Heading into winter can be a testing time for bees as the temperatures drop and there is no longer much to forage on. The fate of each colony will depend on how well prepared they are for winter - is there enough stores (of honey)? Is the hive safe? How big is the colony?

The bees will from a cluster to keep warm made up of a generation of bees with different physiological characteristics from those of the summer population. The winter bees are larger, stronger and have a longer lifespan to last the 4-6 months of winter, as opposed to the 6 week cycle of a summer bee. The centre of the cluster will be as warm as 32-37°C!

The social world of honeybees is normally divided into three castes: workers, drones, and queens. But in the winter the male drones die off, leaving only the female castes: the workers and the queen. The queen stops laying in order to maintain the colony's limited food source. She will start laying again in January/February.

The above photo was taken in our Kilpedder apiary in Dec 2021.