Do Honey Bees Hibernate?

With the cold weather and snow fall that we received in the Mid-Atlantic region over the last week, I have received a lot of questions and inquiries about the Honey Bees. Have they migrated? Do they hibernate?

Actually, Honey bees neither migrate nor hibernate. When temperatures in the winter drop below 50 degrees F, honey bees retreat to their hives and form a winter cluster to keep warm. This is a critical time for the honey bees. To survive they need to keep warm, so they must have a sufficient number of winter bees, food stores and a secure hive. When the bees clustered the queen is in the center, the warmest part. The other bees will shake or shiver to generate heat which maintains a cluster temperature as high as 90-100 degrees F at the core..

What is a Winter Bee? A winter bee is a generation of bees that have different physiological characteristics from a regular worker bee. They are a bit larger with the expectation that they will generate more heat and have a longer life span (4-6 months) to make it through winter compared to 7 weeks.