Pollen Patch Bee Farm

About three weeks ago I placed a bee hive at my sisters house. My nephew is interested in learning beekeeping, I am interested in hanging out with him and another colony, my sister gets the pollination benefits and of course the bees have another location to forage for nectar and pollen.

I obtained this hive from a local beekeeper who teaches yearlong classes. At the end of the season, students have the option to take a colony home. So, at the end of September our class moved colonies into hives provided by each student who wanted to take one home. We picked them up a month later after they had time to settle into their new homes. At the time I did not have a pickup truck (I do now, due to an unfortunate run in with a deer, but that is another story) so I placed the hive on an attached trailer, strapped them down and drove them to their new home. It was a bumpy ride, and they were NOT happy when we arrived at my nephew’s house and I removed the shim that was in place to cover their entrance to the hive.

The following day, after they had a chance to calm down, I returned and my nephew, Jase and I did a quick hive check. This colony is preparing for winter so they had less brood than they did in the summer but we were able to see something really cool. There were four baby bees emerging from their cells. These are winter bees. Before taking up this hobby I had no idea that there were summer bees and winter bees. They are very different in many ways and these differences help colonies survive year after year.

Summer Bees

Summer bees are the bees that you see from spring to fall gathering nectar from blossoms and buzzing around when it is warm outside. These bees include female worker bees and male drones. The worker bees hatch 21 days after the Queen lays the fertilized egg. Drones mature in 24 days. Once worker bees emerge from there cell they hold a number of jobs over their lifespan which for summer bees is only 6 weeks long. They start their career as housekeepers and nurse bees. As soon as they are born they clean their cell as well as other cells, they warm brood and feed larvae. As they age a few days they take on tasks such as undertaking or removing dead bees from the hive and guarding the hive. Around 22 days until the end of their life they will assume the role of forager and leave the hive to find nectar, pollen and propolis to bring back to the colony. These bees come and go, leaving the hive hundreds of times per day. The queen leaves once or twice to mate and then spends her lifetime, up to 3 years, laying eggs. She likely won’t leave the hive unless the colony decides to swarm in an effort to grow honeybee numbers or because they have run out of room. The drones leave the hive in an attempt to mate with Queens from other colonies. Their role is not as highly studied or understood in the hive as that of the female bees.

Winter Bees

In late fall the queen stops laying drones and only lays workers instead. By winter the worker bees force any remaining drones out of the hive. Without the food and warmth provided by the colony these bees die. Winter worker bees live up to 6 months instead of the short 6 week lifespan of summer bees. Winter bees are larger and have fat stores that summer bees do not have. This allows them to tap into reserves when pollen and nectar is unavailable. They can go weeks without leaving the hive and only leaving on warm days to take cleansing flights to relieve themselves. They cluster around the queen and use their bodies to regulate the temperature of the hive and maintain it 93-99 *F. They do this by vibrating their wing muscles and taking turns moving towards the inside of the cluster. These bees eat significantly more honey than that of their summer sisters to maintain their fat stores and fuel the constant thermoregulation needed to keep the hive warm throughout winter.