Winter in North Florida is a funny thing. One day it feels like spring is knocking on the door, and the next we’re pulling out jackets and checking thermometers before sunrise. For those of us with honey bees in the apiary, these cold snaps bring a mix of patience, worry, and quiet admiration.
When temperatures dip into the low 30s and 40s, the bees hunker down. Inside the hive, they form a tight cluster, wrapping themselves around their queen like a living blanket. They vibrate their wing muscles to generate heat, surviving off the honey stores they worked so hard to put away during warmer months. It’s a humbling thing to think about; thousands of tiny workers cooperating perfectly just to make it through another cold night.
As beekeepers, winter testing our restraint might be the hardest part. We want to open the hive. We want to check brood patterns, see how the queen is doing, and confirm food stores. But in cold weather, the best thing we can do is often nothing at all. Opening a hive when it’s too cold can break the cluster and cost the bees valuable heat; something they can’t afford this time of year.
So we wait.
We watch the weather apps. We walk past the hives on sunny afternoons and smile when we see a few brave foragers darting out for water or early blooms. We listen for that familiar hum on warmer days, a sound that tells us the colony is alive and holding strong.
And oh, how we look forward to warmer weather.
Soon enough, North Florida will do what it always does; flip the switch. The days will stretch longer, the temperatures will creep into the 60s and 70s, and suddenly the apiary will be buzzing with life again. That first real inspection of the season feels like a reunion. Frames come out, brood appears, pollen is packed in tight, and the bees remind us why we fell in love with beekeeping in the first place.
Until then, winter is a season of trust. Trust in the bees. Trust in the work we did last fall. And trust that warmer days; and full hive inspections; are just around the corner.
Spring can’t come soon enough. 🌼🐝