How do bees survive winters in Saskatchewan?

walterpalladNovember 24, 2022

The honey stored in the hive is to ensure the viability of the queen bee and the hive throughout the year.

Two bee hives wrapped for the winter. Both the bottom and top entrances are open to allow bees access to the outdoors on warm winter days and to promote ventilation. Photo by Heather Brenneman.

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As an urban beekeeper, I am often asked this question at this time of year.

The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is not native to America, but to Africa and was eventually brought here by European settlers. they do not hibernate. So how do you survive cold winters when temperatures hit minus 40 degrees? Simply put, the bees’ own strategy is reinforced with a little help from their beekeeper friends.

Bees make honey from the nectar of flowers and store it in hives in hives. These reservoirs are meant to ensure the viability of the queen bee and hives throughout the year. As the days get shorter and colder, the flowers die and the nectar becomes unavailable. Bees respond to this by reducing their numbers and feeding less.

Most of the bees in the hive are worker bees, all female. There are a small number of drones (male bees) that do not require reproductive services during winter. Drones are driven out of the hive by worker bees. Beekeepers know that fall is on the horizon when they see this happening.

Hive size is also reduced when foraging bees that repeatedly fly up to 5 km from the hive to retrieve nectar, pollen and water die of exhaustion and are not replaced. This is because the queen bee stops laying eggs when the temperature drops. Her six-week lifespan for summer bees extends to five months or more for wintering bees.

When beekeepers harvest honey in mid to late summer, they take care to leave enough honey for the bees to eat in the fall. To do so, feed the bees with a thickened sugar syrup that they use to fill and replenish their stores throughout the fall. Honeybees are more likely to digest “honey” made from sugar syrup than nectar at low temperatures.

Beekeepers also apply treatments to each hive to reduce the chances of disease (e.g. stench) or pests (e.g. mites) weakening or killing the hive.

A bee’s main job during the winter is to keep her alive by keeping her safe and warm. When nighttime temperatures drop below freezing, bees form colonies around the queen. They flock, quiver and flap their wings. This movement keeps the temperature in the cluster close to +30⁰C. Clusters move around the hive to feed.

However, at very low temperatures this is insufficient to sustain the hive. To keep the clusters warm, the beekeeper wraps the hives in insulation. Use a 5 cm piece of rigid foam wrapped in painted particle board and place a pillow over it in an empty hive.

On sunny, warm winter days, a few bees leave the hive on a cleansing flight. You may see them flying or, if you’ve beaten the cold, dead on the snow. These are usually old foragers who die naturally. When the snow melts, you’ll find a small pile of dead bees outside the hive’s entrance.

When spring temperatures warm to around +10⁰C, the hives are removed and the next beekeeping season begins.

Heather Brenneman, a member of the Saskatoon Nature Society, maintains two hives in her Saskatoon backyard with her neighbor Ken Glover.

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