and check to see if there are any new food sources for them. 

During our honey harvest we make sure to leave enough honey for the bees to eat over winter, so we generally don’t need to feed them. Although this can be impacted by the winter season so occasionally during winter we will have a quick look at any hives we are concerned about.

This quiet time allows us to focus our attention on reviewing the season and planning for the coming one. It’s important we reflect on what went well and what didn’t to make sure we are always improving our techniques and learning from our mistakes. We love spending time repairing and building new equipment and attending as many markets and events as we can during winter!