I’m often very conscious – some would say overly conscious – of what I may be disturbing while carrying on working as the temperatures get cold. I can’t help but think about how moving a large stone or taking a log might disturb the hibernating process of a salamander, frog, toad or snake. Sometimes I find it necessary to do so, anyway, but I often cannot until I’ve grappled with the question “do I really have to?”
As winter arrives, and more of our fellow creatures on this blue, brown, green and white globe have gone into a protective state that amounts to survival mode, that caution for me only heightens. And it’s not just our amphibian and reptile cohabitants whose success at making it through the winter I worry is at stake, but also our pollinator friends come to mind. After all, what are bees doing while we’re making snowmen?
Well, they’re definitely trying to survive. But how, well that depends..
As the autumn temperatures dip each year, you may notice your neighborly bumblebees begin going through a phenomenon that is beautifully tragic. One by one, two by two, they stay behind on still-blooming flowers as the dimming sun sets and the frost approaches.
At close examination, each such bumblebee is clearly weakening, and passing it’s last hours on the love of it’s life – the flower. Eventually, all of the bumblebees except the queen will die before winter, hopefully each at least getting to watch a sunset from atop a rich, purple anise hyssop stalk or a late-blooming maroon sunflower as they go. The least they deserve for their critical role in the ecological cycle of life.
The queen then hibernates, as follows, according to bumblebeeconservation.org:
To hibernate, queen bees dig into well-drained soil, usually on north-facing banks. This varies between species but it’s thought that they choose north-facing banks because if they were south-facing, they would be exposed to the low winter sun which could heat the soil and bring the bees out of hibernation before spring arrives. Staying in banks probably helps them avoid being flooded, as does the well-drained soil. They dig down about 10cm or more, and excavate a little hole in which they will spend the winter, surviving temperatures down to minus 19C!
It’s good to know where these ladies might be when working during the latter part of the year, or risking disturbing ground, in a desire to be in sync with the spring and summer practices of planting flowering plants that help them thrive and spread, and in turn help us survive and be in good health.
Other bees, many of which are solitary bees, also employ a strategy of hibernating in the ground, though where they choose to get snug can greatly vary from the bumblebee.
On the farm here, I’ve observed miner bees emerging from the same locations in spring as they have in previous years – little holes on a flat, exposed area of ground near the grill (the foot traffic combined with a somewhat elevated, dry spot is enough to ensure the ground is barren, but the miner bees don’t seem to mind it). In their case, as long as I don’t put a shovel in the ground nor brush away any leaves that fall upon the ground during the autumn(nor again make the mistake of letting a hen roam the area as they are emerging in the spring), the process seems to carry on well.
One overlooked but catastrophic decision we have all been encouraged to make is to discard autumn leaves as trash. Often, the leaves do go to town or city compost piles for redistribution and use, which in itself sounds and is good. But the problem with a town or city of people removing much of the leaf content from the environment around them is that we disrupt or completely end critical cycles that are relied on for the continued success of our ecosystem.
Among those who have greatly suffered from this are our pollinating bees, because so many species are either protected by leaves while overwintering, or even use chewed up leaf matter to make a bed to sleep in or seal their winter holes. And while this blog is mainly focusing on the bees around us, quite many butterfly and moth species will depend on their caterpillars or cocoons making it through the winter hidden and protected among the fallen foliage. Leaving leaves on the ground where ever possible is a worthwhile act completely in harmony with our desire to help the pollinators.
Other solitary bees do cocoon inside rotted logs – especially if they can find an abandoned nest of some other creature – or beneath rocks, so having and preserving an environment that features these elements can also greatly aid your area bee populations. Species such as leaf cutter bees and green sweat bees will nest in abandoned holes bored into wood by beetle larva. The more bees that can hibernate successfully, the more rewards we will be met with in the spring, and perhaps those results will come to spill over into the wider world around us.
Now, as we’re as we’re trying to bring Frosty to life, or throwing snowballs at each other, there are other bees, too, and they’re not all sleeping. Particularly, our honey bees are surprisingly alive and well, working hard like elves under the ice at the North Pole in a great holiday story.
As temperatures begin to regularly dip below 60 degrees, Honey Bees cluster together and shiver like the friend whose sweater you stuffed snow down the back of when you were kids (or, if you’re some of us, a lot more recently than that). This act of shivering creates an incredible amount of heat for these cold blooded creatures, creating a core temperature of over 90 degrees at the center of the cluster. The bees rely on food stores from the end of the bloom season to feed them and the young, which the queen will again begin to give birth to – after a short break - around Christmas and right on through the rest of winter.
These guys, I think of, as much as any before moving a log or lifting a large stone, as these are places where they may have a nest. During the cold season, staying in that cluster, there’s no way for them to warn us not to disturb their nest, and direct exposure to frigid air can harm a colony. Therefore, keeping a careful eye is a good thing, in the event that you must move such objects while taking a break from snow sledding on or making snow angels to catch up on any unfinished work around the yard or homestead.
So, what are bees doing during the winter? Some are busy as ever, bustling through the season like many of us. Others, like those huddling with a cup of hot chocolate inside, are just trying to stay warm till spring, sleeping like bears. Counting on our gifts of flowers in the spring, and our gentle care and awareness through the cold months.