What will happen to overwintering bees after they lose their queen？

Bees are social social insects. Before the overwintering period, the bee swarms will collect a large amount of food and store it in the hive. When the overwintering period comes, the bee swarms will clump together in the hive and maintain the temperature of the bee clump by eating honey and producing heat. The following year, when the temperature rises, they will disperse and resume production. Let’s take a look at what will happen if the overwintering bees lose their queen!

Discussion of bee type
  The queen bee is one of the three types of bees, also known as female bee, mother bee, etc. It develops from fertilized eggs and completes its development in the queen's nest. It always feeds on royal jelly from the time of hatching. A bee colony has one and only one queen bee, whose main function is to lay eggs to reproduce new bees and to secrete queen bee pheromones to maintain the order of the bee colony. If there is no queen bee in the bee colony for a long time, it will eventually perish due to the death of all the worker bees.

Overwintering methods
  Bees are semi-hibernating insects. In winter, bee colonies form clusters in the hive and maintain the temperature of the cluster by eating honey and producing heat. The lower the temperature, the closer the clusters are. At this time, there are two main factors that affect whether the bee colony can successfully survive the winter. One is whether the colony is strong enough, and the other is whether there is sufficient food. Without either of these two conditions, the bee colony is likely to freeze to death or starve to death.

The performance of losing the queen
  Performance 1: To determine whether a bee colony has lost its queen during the overwintering period, you can gently tap the beehive with your hands. When there is a queen bee, the bee colony will make a rhythmic sound. When there is no queen bee, the bee colony will make a chaotic sound.
  Performance 2: Worker bees will still leave the hive to collect honey in sunny weather during the overwintering period. When there is a queen bee, the worker bees will suddenly leave the hive to collect honey. In a bee colony without a queen bee, collector bees are rarely seen leaving the hive.
  Performance 3: During the overwintering period, bee colonies will form clusters in the hive to withstand the cold winter. When there is a queen bee, the worker bees will form a tighter cluster. Without a queen bee, the clusters of bee colonies are often very loose.

  Please follow us, in the next article we will talk about the remedies for overwintering bees that lose their queen.