Bees are out and about in spring and summer, and they gradually vanish in autumn and winter. Hibernation seems like a reasonable explanation. But no, honey bees do not hibernate. They’re just sensible enough to stay inside when it’s bloody freezing out there!
Bees are ruthlessly organised. They manage their numbers so that in summer a colony might be around 40,000 bees, whereas in winter they reduce the size to just 5,000-10,000 bees. The only ones who get to stay are the most useful members of the colony, all of whom are female. These ladies are the winter models who are plumper and live far longer than their summer counterparts. But wait, what happened to the men? The male bees either already died from having sex or they were kicked out of the hive and perished all alone. It’s a brutal world.
Anyway! The remaining number in the colony is just right. It is big enough to allow them to form a cluster that can keep warm together, but small enough to survive on the honey stores they produced. (That’s the idea, anyway. A few factors can make this not so feasible, like when beekeepers pinch some of the honey they made!) When arranging the cluster, they are fair, taking it in turns to go on the outside where it’s coldest. But there is one bee who is always allowed to stay right in the middle where it’s warmest. That leads us to the priority of a colony during the winter: cuddle the queen!
All the winter worker women huddle around the queen and generate as much heat as they can manage. That involves a lot of vibration using their flight muscles which, of course, takes a lot of energy. Understandably, the bees need to consume vast quantities of honey.
Winter is typically a time when the queen does not lay eggs, but climate change is making bee behaviour less predictable. In the past, it was too cold to raise brood (baby bees) but mild winter days are more common than they used to be and this affects the activity of honey bee colonies. So, some queens have been known to lay a small number of eggs over winter.
On the sunnier winter days, bees sometimes leave the hive to gather water and to… powder their antenna. Bees are neat freaks and will never relieve themselves inside their home.
Pro tip from Matt: If your home is near a bee colony, avoid putting your washing out on a warm winter day as it might end up covered in bee poo!
If the opportunity presents itself, a bee will also gather pollen while they’re out, but only if it’s nearby. Bees do not stray far from the hive during the winter.
To sum up, instead of sleeping, honey bees spend the winter eating honey and hugging. Sounds like a dream life, doesn’t it?