Bee Joy Beekeeping Newsletter - Winter 2026
- Grai St. Clair Rice
- 7 days ago
- 8 min read
Winter Thaws
Winter thaws stir the spirits out of the depth of darkness, whispering a promise of spring. The sun feels stronger every day, offering it’s gift of life, asking nothing of us in return.
Windless, sunny days in the mid-forties, allow honeybees to leave the vigilant work of the winter cluster to drag their dead sisters to the hive entrance, and allows the cluster to reposition within the hive for access to honey.
Venturing out of the hive, even a short distance to defecate, is a dangerous activity until the air temperature is higher than 47 degrees. Landing in the snow, chills the flight muscles and is difficult for a bee to recover from unless there is an obsessive, concerned beekeeper lifting them out of the snow to warm and dry.
Beekeepers are infinitely elated to see that their colonies are alive in January and early February, however the critical danger-zone of colony survival lays ahead as spring brood begins to shift internal dynamics by mid-February.
Bee Poop in the snow is a complete delight to see spotting the landscape. A great way to tell if bees have been able to safely fly.
Winter Beekeeping Tasks
Mid-February Brood-rearing
Once brooding starts incrementally in February, a colony's energy shifts. The core of the cluster needs to incubate the brood at 95 degrees. The nursery will continue to expand, adding more pressure on the remaining bees and the food supply.
Plan for Feeding Your Bees
On a warmish day, peek into the top of hives to monitor food supply. Open a hive gently and have everything you might need at the ready. Do everything as if you are a Tai Chi master.
Crunch Time for Hive Loss
Late February through the end of March is critical for hive loss. As the brood nest expands, there is dangerous pressure on the food supply and dwindling Winter Bee populations. If hives have made it this far and are low on food, keep feeding them until the season is strong enough to support them naturally.
Don't Feed Pollen Too Soon
Bees need carbohydrates to generate the colony’s heat for survival and successful brood incubation. In most cases, pollen patties are best held back for later in spring, unless the beekeeper noted in autumn a lack of pollen within the frames. It is best not to stimulate brood-rearing too far from natural seasonal cycles.
Prepare for Spring
Clean up equipment to be reused, and order new supplies and bees, in advance of the rush of spring activity. Learning new things is also a great way to prepare for the bee season ahead.
The Wing-Life of the Honeybee
Honeybees use their wings for: flying as they forage; fanning as they ventilate the hive and send out the Queen’s pheromone; communication during the waggle dance and other pitched sounds produced by the wings; and in winter, as part of their heat-generating vibrations fueled by honey. The Honeybee Genome Project mapped the honeybees’ genetic predisposition for strong navigation and communication skills, both involving their wings.
A Honeybee has two sets of flat, thin, membranous wings, attached to the thorax, the middle section of the bee, along with its six legs. The wings are actually thin outgrowths of the skeleton, with veins running through them carrying blood, oxygen and nerves to the wing extremities. The fore wings are much larger than the hind wings, but the two wings of each side work together in flight, with tiny hooks on the hind wings, called hamuli, clasping the fore wings so that they beat as one.
Muscles in the thorax rhythmically contract, pulling the wings up many times a second, yet just flapping the wings does not result in flight. The driving force results from a propeller-like twist given to each wing during the upstroke and the down-stroke, allowing for incredibly fine maneuvering, up and down, backwards and forwards. It is a mesmerizing sight to watch honeybee flight patterns around the hive entrance.
In flight, an adult workerbee beats its wings approximately 250 times a second, however when fanning, she grips the comb or the landing board with her feet, which brings the frequency down to 190 Hz. (Hz is just an abbreviation for Hertz which is the engineer's word for 'times per second'.) A young bee's wings do not harden completely until it is 9 days old, and until then the resonant frequency is higher. It has been recorded within the hive that 4-1/2 day wings resonate at 285Hz and the 6 day old ones at 225Hz. A Drone has a deeper sound in flight, which is a good thing to learn to recognize.
It has been said that the hum of a happy hive is Middle C. The fact is in the numbers. Middle C is 261.6 Hz. “Music” is in the ear of the listener, although the bees themselves do not have ears.
In these deep days of winter, when the cluster is in survival mode, heat is generated by tightly packed workerbees with their wing muscles vibrating, but not engaging the wings. Movement within the hive is slow and limited, with warmth maintained by the group as a whole, not the individual bee. This is why breaking a cluster with a jarring action threatens the survival of the colony. Due to the nature of hive and comb design, the bees can move up or down between frames easier than over a frame or two. Position of food in relation to bee activity is critical at the coldest times. Bees may starve even though there is honey only a few inches away, since the movement of the cluster is almost glacial.
On days when the warmth of the Sun has enticed bees from their hives for cleansing or forage, the call to flight may be premature for the physiology of the Honeybee. Once their muscles meet the coldness of the outside air, their muscles fail to contract, their thorax no longer functioning, and they plummet into the snow. If you see a bee embedded deep in the snow, the warmth of her body sank into the cold that continues to rob her of heat. It can take up to 18 hours for the bee to perish.
