The bees were flying this past week when the temperatures reached as high as 59 degrees. Although the bees are located in my yard and not in the community garden proper, they are still an integral part of the garden. These bees pollinate our garden plants along with flora all around the neighborhood up to about a two-mile radius. Folks in the community help with bee care and maintenance and share in the honey crop. This year we harvested 13 pints from two hives, which was more than last year when we harvested none. We left plenty of honey for the winter stores. All the bees do in winter is gather into a ball inside the hive, eat the stored honey, and beat their wings to keep the hive warm. Temperatures reach as high as 90 degrees inside the winter hive. Talk about cabin fever!
It is always a pleasure to know the hives are still viable in the depths of winter. One way to check on hive life is to stand next to the hive on a quiet day and rap sharply on the hive body. One should hear the responding startled hum and buzz of the disturbed colony. I've never had much luck with that method. I either have poor hearing or it isn't quiet enough in the yard. And the bees aren't coming out to answer your knock when the weather is cold.
When winter temperatures reach 45 to 50 degrees bees come out for cleansing flights. That means they void waste that they've stored in their tiny bodies during the cold days and nights. Bees have to "hold it" until the temperatures are warm enough for them to venture outside. You can see the evidence of flight in the yellow smears on the white hives. I sat and watched their activity on a couple of those warm days. I also observed another bee housekeeping activity: bees carrying out their dead brothers and sisters--mostly sisters, since most drones had been kicked out in the fall--who had died inside the hives since winter began. We still have a few weeks to go, for in mid-February when the right amount of day lengthening has occurred the queen--if she is still alive--will begin laying eggs who will start hatching in time to begin gathering the earliest pollen from budding and flowering spring trees and plants.
It was fun to notice that although the two hives are only about eight feet apart bees emerged first from the hive that was angled closest to the sun's rays. Only when the sun beamed squarely on hive #2 did the bees emerge to join the already active hive #1.
Bees in flight during a winter warm spell is a very fine thing.
