In the cold months of the year, it is important not to disturb your bees, unless you feel that you need to provide them with more food. Around the end of October, I begin to add extra materials to block the wind around the hives, and I add wood shavings to the inside of the hive for insulation. At this time of year, the bees only venture outside of the hive when the sun is bright in the sky and temperatures are above 45 to 50 degrees. Each month, I not only consider what it is that I need to be doing in order to keep my bees happy and healthy, but also what they are offering me in teachings for the month.
As I sit with the bees in January, I begin to ponder what it is like inside a hive in the winter. I think about all the bees snuggled in a ball around their queen taking turns keeping one another warm. I see that the bees show us that winter is a time to go inward, to relish the darkness, and the warmth of our own homes. It is a time of restoration, and eating the foods of summer that we stored earlier in the year. I see their honey as stored sunshine, and that is also how I see the tomatoes I canned earlier in the year. Even the native bees are nestled underground or deep inside the stems of plants waiting for the spring.
The honey is stored inside the cells of the honeycomb like a library collection of all the plants that the bees visited over the spring, summer and fall. I wonder, as the bees consume this honey, if it is like reading a book about the warm days of summer while snuggled in the warmth of the huddle of their sister bees. I know that one of my favorite things to do in winter is to read a book next to a warm fire snuggled up with my pups.
Sometimes the bees will fly out on cold days, and the temperatures will drop more quickly than they expect. The bees will then be too cold to make it back to the hive. I walk around the yard and find them, and warm them up in my hands or by the fire in my home. When they are warm and moving around again, I gently place them in the entrance of their hive to re-join their sisters in hibernation.
Bee Blessings,
Ali Pinion
Dreamingthebee.com