The question of where bees go in the winter does not have a single answer because thousands of distinct bee species exist, each with a unique survival strategy. These strategies vary dramatically based on the bee’s social structure, ranging from highly social colonies to solitary individuals. Understanding these approaches requires looking at whether the species is social (like the honey bee), semi-social (like the bumble bee), or solitary.
The Honey Bee Strategy: Colony Survival
Honey bees navigate winter by remaining active as a unified colony, relying on their collective ability to generate heat rather than hibernating. When temperatures inside the hive drop below 57°F (14°C), worker bees form a dense, spherical cluster.
Heat is generated by worker bees vibrating their flight muscles without moving their wings, a process known as shivering. This muscular activity converts honey directly into thermal energy. The core of this cluster is maintained above 80°F (27°C) and rises to 93°F to 95°F (34°C to 35°C) if the queen begins laying eggs in late winter.
The outer layer of the cluster, called the mantle, consists of tightly packed bees that act as insulation to minimize heat loss. The colony’s survival depends entirely on its stored honey reserves for continuous heat production.
Before winter, the colony undergoes a significant population shift. Male drones are typically expelled from the hive, as they do not contribute to winter survival. The lifespan of worker bees dramatically increases from a few weeks to several months, and the queen reduces or halts her egg-laying to conserve resources. The cluster must slowly move across the honeycomb during the winter to access new stores of honey, since losing contact with their fuel source leads to starvation.
The Bumble Bee Strategy: Queen Hibernation
Bumble bees are annual social insects, meaning their colonies do not survive the winter as a unit. In late summer, the colony produces new queens and males. After mating, the new queens accumulate nutrient reserves crucial for survival.
The entire existing colony—the original queen, workers, and males—perishes with the onset of freezing temperatures. Only the newly mated queen survives, entering a state of dormancy called diapause.
The queen typically buries herself several inches into soft soil or finds sheltered spots under leaf litter or rotting wood to create a hibernaculum. During diapause, her metabolism slows dramatically, and she relies solely on accumulated body fat. She may also produce glycerol, a biological antifreeze, to prevent ice crystal formation in her cells. The lone queen emerges in the spring, after months of dormancy, to begin founding a new colony from scratch.
The Solitary Bee Strategy: Individual Development
Solitary bee species, such as mason bees and mining bees, do not form colonies or have a caste system. For these species, the adult parents die before winter arrives, meaning no adult bee survives the cold months.
Species survival relies on the next generation, which overwinters in an immature stage inside individual, protected cells. The mother bee provisions these cells, often constructed in tunnels in the ground, hollow stems, or wood cavities, with a mixture of pollen and nectar before sealing them.
Within these sealed chambers, the offspring completes its larval development and enters a state of dormancy, often as a pre-pupa or a fully formed adult inside a cocoon. This dormant stage is a period of torpor, where metabolic activity is severely reduced until spring. They complete their final transformation, or pupation, and emerge as adults only when environmental conditions are suitable for foraging and reproduction.