- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On
The Living Landscape: Busy bees in winter
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – During the cold winter months when many birds fly south and bears “den” – they do not strictly hibernate here in Lake County, but attain a “seasonal lethargy” – honeybees, like many of us, cope with cold temperatures by gathering reserves and slowing down.
Beekeepers tell us that when the temperatures drop down to the 50s and below, honeybees assemble in a special area of the hive into a cluster.
Using their amazing bee-wisdom, honeybees know that it is imperative that they keep their queen bee warm and safe, so the queen is kept inside the cluster. Then, the worker bees quiver their little wings while shivering.
These wise little critters also know to keep the cluster rotating to allow for those on the outside of the huddle to warm up on the inside. All of this unremitting motion generates enough heat in the hive to keep the temperature warm enough for survival.
But this incessant motion requires much in the way of sustenance, which means honey for energy.
Some sources state that depending on the size of the honeybees hive, they can devour up to 30 pounds of honey over the winter season.
I contacted a local hobbyist beekeeper, Arnaud Hubert and asked him some questions about beekeeping.
Here they are:
Q: What do bees in Lake County feed on in the winter months?
A: They slow down, but if a day is nice and sunny and warm enough, some bees will venture out for water, pollen or even nectar. There are some blooms right now – rosemary, silver dollar eucalyptus, manzanita and others.
Q: When bees swarm locally, who collects the swarm, and what is the procedure?
A: I do, as well as the other beekeepers mentioned on the following Facebook page (post is currently unpinned since we’re not in swarm season yet): https://www.facebook.com/BeekeepersGuildofLCC/.
A lot of people sometimes refer to a swarm as a hive, and vice-versa, which makes our job (or hobby, in my case) a bit tricky. When they call, we have to ask them to describe what they’re seeing. If it’s a cluster of bees on a branch or in another location, we can collect it as long as it can be reached. If it’s already settled inside a structure (between walls, empty wine barrel, or some other cavity approximately the size of the inside of an oven), then it’s no longer a swarm, it’s a hive.
If a swarm lands on someone’s property, they can choose to ignore it – the swarm will eventually move away after a few minutes or a couple of days. But they could also decide to settle in a cavity they find on that property - and then it becomes a potential problem.
Beekeepers will usually collect swarms for free, or a very modest fee. If, however, they need to extract it from a structure, it’s called a cut-out, or an extraction. That won’t be free, as it’s a lot of work. Often the extracted colony won’t survive.
Q: What kind of landscape do you recommend to encourage bees and other pollinators?
A: Native flowers! Also: rosemary, lavender, borage, clover, buckwheat, thyme … UC Davis, which also has created a wonderful bee garden which is worth visiting in the spring – has published this guide:
https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/blog/support-california-native-bees-these-10-plants.
UC Berkeley has a “Bee Lab” and produced this much longer but excellent list: http://www.helpabee.org/best-bee-plants-for-california.html .
Q: Where we may purchase local honey?
A: I don’t produce enough to sell it these days. It’s mostly gifted to friends. But some local beekeepers sell their honey at local tasting rooms, feed stores, or specialty stores like Lakeport’s health food store, or A+H in Kelseyville.
Q: How have bees endured after all of the recent fires? I am imagining they have not fared well at all.
A: I’m not sure, and it might not necessarily be the case. The hives in the path of the fire, that’s for sure. Back in ’15, Dan Tyrell of Middletown lost his hives in the Valley fire and nothing was left of them. But honeybees can also be quite resilient, and it’s possible some feral hives that were in burned areas survived, even those inside a tree that partially burned.
As for the resulting ecology, a few years ago I saw some research done by a UC Davis student on the aftermath of the Rocky fire. He found that the bumblebee population – and the wildflower flora – was actually recovering remarkably well in that area.
Now bumblebees aren’t honeybees, but in some ways they are more important since those are native species. Honeybees are after all technically invasive since they were introduced in our area in the 19th century.
Personally I think it’s very important that people shift their concerns towards wild bee species, some of which are endangered or threatened.
Honeybees will not go away (even if they are being threatened by the varroa mite, their No. 1 enemy), as they are crucial to California’s agriculture economy. Hope this helps!
Thanks very much to Arnaud Hubert for sharing his insights and knowledge.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”