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January/ February

When February Feels Like Spring: What Unseasonably Warm Days Mean for Honey Bee Colonies in the Pacific Northwest

In the Pacific Northwest (PNW), February is traditionally a quiet month for honey bee colonies. Cold nights, cool damp days, and limited floral resources usually keep bees clustered tightly inside the traditional Langstroth hives we use, conserving energy and living off stored honey and pollen. 

But in recent years, we have increasingly experienced unseasonably warm February days—sunny stretches with temperatures climbing into the 50s or even 60s. While these warm spells can feel like a welcome break from winter, they often introduce serious challenges inside a honey bee colony.

Understanding what happens during these warm interruptions helps us anticipate risks and make timely management decisions that can mean the difference between a colony surviving until spring or collapsing just weeks before the first true nectar flow.

A Colony Wakes Up Before Nature Is Ready

One of the mysteries of the bee hive is the connection between the bees inside and the environment outside. Honey bees are exquisitely tuned to environmental cues. Science has not been able to figure out what exactly causes a "semi-dormant" queen to start laying eggs after a long winter. As beekeepers, we know that temperature is one of the strongest signals that influences colony behavior, especially the queen’s egg-laying. During sustained cold weather, the queen reduces or stops laying altogether. This pause is strategic—it allows the colony to shrink its population, reduce food consumption, and survive on stored reserves.

When February suddenly warms, even for just a few days, the internal temperature of the hive rises. Forager bees may begin flying, cleansing flights increase, and—most importantly—the queen often resumes laying. This shift is frequently triggered by the combination of warmer temperatures and the appearance of early pollen sources such as alder, hazel, willow, or ornamental plants.

Pollen entering the hive signals protein availability, which is essential for brood rearing. Nectar or thin honey being consumed provides the carbohydrates needed to fuel nurse bees and maintain brood temperature. The problem is that in February, these resources are often fleeting or insufficient.

The Pollen and Nectar Mismatch

In the PNW, early pollen flows can be deceptive. Bees may return to the hive with full pollen baskets on a warm afternoon, giving the impression that spring has arrived. In reality, these pollen sources are usually inconsistent and limited. Nectar flows, even more critical for sustained brood rearing, are typically nonexistent or minimal this early in the year, and the bees are dependent on the reserves they stored last fall. 

Once the queen begins laying, the colony commits to brood rearing. Nurse bees consume pollen to produce royal jelly and brood food-"bee bread". Honey stores are burned at a much faster rate to keep the brood nest warm—around 93–95°F—even when nighttime temperatures plunge back into the 30s or 40s.

If warm days are followed by prolonged cold or rain, plants stop producing pollen and foraging abruptly stops. The colony is then left with growing brood, increased food consumption, and no incoming resources to replace what is being used.

The Risk of Chilled Brood

One of the most serious dangers during these early warm spells is chilled brood. Brood requires constant warmth to develop properly. Like chickens sitting on eggs, nurse bees cover the brood nest to keep the developing brood warm. If a colony expands its brood nest during a warm period and then experiences a sudden cold snap, the cluster may not be large enough to cover all the brood.

When brood is exposed to cold temperatures, larvae can die or become weakened. Chilled brood can lead to spotty brood patterns, increased susceptibility to disease, and additional stress on the colony as workers attempt to clean out dead larvae. In extreme cases, repeated brood chilling can set a colony back so severely that it never fully recovers in spring.

Running Out of Honey and Pollen Reserves

Brood rearing dramatically increases a colony’s consumption of stored resources. Honey that might have lasted until April can disappear in a matter of weeks once brood production ramps up. Pollen stores, often already limited after winter, can be depleted even faster.

Colonies that appear well-provisioned in January can suddenly starve in late February or March. This is especially common during extended rainy periods, which are typical in the PNW and can keep bees confined to the hive for days or weeks at a time.

Starvation often occurs quietly and quickly. Many beekeepers may find dead clusters with their heads buried in empty cells—an unmistakable sign that the bees simply ran out of food before natural forage became available. It's one reason we are checking colonies periodically all winter long, and when necessary feeding our bees. 

Foragers Flying Into a Resource Desert

Warm February days encourage foragers to leave the hive. While cleansing flights are beneficial, extended foraging flights can be costly when resources are scarce. Bees expend energy searching for nectar and pollen that may not exist in sufficient quantities.

Repeated unsuccessful foraging weakens individual bees and shortens their lifespan. In some cases, foragers may not return at all, leading to a gradual loss of worker population at a time when the colony needs every bee it has to support brood rearing.

