homework for June '25. Winter Beehaviour.
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2025 9:39 am
Winter Beehaviour.
© Ron Boughton June ‘25.
When those Winter winds whip and whine and chill right to the bone,
a cosy fire and glass of wine is counter to atone!
I've checked the hives, the bees are good and they’ve prepared their stocks
in case a frigid mother should, try freezing each brood box!
For all through Autumn they have worked to future proof their lot,
with not a single bee who’d shirk thus Winter’s prep. boycott!
Now shorter days and longer nights, means gathering is quite slow
which means pollen and nectar flights, have counts now very low.
So stocks of honey must be made, en masse, to feed the hive,
where every bee, their part has played, so Winter they’ll survive.
The supers have been taken down, for more warmth in each brood,
and there the Queen still wears her crown, as workers bring her food.
Amassing in a huddle then, combined warmth their insight,
a living primal blanket when, required for each cold night!
About Six weeks, the average for, a honey bees life span
so each bee, an intensive chore, gives to the hives grand plan!
A healthy hive in numbers can, be sixty thousand bees,
and in Summer they all will fan, to cool a few degrees!
Collectively they work as one, a firm unwritten creed,
To share the load is how it’s done, with no such thing as greed!
But for now, it’s when Spring arrives, with crunch of frost now gone,
that bees start pollination drives, and so -the world moves on!
And soon honey will be on tap, a culinary need!
and yes that ‘cozy fire’ nightcap, will be …a glass of mead!
© Ron Boughton June ‘25.
When those Winter winds whip and whine and chill right to the bone,
a cosy fire and glass of wine is counter to atone!
I've checked the hives, the bees are good and they’ve prepared their stocks
in case a frigid mother should, try freezing each brood box!
For all through Autumn they have worked to future proof their lot,
with not a single bee who’d shirk thus Winter’s prep. boycott!
Now shorter days and longer nights, means gathering is quite slow
which means pollen and nectar flights, have counts now very low.
So stocks of honey must be made, en masse, to feed the hive,
where every bee, their part has played, so Winter they’ll survive.
The supers have been taken down, for more warmth in each brood,
and there the Queen still wears her crown, as workers bring her food.
Amassing in a huddle then, combined warmth their insight,
a living primal blanket when, required for each cold night!
About Six weeks, the average for, a honey bees life span
so each bee, an intensive chore, gives to the hives grand plan!
A healthy hive in numbers can, be sixty thousand bees,
and in Summer they all will fan, to cool a few degrees!
Collectively they work as one, a firm unwritten creed,
To share the load is how it’s done, with no such thing as greed!
But for now, it’s when Spring arrives, with crunch of frost now gone,
that bees start pollination drives, and so -the world moves on!
And soon honey will be on tap, a culinary need!
and yes that ‘cozy fire’ nightcap, will be …a glass of mead!
