It was a winter of bee starvation. In the past few weeks I’ve heard countless tales of beekeepers losing all or nearly all their hives to starvation. Many of these hives had not a drop of honey left. Others had full frames of honey remaining, but the bees starved anyway.
During cold weather, the bees cannot leave the cluster in order to find food. Oftentimes, honey stored just beyond the edge of the cluster is never touched. As the bees move upward, they consume the food the cluster encounters. The resulting pattern resembles a vertical tunnel through the stored food.
Warm periods during the winter allow the bees to move around and find more of the food. Sometimes the cluster may move toward one side of the box and eat the honey there. But after it becomes cold again, they are even further from the stores remaining on the other side of the box–which is why you sometimes see the dead cluster on one side or in one corner of the brood box.
A similar type of movement occurs in top-bar hives. Although the bees don’t move up, they may gradually move left or right. But if they eat their way to one end of the hive, they can’t turn around and traverse the empty combs to get to the other end. So they starve.
The cluster of bees won’t leave brood unattended, so even though there is very little brood in the winter months, it anchors the cluster to one spot. It seems like the bees would move freely inside their box, but instead, they are always attached to the nursery.
Placing feed–especially hard candy–just above the cluster is very effective because that is where the bees are most likely to find it. In addition, heat from the cluster keeps that area warmer than the surrounds, so bees can move onto the candy without freezing.
A lack of honey may be due to over-harvesting, but it may also be due to paltry nectar flows or particularly long winters. Whatever the cause, feeding sugar is a long, time-consuming, and expensive ordeal–but it may be the only way to keep your bees alive.
The photo below shows what typical starved bees look like. The bees–still in the shape of a cluster–all died head-down in a cell with their little butts sticking up in the air. Each is trying to survive by licking every last molecule of sugar from the bottom of a cell, but when that gives out, they die from lack of fuel or freezing to death. It is a very sad sight to see. The photo was kindly provided by Jared Watkins.
Rusty
A frame of bees that starved. Photo courtesy of Jared Watkins.
Bees go head first into cells like that in all winter clusters. It’s why you don’t move a full frame of honey into the center of a cluster in the middle of winter, but next to the cluster. They fill these cells in cluster for the sake of condensing it and being able to create more warmth. This year I had several weak hives which died in clusters with their heads down into cells in this fashion with honey filled cells immediately adjacent on both sides of the cluster. Literally, if these bees moved over one cell they were on capped honey. They didn’t starve. The clusters were just too small or weak to handle the extreme cold we had here in Michigan this winter. I agree that bees can and often do starve under the conditions you mentioned, i.e. because they can’t break out of cluster to move to the honey. I’ve heard it too many times however, that if you see bees head first in the cells like that it means they starved. It just isn’t necessarily so.
Hi Jim,
I’m not sure I follow. You say the bees move honey closer to the cluster to keep the cluster compact? Is that right? The reason their heads are in the cells is because they are moving honey? Then they died of cold (small cluster) not starvation? Okay, I can see that, especially if there is honey near by. But in the photo and in other frames I’ve seen there was no honey anywhere.
But what I think you’re saying is that if the bees were head-first in the cells and there was honey directly adjacent to them, they most likely died of cold, not starvation. I can see that. The bees become immobilized from cold, so they can’t pull themselves out of the cell to go to the next one.
Here’s my question: Not all bees go into the cells. Bees within the cluster are fed by trophyllaxis by the perimeter bees that are collecting honey from cells. So if the honey-collecting bees die of the cold, won’t the cluster bees die of starvation if no one delivers food? Or does the cluster just become so small that all bees die of the cold?
Here’s another question: Have you ever pulled a “starved” bee out of a cell and found honey down there? Assuming your theory is correct, the bees died of the cold while moving honey around, so some of those cells should have honey in them.
I’ve never heard this argument before and it intrigues me. The next time I see “staved” bees right next to the honey cells, I’m going to pull them out and see what’s under there.
Hi Rusty, No I’m not saying the bees move honey closer. I’m saying the reason the bees are head first into the cells is because that is HOW they cluster. Empty comb is an integral part of a cluster. Indeed, without empty comb, there is no way the bees could create the warmth needed to endure severe cold. To say those bees were desperately trying lick the last drop of honey from the bottom of those cells is almost certainly incorrect. Rather, they were in those cells as a function of creating warmth. I suppose ‘technically’ they may have died of starvation, especially in the case of it being a large cluster. However, in smaller clusters, I believe the coroners report would find the cause of death to be hypothermia. In either case we have to determine which happened first. In the case of a large cluster more time would elapse between the inability to move the cluster due to cold and the death of the bees on the inside because of the larger insulating layer causing starvation. In a smaller cluster the cold can kill the bees long before they starve.
Regarding finding honey in the bottom of the cell of a “starved” bee. I think that question comes from a misinterpretation due to my poor phrasing. When I said in my original comment that the bees ‘fill the cells in order to condense the cluster’, I meant they fill the empty cells with themselves in order to condense the cluster.
In either case it is just semantics to me. Falling off a boat and inhaling water into your lungs causes a lack of oxygen to the brain causing death. Nobody says “he died because of lack of oxygen to his brain”. We say the cause of death was drowning. It’s an important distinction because lack of oxygen can occur in many ways e.g. drowning, strangulation, suffocation, hanging etc. Starvation also has different causes. So, while starvation may have occurred, the much more important issue is why? Did the beekeeper take too much honey, was there just not enough resources available to make honey, or was it too cold to break out of cluster and reach the honey? It is important because knowing the cause gives us the best chance to provide for a solution.
I guess it just boils down to the ‘starvation’ issue as a pet peeve of mine. I mean, really, how many times have you heard it said, “When you see bees head first into cells it means they starved”? One, it isn’t necessarily so and, B, it is completely useless as a diagnosis.
On a side note I love your blog Rusty and thanks for the great work you do here.
Jim
Thanks. Your point is well-taken and the analogy to drowning helped me to understand.
By the way, Jim, do you listen to Car Talk?
I do listen to Car Talk occasionally. Why I don’t make it a point to tune in more often, I don’t know. Click and Clack have wonderful personalities and are very funny. I bet there is a podcast for them. Now you’ve gone and piqued my interest.
Jim,
It’s just that in your previous comment you mention part 1 and part B, which is so very Click and Clack. And, yes, they do have a podcast.