Autumn and the bees

Bees are busy preparing for the winter in autumn and also feel the change of weather.

“Bees are frantically gathering pollen and take full advantage of the sunny days to ensure their stores will last them throughout the winter,” says Peter.

When taking a peek into the hive, it will be noticed that there is much activity as the house bees receive the incoming nectar from the field worker bees to process into honey that will be stored in the vacant cells.

Peter says worker bees providing pollen are frantically scraping the pollen off their legs for the house bees to store in the pollen cells.

These filled cells of precious pollen are sealed with a light capping of honey.

The queen bee lays about 2 000 eggs per day but during autumn, she reduces her daily egg laying to about 100 eggs per day.

As empty cells occur due to this reduced laying, the house bees fill these cells with honey.

“This is the pattern that will continue for about 14 weeks which is also the queen’s resting period,” says Peter.

The nectar and pollen flow ceases as the autumn season advances to colder nights and days.

Another interesting fact is that the workforce gradually reduces as the workers die of heart failure and damaged wings render the bees unable to fly and they fall down from the swarm in their last effort to make just one more flight and working day.

While the workers die, the nurse bees feed the queen and the drones, who are the male bees.

“As the incoming food flow has ceased these bees no longer feed the drones and they die of starvation and are expelled from the swarm as they are only passengers and are no longer needed.”

“Although the bees are entering a resting period in autumn and winter, the brood rearing, the raising of bees from the egg stage, continues,” Peter adds.

The newly hatched workers await the spring and they are the starter bees for the new season as life goes on.