What’s Happening Inside The Hive?
March is a critical time for the bees. The bees will thrive or suffer depending on weather and your management. Tracheal mites, starvation, and nosema disease are the main enemies at this time. The bees are starting to rear more brood, but it’s an erratic process. Dandelions and henbit appear as significant pollen and nectar sources. For a few warm days the bees bring in the pollen and feed larvae. The queen increases her egg laying. Then a cold spell hits, and the cluster contracts. Often some of the brood is left outside of the cluster and starves. The bees destroy this dead brood. Brood in the center of the cluster matures, and young worker bees emerge to join the colony. Then the weather warms up again, the queen resumes her egg laying, and this cycle continues. Gradually, young worker bees replace all of the old “winter” bees that were reared last year.
The bees have consumed a lot of honey through the winter but have not had a chance to make new honey, so stores are low. Brood rearing requires the bees to consume honey rapidly for two reasons : First, the hungry larvae demand a lot of food. Second, the brood cluster temperature must be raised to above 90o. To reach that higher temperature, the worker bees eat honey and generate more heat by “shivering” with their flight muscles. This is why starvation in March is a real danger. If you find a ball of dead bees in the comb, each with its head in a cell, that’s a sure sign of starvation. The long period of confinement can take its toll in the buildup of tracheal mites and nosema disease. Both tend to increase through the winter because the bees are confined and unable to fly frequently.
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