What Beekeepers Need to Watch Closely

Unseasonably warm February weather shifts winter beekeeping from a passive to an active season. Beekeepers in the PNW should keep a close eye on several key factors:

Food stores: Hefting hives or briefly checking under the lid can reveal whether honey reserves are dangerously low. Colonies with brood should be assumed to be consuming stores rapidly.

Pollen availability: Visible pollen coming in does not always mean adequate supply. If brood is present and stored pollen is minimal, the colony may be on the edge of a protein shortage.

Colony strength: Smaller clusters are more vulnerable to chilled brood and starvation once brood rearing begins.

Weather patterns: A few warm days followed by long stretches of cold rain are more dangerous than a consistently cool winter.

Supplemental Feeding as a Bridge to Spring

To help colonies survive this critical gap between winter and true spring forage, many beekeepers provide supplemental feed. Fondant, dry sugar, or sugar bricks are commonly used to supply emergency carbohydrates without adding excess moisture to the hive. We make sure there is 2lbs of sucrose fondant on each colony on the first of the month from December through March. 

Pollen patties or protein supplements may also be added when brood rearing has clearly begun and natural pollen is unreliable. These supplements can help nurse bees continue feeding larvae without exhausting stored pollen too quickly.

Like in all farming, timing is everything. Timing and moderation are important. Feeding too aggressively can stimulate even more brood rearing, increasing risk if cold weather returns. The goal is not to push the colony forward, but to support it until natural nectar and pollen flows are consistently available. 

We have an additional challenge of having colonies ready to pollinate blue berries in March. For our colonies to be ready for that, we need them to be raising brood now, so that when the blue berries are ready for pollination, so are we.  

Breed Matters—But Management Still Counts

Carniolan and Saskatraz bees are often favored in the PNW for good reason. Carniolans are known for their ability to overwinter well, conserve stores, and forage in cooler, damp conditions. They tend to build up quickly when conditions allow, which can be an advantage in short northern springs.

Saskatraz bees, bred for hardiness and productivity in challenging climates, also perform well in cool, variable weather. They often show good overwintering success and strong spring buildup.

Both of these strains also decrease the size of their cluster overwinter, which results in less stored resources being burned up. However, no bee strain is immune to the risks posed by erratic late-winter weather. Even cold-hardy bees can suffer from chilled brood, starvation, or population loss if warm spells trigger early brood rearing without adequate forage.

Navigating the February Illusion

Unseasonably warm February days in the PNW can create the illusion that spring has arrived—for both beekeepers and bees. It's a "false spring" of sorts. If you live you, you just adapt, it't no big deal. 

 Inside the hive, this illusion can lead to increased brood rearing, faster consumption of reserves, and heightened vulnerability just weeks before nature truly provides.

Successful beekeeping in this climate means recognizing these false starts for what they are and managing colonies conservatively. By monitoring food stores, understanding brood dynamics, and providing supplemental support when needed, beekeepers can help their colonies bridge the dangerous gap between winter and spring—ensuring strong, healthy hives when the real nectar flow finally begins. 

But never forget... spring is coming!!!

November / December

With the winter solstice just around the corner, the bees are anticipating hunkering down for their “long winters nap.” The queens have stopped laying, and the emerging new bees are part of the winter colony that will help heat the cluster in the hive through till next spring. 

For us, our daytime temperatures hover in the upper 40’s and low 50’s and although there are always those extra adventurous girls in the hive, typically bees don’t fly in the rain or below 50. Our evenings start to get colder into the 30's some times.  

Inside the hive the core of the cluster will get as low as 85, while the outside of the cluster will be around 45. When brood is present, they will keep the hive between 93-97. On warmer days this month, we will see some flight, but not a lot. 

They will stay in a tight cluster and eat honey from now until there is nectar available for them from outside the hive. We have added a 2 lb patty of sucrose and pollen fondant to each colony to make sure they have enough to eat. 

In late January, mysteriously, the creator will let the queens know to begin to lay again, and the alder trees will begin to produce the first pollen of the new season. 

 

As beekeepers, our job has been to help them deal with any issues they may have had heading into the winter. They have been treated for mites, small hives have been combined with larger hives, and each colony has a supply of honey that they will consume to burn calories and in turn generate the heat they need to survive. We also wrap each colony in roofing paper to help them stay dry and periodically check in on them to make sure they have enough to eat to get through this season. Any that are running low on resources, will get some fondant or a sugar brick for them to eat, sucrose is a bees best friend. 

This is a time when we clean and make repairs to equipment, make changes in our beekeeping based on what we have learned from this past season, dream and plan for the next season, and of course sell honey. We are far from not busy, but we do get to slow down a little. 

