Winter Survival

[RoofTops]

I guess the danger is that a sudden turn to colder weather could chill a batch of brood. You might be left with a substantial proportion of the adult bees who had been nurse bees so they had reduced life expectancy but a missing generation of viable brood to replace them.

I don't think so. The bees will keep the brood warm, it is their instinct - but they will consume stores at a high rate in order to do so.

 

[Finman]

I guess the danger is that a sudden turn to colder weather could chill a batch of brood. You might be left with a substantial proportion of the adult bees who had been nurse bees so they had reduced life expectancy but a missing generation of viable brood to replace them.

In Spring this danger is bigger.

Another thing is that beekeepers try to forge the hive to enlarge and then bees cannot keep brood area warm. For excample if you put an empty brood box over the brood. Bees move up but they abandon a part of lover box brood. Perhaps 30% of existing brood may disapear when you do that trick.

Beekeepers make much stupid things when they try to "encourage" bees to do that and that. Chalkbrood bursts often in these cases.

I have done these thing and these are not fairytales. Most of "encouraging" operations are such things.

.

 

[mbc]

"Its not quite all about feeding brood = shorter life.
If you think about poor weather in the spring and summer causing congestion and increasing swarming its obvious that the "pileing up" of workers occurs due to them living longer because they're not dieing from hard work."

sorry but have to disagree.

the scientific evidence from various sources confirms that worker lifespan is intimately associated with brood rearing.

on the second point - i'm sure many here will confirm that in fact the good early spring weather was the cause of early swarming. Later swarming was probably due poor mating in late spring/early summer ie supercedure swarms or starvation swarms or finally, overcrowding due to combined feeding and brood rearing in the mild autumn leading to late swarms.

So you think worker bee longevity is all about brood rearing ?
I think you either miss read or you dont know much about bees. Workers who forage hard for long hours, day after day, die quickly. Workers who hang about waiting for scouts to communicate that there's a bit of nectar about die less quickly.
Admitedly hypopharangeal gland activity is "intimately associated" with worker lifespan, but it aint the be all and end all of lifespan.
Bees not dieing fast enough does cause swarming in some colonies - in a parallel universe if such colonies were working a flow then the flying bees would be less numerous, there's more of a "gap" for maturing bees to fill as the older foragers are mostly dead, theres more honey and less incentive to swarm. All true.

 

[birchdale]

The old dear that lives next door shortens my bees lives in the Spring and Summer.
She feeds the local Tom, **** and Harry birds huge great feasts at the weekends. Weekdays the then starving birds feast on my bees!!!
Mr Blue *** and his massive extended family are the worst offenders...........any bee recovering for a moment after a flight is chick food!!!
I reckon I've lost thousands of bees this year.

 

[drstitson]

I agree that the working life of a forager is variable and hence so will be the lifespan in that phase BUT that just gives you the distribution curve around the magic 3 week mean. presumably most survive naturally for a least a week, probably 2 and some slackers survive 4 or even 5-6.

BUT the difference between 4-8 weeks is nothing compared to 6 weeks:6 months.

Brood rearing is the core factor in bee longevity.

Note: of course the above does not factor in intensity of brood rearing activity - the 3 weeks as a house bee is again an average - many probably get exhausted after 2 in full season and then have 2 weeks foraging.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The old dear that lives next door shortens my bees lives in the Spring and Summer.
She feeds the local Tom, **** and Harry birds huge great feasts at the weekends. Weekdays the then starving birds feast on my bees!!!
Mr Blue *** and his massive extended family are the worst offenders...........any bee recovering for a moment after a flight is chick food!!!
I reckon I've lost thousands of bees this year.

Feed the birds when she doesn't, then