The effects of a sudden temperature drop

JamezF · Jan 14, 2012

Out of intellectual curiosity more than anything else...

The temperature here has dropped very suddenly and is forecast to get colder this week -- it could easily be as much as 10C below the same time last week. It occurs to me that the bees may well cluster now, having failed to do so thus far this winter.

If they have brood but need to cluster for warmth, do they abandon it, or try to nurse it through the cold period?

James

Finman · Jan 14, 2012

.
Bees have not much brood in Winter.
Biggest problem is that colony starves when it has a big consumption.

Second problem is that the colony may be in bad shape because it did not had winter rest.

oliver90owner · Jan 14, 2012

Of course they will try to nurse the larvae through. Success would depend on the strength of the colony, the amount of brood and the temperature and length of the period. Abandonment of brood is a last resort, but will occur if they are unable to maintain it. As Finman says, the risk is starvation because the food store around the brood will diminish very sharply. If it is too cold, then, for the bees to move (as in cluster) they could perish.

Bees have been doing this for millions of years. Mostly they get it right. The ones that get it wrong would, in nature, no longer uccupy part of the gene pool. Unfortunately, humans have interfererd with that normal balance, I would suggest.

RAB

Finman · Jan 14, 2012

.
If you wonder the perish of brood, a beekeeper arrange it quite often.
When the hive has a full box of brood in spring, the beekeeper put a second box over the brood box. A beekeeper is happy when bees move up.

If he had an idea to look to the lower box, dead of 30% of brood is normal. All larvae are gone and capping is porous.

That is why I allways put second box under the brood.
Many kind of "encouraging to lay" have often a result that brood area will be smaller. yes, I have tried many stupid things and growed "the learning curve".

Dishmop · Jan 14, 2012

Havent poked around in outside hives but there's no brood in my obs hive.

JamezF · Jan 14, 2012

What's your reasoning behind saying "Of course they'll try to nurse the larvae through", RAB?

The reason I posed the question in the first place was because it struck me that given the winter we've had, it's entirely possible there has been very little time when there's been no brood present and that as days lengthen in the mild weather the colonies may have started to rear brood if they'd stopped earlier in the winter.

If there's a sudden extended cold period then the "cost" to the colony in terms of stores and bee lives may be greater than that of forming a tight cluster and abandoning the larvae. There are other examples in nature where animals will abandon, kill or even eat their offspring if times are hard and that is the best way to ensure their own survival to produce another generation, so honey bees would hardly be the first, but on the other hand it may be that once they have eggs laid there's some sort of biological imperative to nurse them through regardless of the potential consequences to the colony as a whole.

James

Adam · Jan 14, 2012

JamezF said:
If they have brood but need to cluster for warmth, do they abandon it, or try to nurse it through the cold period?

James

Assuming they have a reasonable amount of brood, it gets cold, and they can't look after it, then yes, they will leave it to die. Abandonment of brood is referred to as Chilled Brood. The larvae tend to go grey, then black pretty quickly (a day or two). If the weather remains cold, the cluster doesn't break and no house bees can clean up, so it can look pretty messy if you open it up later.

Adam

oliver90owner · Jan 14, 2012

regardless

I purposely avoided terms like that. Of course the brood would be abandoned if the bees were unable to nurse the larvae/ pupae, but they are likely to cluster around the brood (or some of it) if they can - sometimes with lethal results. The one thing they would not do is just leave the live brood and go cluster at the other end of the hive!

RAB

jenkinsbrynmair · Jan 14, 2012

oliver90owner said:
regardless

I purposely avoided terms like that. Of course the brood would be abandoned if the bees were unable to nurse the larvae/ pupae, but they are likely to cluster around the brood (or some of it) if they can - sometimes with lethal results. The one thing they would not do is just leave the live brood and go cluster at the other end of the hive!

RAB

That was my understanding as well - they'd stay with the brood and starve within sight of stores - isolation starvation?

oliver90owner · Jan 14, 2012

As posted by Finman in post #2. Brooding uses up handy stores very quickly, then if it is too cold for the cluster to move to fresh stores......

RAB

BeeMoustashe · Jan 14, 2012

oliver90owner said:
As posted by Finman in post #2. Brooding uses up handy stores very quickly, then if it is too cold for the cluster to move to fresh stores......

RAB

thus it's one hell of an investment. Brood wouldn't be abandoned unless it really, really has to be. And lets face it the forecast is a few days at -2, not arctic winters.

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