Winter survival
Frozen Ocean Apiaries LLC is a small honey producer in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State located near Frozen Ocean State Forest. This may give some indication of what winter months are like here. We plan for winter care and survival all year long through maintaining healthy hives, but the remarkable honeybees have many survival strategies of their own!
Honey bees are poikilothermic. This means that their body temperature is influenced by the temperatures of their surroundings, and will drop and raise accordingly. During the winter, a bee’s temperature can drop as low as 54 degrees Fahrenheit at which point the bee enters a chill coma. During a chill coma breathing movements of the abdomen halt and voluntary muscle movements stop. During winter months bees cluster in the center of their hive. Despite little movement honeybees create their own heat. Honeybees have the ability to release their wings from their thoracic flight muscles and contract and relax theses muscles without moving their wings. This generates enough heat to warm the clustered hive area to a near optimal temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
We help the bees survive the winter weather conditions through providing protection and food supplements if necessary. In the late fall a full inspection of all the hives is completed. Hives are left with at least 10 full frames of honey for winter consumption. Weight of the hive is checked throughout the late fall and winter and bees are provided with winter food supplements of pollen, protein, and sugar if needed. Our hives are wrapped with insulation to keep out the bitter cold, and a moisture wicking material is added to the top quilt box to prevent moisture build up in the hive.
Winter weather can be a challenge to all creatures. There is a peacefulness that sets in as we observe our apiaries wrapped and ready for the long winter. Thinking of the honeybees we remember the tenderness in which they were cared for during the warm weather and know that they are strong, healthy, and ready to rest through this winter in their warm cozy hives.
