Haslemere Museum Garden and Grounds

Observation Beehive

Beehive

See the bees behind glass as they work in the hive.

Annual cycle of the Honey Bee

January
Illustrates perfectly the uniqueness of the honey bee over its near relatives. While all other species, social or solitary have dwindled away leaving only a residue of fertilized females in hibernation awaiting the Spring before instigating a new colony, the honey bee continues as a social insect resisting the cold by regulating the colony temperature.

They cluster together keeping the temperature above 10°C, which is done by pooling their metabolic heat, vibration of their wing muscles generates sufficient heat to keep the colony alive. This is how the honey bee survives in cold climates. The fuel for this winter, long heat process, is their store of honey collected over the previous summer and autumn. Some 20kgs is required to enable a colony to get through a winter.

February
This month sees a continuation of the cycle, on warm days the bees will emerge to evacuate their bodies clean the hive of detritus, dead bees and start gathering nectar and pollen from the early flowers both tree and flower. Within the colony cluster the bees have increased the temperature to some 34°C. The Queen even from late December will have started laying eggs within the worker cell area of the hive in readiness for the coming spring. There is a momentum building and by early spring some 1,000 cells will be holding developing bees.

March
By March, bumble bees will emerge from hibernation ready to start their nests, on the other hand our honey bee colony will now be numbering 20,000 - 30,000 bees. They will on warm days be gathering pollen and nectar for the expanding hive. The queen having mated soon after her emergence retains sufficient sperm in her body and in her lifetime to enable the colony begin; this increases in the early New Year.

April
By April, the colony given a warm spring, will number 30,000 bees and it is this growing size that enables the colony to move toward the need to reproduce and increase. The Queen will have by this time begun to lay drone or male eggs in a specific area within the hive. It is this procedure that precedes the remarkable division of the colony culminating in the swarm that many people come across during the summer. All this time the other functions continue, gathering pollen and nectar.

May
May is an important month as emerging young worker bees will begin their life cycles of about 6 – 8 weeks, joining those that emerged from January onwards.

Their lives are divided into several areas of responsibility, they begin by cleaning cells, brood capping, feeding brood and feeding and grooming the Queen. They then move onto an involvement in the rest of the nest, grooming and feeding mates and developing brood. They also ventilate the hive by their wing movements and finally shaping comb for the increasing volume of food and brood now in the hive. It is now they begin to forage for the colony, beginning what is now the most hazardous period of their lives.

June
Is the pivotal month of the bees cycle, for it is in this month that many colonies are at their zenith and begin to reproduce. Older worker bees by this time will be taking nectar and pollen from incoming bees packing pollen into pollen cells storing and capping nectar-honey. Throughout this and the previous month foraging bees will be bring increasing amounts of food for two vital changes within the colony, the need to reproduce and the need to gather sufficient food for the colony to survive the coming winter.

One sign of the impending division of the colony are the appearance of queen cells. These occur most years, but bad weather will halt this process. Brood in these cells are given a special food called queen jelly in only 16 days these develop from egg to emerged queen. During the development of these cells the old queen is treated quite differently, she is not feed regularly, she is chased round by her attendants and regularly butted, she loses weight and reduces laying eggs for new worker brood.

Soon after the first queen cell is capped or sealed the old queen flies off in a swarm of some 10,000-15,000 bees leaving a similar number in the nest. They will fly a short distance and collect in hanging structure while scout bees go off to find a suitable new hole or cavity in which to nest. Before going they will have filled their stomachs with honey so as to sustain them in this period. Generally they are placid as a result.

July
Some swarms may number many more than the figures mentioned, but what follows does depend on the numbers remaining.

After about 8 days following the departure of the old queen the first new queen emerges. If there are insufficient workers available to defend the remaining queen cells the new queen will destroy any others and she will become the new head of the colony. If there are sufficient workers to protect the other cells they will in turn emerge and produce smaller swarms these in turn fly off to start new colonies. This process will largely depend on the warmth of the season and the colony’s ability to produce the bee numbers. Smaller swarms are generally less viable since they must re-nest and gather enough food to last the coming winter.

August
The new queen will fly out and mate. They fly to well known gathering points in the surrounding landscape usually an area of rising ground or hill and here they will mate several times with the drones from her hive and others accumulating sufficient sperm to last her entire laying career. It is a dangerous time for they can be killed or lose their way and the colony becomes queenless and will slowly dwindle and die out.

July and August are what bee keepers call main flow months for it is these months that the bees bring in large volumes of nectar and pollen to ensure reproduction and survival of the colony. Bad summers will halt this process the workers destroying developing queens concentrating on collecting food to ensure survival until next year. The newly fertilized queen returns to the hive and starts laying eggs for the worker brood, it’s her scent that now permeates the hive that ensures the workers combine round her.

September
In September the main highlights of the colony have passed late summer warmth may still stimulate late swarms though these have little time to gather enough food for the winter, a swarm in May is worth a load of hay late swarms you give away. Outside hives you now see dead drones or drones being refused entrance. Their job is complete; they are now a drain on the colony’s resources and are chased away. All the efforts are now put into accumulating food.

October
We see now the queen reducing her egg laying for the replacement of worker brood. The life of a foraging bee is short, they rarely last more than 4-6 weeks. They spend the last two weeks of their lives outside collecting and often perish earlier in cool and wet autumn weather. The colony activity reduces though for the old and new queens that departed the hive in the swarming season, they may well be still active ensuring food for the winter. It is now plants like ivy are visited in order to boost colony reserves, but given a favourable summer it is a quiet time.

November
November is the month the colony enters its winter period. Early frosts and reducing suns warmth will see little activity, the bees will cluster on cold days slowly moving and retaining warmth. The hive will be sealed for draughts, but on fine days they will emerge fly and clean the hive.

December
This is the month that after the winter solstice sees the bees reach both the low point of activity and begin the push for the new season for it is in this month the colony begins to raise the temperature within the cluster stimulating the queen to lay her first eggs for the worker brood, ensuring they can take advantage of the first spring nectar and pollen in the New Year.