During foraging months of the year, a workerbee is “done” when her wings are tattered and worn. She is no longer useful to the hive, even if her spirit is willing. The spent workers are often found in the colony’s “dying grounds,” at a distance from the hive. You may notice the tattered wings on bees when they are working on flowers, as foraging is the final task of a workerbee’s life.
A Honeybee’s wings are delicate and strong. Their wings are life-giving, and yet they are also the bees’ hourglass of usefulness. To a beekeeper, that sound of Middle-C at the hive entrance is life-affirming music indeed.
Abundance Ahead
Envisioning new landscape plantings for the approaching growing season offers a perfect opportunity to fill cold winter nights with plans for warmth, beauty and abundance.
It is always wise to face the realities of each specific soil and sun environment, and equally important to be mindful of our projected energy, time and financial allowances. Often, with the barren landscape of winter stretched out before us, we forget the weeds and the work.
It’s most rewarding to focus on new forage planting for times of yearly dearth, with a preference for natives. Please realize that labels such as “bee friendly” or “pollinator friendly,” may not mean good for honeybees, as the length of the proboscis affects the flowers available for sustenance. Keep seduction at bay until you educate yourself, yet consider also including shrubs that are host plants for butterflies and moths, which are in steep decline.
Honeybees have “flower fidelity,” due to their communication skills and communal foraging patterns. Thus, large areas of the same kind of blossoms are going to be more useful to your colonies than isolated small clusters. Creating masses of flowers is surprisingly calming to the human eye and easier to garden.
There are three different frameworks I tend to contemplate: trees and shrubs and flowering ground covers for mass and longevity; specific annuals planted in drifts for the eye-catching beauty and swift payback; and a continuing education on the value of the pollinator friendly “weeds” in the yard, while making peace with some scruffy spots.
Properly selected trees and shrubs, for size and location, will expand over time without the fussiness of “gardening.” Spring flowering trees, such as Eastern Redbud, Shadblow Serviceberry and crabapple, offer abundance during early hive build-up. Summer flowering species, such as American Basswood, Sourwood and Korean Evodia, are invaluable for honey production and when the colony is building towards winter.
Flowering ground covers, such as Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) and Creeping Thyme, are excellent, and if well situated will help keep down weeds and the task of mowing in selected areas.
Creeping Thyme blooms in July when many pollinators are ready to partake. Photos by Grai St. Clair Rice.
Drifts of annuals such as Bachelors Button, Lacy Phacelia and Cosmos are good choices. Perennial beds massed with catnip, echinacea and sneezeweed are always welcomed by honeybees, although these take time to establish for a volume of blooms.
“Weeds” can feel like a constant menace, unless you change your mind-set and learn to respect them, even just a little. Letting some areas of your yard get wild and tall in June into July can feed pollinators, as well as help fireflies, if you are lucky enough to still have them, as they rest during the daylight in higher, moister areas.
Weeds tend to have small flowers, that can be accessible to a variety of small pollinators, many of them unnoticed native bees, flies and beetles, and sometimes honeybees. “Weeds” have a long history of usefulness in folk medicine, and it makes sense that these flowers offer good elements for pollinators.
The dreaded Ground Ivy (known by many names, including Creeping Charlie) turns out to be a bit of a blessing to honeybees and bumblebees in spring. I loath garlic mustard for its invasive nature which is difficult to control, however seeing pollinators on the flowers I now yank them after flowering, before they set seed.
Plantain is another weed too happy in poor soil, although ribwort plantain (or narrow leaf plantain) is an early morning magnet for small pollinators, including honeybees, and lures me out into the yard at 6:30 am to watch the magic of foraging.
Habitat loss, and poor nutrition, are some of the main drivers of pollinator decline. Every year, work towards enhancing the abundance ahead for the invaluable contributions pollinators bring to our environment and the beauty surrounding us.
Bee Joy's Beekeeping Class Will be Held in February
Want to be an engaged beekeeper?
Engaged Beekeeping
February 21 & 22
Saturday & Sunday, 10am - 5pm
This 2-day course combines practical and scientific knowledge with a philosophical approach to enhance your connection with honeybees.
Build a foundation for a beekeeping practice that is both intelligent and passionate!
Citations & Links
Goodman, Lesley. (2003). Form and Function in the Honey Bee. International Bee Research Association (IBRA).
Fisher, R-L. (2012). Bee. Princeton Architectural Press. (Note: a revision of the book is currently in production with Northern Bee Books, UK.)
Winston, M. L. (1991). Biology of the Honeybee. Harvard University Press.
The Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium. Insights into social insects from the genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera. Nature. 2006;443:931–49. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05260
Stay tuned for the next Beekeeping Newsletter!
Learn something new and dream about spring....
About the Author:
Grai St. Clair Rice
Grai has been a beekeeping educator since 2006. She teaches beekeeping classes, coaches beekeepers, does public presentations, writes about honey bees and gardening for pollinators, publishes the Bee Joy beekeeping newsletter, and consults on landscape plantings.
