To help develop and nurture your inner WOW Shoresh will be sharing seasonal tidbits about the lives of our honey bees and what they’re up to at Bela Farm.
What do Bela’s Bees do in March?
Imagine spending a Canadian winter in a semi-outdoor environment vibrating in a rotating cluster with 1000s of your sisters to try and stay warm, fed and alive? What would you need to survive? Honey bees require about 60 lbs of stored honey, a large number of winter bees to protect brood and keep the hive warm and a healthy hive and well established brood. Sounds relatively simple but honey bees that live in temperate climates face a host of winter challenges such as mites, parasites, sublethal insecticides,dysentry and hungry animals. It’s a wonder any bees make it through the winter at all.
For the bees that do survive, they are eager to get out of the hive as soon as the weather is warm enough. When temperatures are 12C/55F or warmer, honey bees venture outside to get a breath of fresh air and take a poop after being cooped up in the hive for months on end. Yup, that’s right, bees hold it in all winter. Honey bees will not defecate inside their hive unless they are sick. This is one of their super-hygenic behavioural traits that help maintain a clean and healthy home to raise their brood and store honey.
Yellow bee poop scattered on the snow. Photo credit: knatolee.blogspot.ca/2013/02/spring-must-be-nigh.html
We are eager to get up to Bela Farm and investigate the snow to see if there are any signs of cleansing flights. Stay tuned for more photos.