The Winter Solstice & the Instincts of Bees

The Winter Solstice & The Instincts of Bees:

December 21st marks the Winter Solstice — the shortest day and longest night of the year. For most of us, it’s a mental checkpoint of winter: darker mornings, earlier sunsets, and the realization that the holidays are officially here.

For honey bees, though, the solstice isn’t symbolic. It’s biological.

 It’s easy to think of winter as “off-season,” but bees don’t operate that way. Winter is when colonies prove whether their preparation was enough — enough food (about 60 pounds of honey for our colonies), enough healthy workers, enough resilience. Spring success is largely decided now, in the dark months.

Honey Bees gathering food in Winter

Do Bees Actually Know It’s the Solstice?

Bees don’t recognize the solstice as an exact date, but they absolutely register what it represents: day length. Honey bees are finely tuned to minute changes in light, responding to even subtle shifts in how long the sun stays up each day. When daylight reaches its annual low point and begins to slowly increase again, the hive notices — even if the temperature says otherwise.

This sensitivity to light, known as photoperiodism, helps guide seasonal behavior inside the hive. Once days stop shrinking, the colony begins preparing. While temperatures fluctuate wildly in winter, day length is a consistent indicator that spring is approaching

Behavior Changes at the Winter Solstice 

The solstice marks the transition from a "contraction" phase to an "expansion" phase for the colony: 

• Brood Nest Warming: Within a few days of the winter solstice, worker bees begin raising the internal temperature of the brood nest from roughly 70–75°F to ideally about 95°F.

• Egg Laying Resumes: This increase in warmth stimulates the queen to begin laying eggs again, often long before the first flowers bloom.

• Increased Activity: The winter cluster becomes more active and consumes honey stores at a faster rate to fuel brood rearing. 

Thank you!

Your Friends at Bad Attitude Bees