Could this weather cause problems

[NoBBy]

As a beginer in my first year I was wondering if this weard hot spell could cause problems with Bees' over wintering??

At last weekends inspection 1 colony had brood and where still flying the second didnt have much brood and seened to be bedding down for winter. However since this warm weather they are both very busy at the moment bring in more stores. These Bees' on the second colony could well be Winter Bees'. Would this cause a problem for them exausting themselves ??

 

[MuswellMetro]

As a beginer in my first year I was wondering if this weard hot spell could cause problems with Bees' over wintering??

At last weekends inspection 1 colony had brood and where still flying the second didnt have much brood and seened to be bedding down for winter. However since this warm weather they are both very busy at the moment bring in more stores. These Bees' on the second colony could well be Winter Bees'. Would this cause a problem for them exausting themselves ??

well, it is a good question but no one has answered it, why, possible as we dont know......well i dont know

but lets see what this brings

winter bees eat more pollen have higher body fat and most winter bees feed very few if any bees so live longer,

so a warm spell would make the queen lay more brood which needs to be fed....but that increase the number of bees feeding brood and that reduces the average life length of the winter bees....but you now have more new winter bees to replace them

 

[Poggle]

I to am wondering about the weather causing problems. My hives are on the allotment and the day time temps have been up in the 27, 28, and 29's for a week now. They are all busy collecting as there is still masses of "food" available for them.

 

[oliver90owner]

Look at it this way. If they had already settled down for winter (clustering) they would have to survive that much longer than they will need to, when they finally settle down after this late good weather spell. Roundabouts and swings, I would think.

If it happens to be another month, that will be one month less until Spring arrives. The bees can probably cope with these conditions. After all they, as a species, have survived for a long time already and conditions are different across their different regions of habitat.

There is still a lot of brood in most of my colonies, I think, but they are filling in around the brood nest so I expect they will be about full enough by the time the foraging stops. As long as they have sufficient stores - and Spring arrives when we expect it, healthy bees will over-winter OK.

The bees emerging over the last three weeks will not have been out foraging, and as MM says they will only be ageing if they have been feeding brood. I have seen a lot of orientating bees this last couple of weeks, so a lot of brood still emerging.

I would think inappropriate strains of bee for the local environment may be a greater factor, than a bit of extra sunshine keeping them active. Any way, not much to be done about it, is there? This is not particularly atypical for the last few seasons, just a few degrees warmer at the moment.

I seem to remember it was quite warm at this time last year? Well, it was where I was - windows open all night, no bed covers needed (just a sheet) and fans being put to good use all day and into the night.

RAB

 

[Leigh]

Went through my bees the other day to see how they were doing/how much feeding was necessary (rather late with the feed). Surprised to find that the majority of them had filled any vacant cells with stores. All well and good in that I won't have to feed, but rather worrying that no more bees can be produced....in that state, you'd think that cold weather soon would be a good thing...don't want them wearing themselves out when no replacements are available.

Stores didn't seem to be just ivy. Rather wishing I'd left some supers on now, but there is no way this weather could have been predicted...will just have to go with the flow. Ah...sneaky pun there.

 

[weatherman1200]

I picked up swarm on sept 30 must be the weather

 

[Chris Luck]

The type of weather you are experiencing in the UK is normal here and usually we have very warm / hot days into October and sometimes November....

.....the bees appear to have managed with this for several thousand years since the last ice age but you've got me worrying now.

Chris

 

[Rosti]

usually we have very warm / hot days into October and sometimes November....
Chris

Chris are your normal warm autumns also supported with suitable forage and if so is your winter prep and on-set typically a month behind UK? I recall you posting activity earlier in the spring than UK as well? R

 

[Chris Luck]

Forage is a big issue and the answer is no, we don't really have any now apart from some nearly finished ivy, a few odd flowers and fallen over-ripe pears which they seem to like, (or perhaps that's desperation). The reality is that some of my colonies are now very, very quiet and others are still bringing in a lot of pollen, (mainly ivy), but that's bees for you, different colonies behave in completely different ways, some are simply "ticking over", others are clearly in strong egg producing mode.

What this all amounts to is that we are usually about 4 to 6 weeks in advance of the southern half of the UK and usually have very little forage from mid august and that's mainly sunflowers. Catkins are usually pollinating by the start of Feb closely followed by goat willows etc. although we can sometimes still go down to -14C until the end of Feb.

Chris