We're getting closer to daily-highs-stay-below-freezing-territory, which is a terrible place for humans and even worse for bees. So how do they, and especially our native bumblebees, survive the winter? The short answer is that if they don’t store enough honey, they die.
But some bees also enter a sort of hibernation, slowing and cooling down. In some species, though, only the queens survive the winter, and reemerge in the spring to begin new colonies. Worker bees also use their body heat and friction from their movements to keep their queen, larvae, and eggs warm through the winter.
With large hives of thousands of bees, the internal temperature of such clusters can reach 93°. They also often line nests with fur for insulation — which makes abandoned rodent homes a perfect underground colony location.
A rough guide to identifying common bees native to Idaho and the Mountain West. (Jim Cane / USDA Agricultural Research Service)
The Xerces Society, a nonprofit that focuses on the preservation of invertebrates, has a lot of recommendations for how to help pollinators survive the winter. Here are a few:
- Don’t get rid of leaves and other ground cover. Leave the Leaves is a campaign that advocate for letting mulch, leaves, and other organic matter leftover from warmer months to stay on the ground. This provides crucial food and cover for pollinators in the winter.
- Try not to disturb ground nests. Over 80% of all native bees nest in the ground, so digging up soil for garden projects deeper than six inches could destroy nests.
- Check under logs and rocks before moving them. You never know who could be living there!
If you want to know more about Idaho’s native bees, check out this beginner’s guide to identification.
