What does a beekeeper and his bees do in the winter?

I have had a few people ask me what our bees our doing through the winter. So I took a few pictures of what they are doing: nothing that we can see really.  Mr. Beekeeper puts a cover over the top to keep them insulated and inside they have formed a cluster around the queen to keep at a steady 93 degrees.

They flutter their little wings to achieve this. The poor suckers on the outside of the cluster get cold and can die easier. Being clean freaks that they are, they boot the dead bodies out of the hive. It seems like a lot of dead bees in a pile, hundreds actually, but in a hive of 50,000 bees that isn't a worry.

 


Mr. Beekeeper is getting antsy. Some bees are wiped out entirely in the cold Utah winters, but it has been a mild winter and we know they are alive still. On a really warm day he peeked in for a second. But overall he has to leave them alone so they can maintain their temperature. Before the cold hit we left them with plenty of honey storage to make it through. They may need some more sugar if it is a long winter and Rob has some little biscuit type sugar supplements to give them until they can start gathering for themselves.

Mr. Beekeeper has already assembled 2 other hives for the spring as well. 3 hives in our backyard should be interesting. But the 1 hive has not been a problem at all. They mind their own business and they fly around the neighborhood, not in our yard anyway. They will learn to not go over on the other side of the yard because we will also be getting chickens this year....and they love tasty bee snacks:)