Do Bees Hibernate? Do They Buzzz Off To Sleep During Winter?

Solitary bees emerge from their eggs during late spring and overwinter in the larval stage.

To create a winter cluster and keep warm, worker bees crowd together and keep the queen at the center of all the solitary bees. Worker bees shiver and shake to maintain a suitable temperature to keep warm during the winter season.

Did you know? In some species of bees, only the queens hibernate and survive the dreadful winter months! They then start building a new colony around spring. Bees are some of the most fascinating creatures on the planet. Read until the end to unravel some amazing facts about these creatures and find out where bees go in winter.

This tiny and dangerous insect is essential for the proper functioning and maintenance of our ecosystem and life because bees pollinate important crops, flowers, and plants. You may have noticed that bees are less visible outdoors during winter months which may have led you to wonder if bees go into hibernation like bears or ladybugs.

Like many other insects, bees have a hard time dealing with the cold, and their main motive during the winter months is to keep themselves warm enough to survive.

There are various types of bees like the honey yielding honey bees, bumblebees, carpenter bees, Africanized honeybees, and the closely related furious wasps. All of these different species have different survival techniques depending upon their evolutionary traits.

Adult male bees of the cluster whose sole responsibility is fertilization end up dying in the winter season. Bees form a cluster and form in such a pattern that the queen bee remains at the center of the beehive, where it is kept warm by the fellow female bees of the hive.

Unlike honey bees, other species of bees don’t have much luck in surviving the winter. Bumblebees, for example, don’t survive for more than a year, and only the queen bee makes it through the winter.

There is only enough nectar for the queen, the queen then happens to emerge in spring when she creates a whole new colony.

However, solitary bees plant only one egg in their one-year lifetime and die soon after they lay eggs. Summer temperatures are more suitable for a bee colony to expand and prepare for winters by collecting pollen.

After you have read about the life of new queens and other bees in a colony during spring and winter, do check bumblebee vs. carpenter bee and bees nest.

Where do honey bees go in the winter?

When it comes to survival, honey bees have the edge over other bees, as they are stronger and sturdier. Unlike some bees that hibernate in the colder months, honey bees opt for a different technique to keep themselves warm.

Honey bees do not become lousy and go into hibernation when the winter season is near. Instead, they remain active to generate heat. For staying warm and active, it happens that a good amount of stored food is required that would last them the whole winter season.

Honey bees work very hard when the weather is warmer in the summer to collect nectar from various plants and flowers to yield honey. They then consume the stored honey in the colder months. If the honey supply runs out before the winter's end, the bees face death due to starvation.

The queen bee refrains from laying any eggs during the winters because of limited food and resources. Bees constantly vibrate to increase body heat, which in turn increases the entire colony’s temperature. When the atmosphere becomes warm enough, bees become relatively motionless until the temperature drops again.

At what temperature do bees die?

Now that we know that the cold can be fatal to bees, how long can bees sustain themselves in the cold weather? And at what temperature do they die?

Bees are highly adaptive creatures regarding temperatures and environmental factors. This is why bees can survive in various parts of the world with extreme temperatures, including very chilled weather. But despite this impressive attribute, a bee can pass away if it becomes way too hot or too cold.

Bees constantly vibrate in clusters to keep the temperature of the beehive warm. The temperature inside the beehive can go up to 95 F (35 C) at the center, where the queen bee resides.

Any temperature above this can cause water loss in bees’ bodies. If the temperature rises too much, bees stop vibrating and even loosen up a little bit.

If the temperature rises to 113 F (45 C), bees can collapse from excessive water loss. At the same time, the temperature on the circumference of the outer cluster where the worker bees are situated is somewhere about 55 F (12.7 C).

Bees need higher body temperatures than humans to survive. A bee’s body will stop functioning properly at about 41 F (5 C). Any further fall in body temperature can be the cause of death.

Why do bees hibernate in winter?

Different species of bees have different strategies to deal with the cold. While honey bees do not hibernate in the winters and choose to remain active to survive the cold, the same can’t be said about other bees.

Bumblebees, for example, opt for a different strategy.

All bumblebees in a cluster pass away due to the cold, leaving behind the queen to fend for herself. The recently mated bumble bee queen then hibernates throughout the winter period to stay warm and starts a brand new colony of bees around spring time.

The queen hides underground where the mud is soft or between rocks or wooden logs where it can comfortably spend the rest of the winter season and avoid getting too cold or even overheated due to the direct winter sunlight.

How do honey bees keep warm in winter?

We have discussed how honey bees keep their bee hives considerably warmer than the outside environment to survive the bitter cold. But you may wonder how this fascinating technique works in nature.

Honey bees build their beehives to insulate naturally, but the warmth captured by the beehive isn’t enough to keep the cluster of bees inside warm. Therefore, bees have to work very hard to keep themselves warm and fight off the winter cold.

Bees try to save their energy for longer and therefore do not try to keep the entire beehive warm but instead, they only focus on keeping the cluster of bees warm. To generate heat, bees constantly flutter their flight wings and vibrate. The combined body heat of all bees keeps the cluster warm.

Bees have to remain active throughout the winter season. They work the entire summer season to collect enough pollen nectar to make honey, which they use in the winter season to sustain themselves. If the honey runs out before winter ends, these bees can cease to exist due to exhaustion and starvation.

Is this winter behavior in honey bees actually natural?

Now we know about this fascinating technique of insulation used by honey bees, you may wonder if this behavior is entirely natural.

Bees are highly adaptive creatures and therefore are found in almost all parts of the world today.

Although bees have a hard time in winters, you may be surprised to know that bees are found in one of the coldest places in the world and have adapted well to extreme weather conditions.

Over time, honey bees that have adapted to the colder climate are more comfortable in the cold than in the summertime.  These bees do not have a hard time staying alive in winters. This behavior is not universal but an adaptive feature of particular species.

How to help a bee in distress?

Now that we know about bees and how they survive in the winter, you might be interested in learning what to do if you find a bee in the winter season that is in distress or is struggling due to exhaustion.

If there’s a beehive in your garden or outside your home and you come across a bee that is either struggling to fly or seems as if it is dying, the chances are that the bee is only tired and needs to be revived.

While reviving a bee sounds dangerous and complex, it is pretty straightforward and involves just two things, sugar and water.

Mix the sugar and water in a 2:1 ratio where the sugar is almost double the amount of water so that the solution has a thick inconsistency. If the syrup is too watery, the bee could drown in it and pass away.

Place the bee in the container which has the syrup and move away. The bee will suck on it and get better within minutes.

Remember to not make it a habit and don’t leave this syrup outside in your garden regularly for bees to feed on, as this could be detrimental to their health and could harm the environmental cycle.

You might also think that feeding honey would be a great alternative as bees feed on honey. But this is a bad idea as the honey that we use is often made by different types of bees, and if you feed it to them, it could harm the native bees.

Feeding bees artificial food can also be detrimental to their health.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for do bees hibernate, then why not take a look at the bee life cycle or bee facts.