Newsletter November:

Winter already?!

Dear bee friends,

What do bees do in winter?

Unlike wild bees such as bumblebees or wasps and hornets, honeybees hibernate as a colony in their hive.

Honey bees collect nectar, refine it into honey and dry it in their combs. In bumblebees, wasps and hornets, on the other hand, several queens overwinter and form a new colony in the spring. These queens look for a sheltered place in the hopefully intact, not too tidy nature and build new nests in spring. Wild bees overwinter as larvae in holes that we know from insect hotels.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

When it is snowy and cold outside, the honey bees warm each other in the winter cluster

For the time being, beekeepers have nothing to do with their colonies. The Advent season with its Christmas markets is just the right time to market the honey, the melted beeswax as candles and the propolis as tincture or cream.

Why don't you all come along to the Advent magic in Grünsink next weekend? I look forward to seeing everyone who finds their way to this enchanting place on foot.

This year there will be a contemplative hour in the pilgrimage church on Saturday and Sunday and on Sunday St. Nicholas will come and give presents to the children!

On Friday, Erik Berthold will get us in the mood for the magic of Advent.

Is there a more beautiful light than that of a fragrant beeswax candle?

Back to the bees again. The ability to generate heat through body movement also helps the honey bees in spring to keep the brood in the comb cells warm. The brood needs a constant temperature of around 35°C. Now most colonies are already brood-free and can save energy. This means that the bees that are alive now will survive the winter until spring. Unlike the summer bees, which are already exhausted after 6 to 8 weeks and die again.

The bees also use the technique of heat generation to kill invading enemies such as the hornet. A hornet normally catches individual bees in front of the flight hole and flies with the victim to a nearby branch and eats it there. If a single hornet does venture into the hive, in a healthy colony it will be “nuzzled” by some bees and heated so much by their ability to generate heat that it dies.

However, this is the exception rather than the rule.
When a hornet appears in front of the entrance hole, the bees initially become nervous and then retreat completely into the hive.In summer, this can lead to the colony starving.It could also overheat because the bees can no longer cool the hive by flapping their wings in front of the entrance hole.

The problem could worsen dramatically in the future, as a new species of hornet from Asia is on the advance in Europe and Germany.

This invasive species differs from the native hornet mainly in its color. The body is black rather than yellow, but the legs are yellow instead of black.Although the native hornet also hunts bees, this probably only accounts for 5% of its diet, whereas bees are the Asian hornet's 35-85% food source.

The nests of the “Vespa velutina” are much larger. They are home to 1000-2000 hornets, compared to 400-700 for the native species.