Snow makes it difficult for bees to start the season
economy
Bees and bumblebees are experiencing a mixed spring today. First came the dry and warm March, now the sudden fall in the weather with cold and fresh snow. Because of the early heat, many species also started life earlier. This could be uncomfortable or even dangerous for them.
More and more honey bees are already on the move, a few even with full pollen pants. They also started incubating a little earlier this year, says beekeeper Verena Greimel: “They are fully in the brood and have to do a lot. You need to keep a constant temperature in the hive. That means they need energy. You must fetch food for the young, as well as water. For all this they need nectar. And that’s still missing.”
Cultivated, ornamental flowers bring nothing
Most fruit trees are not in bloom yet. Exceptions are creeps. Bees also fly to wildflowers – such as squills, bluebells and veronica, says Greimel: “Many types of cultivated and ornamental flowers are useless, the bees don’t get anything from them.”
Flowers rich in nectar, such as crocuses, have already faded. In an emergency, the beekeeper has to add sugar directly to the hive so that the bees and brood don’t starve.
Forest and forest edge as the first source of food
Unlike domesticated honey bees, wild bees have enough blossoms to offer, says the biologist Johann Neumayer: “The blossom year begins in the forest or at the edge of the forest – with snowdrops and cowslips. The willows are blooming above it.”
Experts are more worried about further cold snaps. Solitary wildlife like the sand bee can handle cold weather quite well. They fall into a state of cold rigidity and only wake up again when it gets warmer.
Bumblebees very sensitive to cold
The bumblebees are different. They also start the season alone, but then for reasons of a state, says Neumayer: “They have their problems with a few weeks of bad weather. During late onsets of cold, many colonies are also killed.”
Bumblebees won’t die out then. But then there could be less activity around the pastures than in other years.