September

In preparation for winter, fall is a season of transition for all our colonies. Honeybees are wired to know that with the coming winter, there will be a dearth of resources available for them. Flowers stop blooming and many trees enter a season of dormancy. The lack of nectar and pollen is a reality the bees have been busily preparing for all season, as they forage, make honey, and store away pollen. 

As the temperatures fall, we keep an eye on the colonies to make sure they have enough in their “pantries” to make it until spring when the pollen and nectar reappear and provide all the resources the bees will need. Until that time, the colonies are dependent on what they have collected and stored up. How much do they need? Well, that all depends on where they live, and how large the colony is. In some regions, the winters are long and in some winters are short. We have discovered that here in western Washington, a typical colony needs about 50lbs of honey to get them through winter. Honeybees like some other animals, produce and store more food than they need in anticipation of what may come. We help them out by feeding sugar syrup to the colonies that are little light as they get up to weight for the winter months. 

Each colony makes several important decisions during this time. First, the workers (females) kick out all the drones (males). This reduces the mouths to feed, to only those bees that are an asset to the colony and not a liability. While drones are crucial in the spring when it comes to breeding new queens, as the colony numbers decline, they become less and less valuable to the colony. You can see the workers dragging drones out of the hive and refusing to let them back in at this time of year.

The queens slow down their egg laying to reduce the colony size ensuring there will be enough resources in the hive, when there is a dearth of resources outside of the hive. The eggs laid in August and September become the winter bees that will survive until springtime. These bees have larger fat bodies, and a higher metabolic rate that allow them to survive the winter months. They have the amazing ability to maintain the hive’s temperature, keeping the queen warm and alive. They are responsible to sustain the colony until spring when foraging resumes. Unlike summer bees, they do not forage, but conserve energy, and create heat before eventually dying after several months of service.  

Bees are known to meticulously keep the hive clean, and that practice proves beneficial as they enter the colder seasons. The house bees and mortuary bees remove debris, dead bees and even mummify large intruders with propolis to prevent disease and maintain a sterile environment for the colony. Bees also groom themselves and use propolis, a resinous substance, to seal crack and kill bacteria with it’s antifungal properties. These activities become more apparent as the days grow shorter. 

Beekeeping is yearlong. In addition to making sure they have enough to eat, we do all we can to ensure their hive is weather resistant to the rain and wind. In October and November, we will wrap the hives with roofing paper as a way to help with water proofing, and add a spacing box on top to give the bees a layer of insulation and space to potentially be fed should then need it. 

In our honey house we finish up bottling this year’s harvest, drying pollen, and then clean and start maintaining equipment. We also attend a few farmers and holiday markets over the fall and winter months. We love the bees and the chance we have to work with them and provide honey to others. Thank you for all your support. Let us know if you need honey, chunk honey, honeycomb, lip balm, and honey sticks.

August is a busy and exciting time of the year around Woodland Creek Honey Farm. 

We get to see, touch, taste and feel the fruit of our labor! Our priority in August is our annual honey harvest and getting to see the results of all the bees hard work. While we appreciate folks commenting on how much they like our honey. We don’t make it, the bees do. We just steal it! The actual process of making honey from nectar is a miraculous one that the bees follow and goes something like this. 

1. Collection:

In the fourth week of their life, honeybees become forager bees scouring the area around their hive for pollen and nectar. Although its spring and summer, honeybees know that winter is coming and they need to get busy while the resources are available to make food, (honey) for them to eat during winter when the resources are all gone. 

So, bees collect raw nectar, which is rich in sugars but also very diluted with water. They will forage between three to five miles collecting the collecting this precious liquid which has a high moisture content of around 80-95%. When they collect a full load, they return to the hive to pass it off to honey making house bees. 

2. Trophallaxis:

Once back at the hive, three week old house bees, receive the nectar from the forager bees through a process called trophallaxis. Trophallaxis in bees is the process of food exchange between individuals, primarily through mouth-to-mouth contact. I know, I know, the fifth grader in me has all kinds of things to say about this! But it’s actually a crucial aspect of social insect behavior, particularly in honeybee colonies, facilitating communication and nutrient distribution. This exchange can involve nectar, regurgitated food, or secretions from head glands, and it plays a vital role in colony health and organization. The honey making house bees regurgitate the nectar and pass it between themselves, exposing it to the drier air and creating more surface area for evaporation and bringing its moisture content down. This unripened honey is put into the hexagonal shaped cells made of bees wax that is called comb. Once filled with honey, the comb is now called honeycomb. 

3. Drying:

Once in the honeycomb, bees fan their wings to create airflow within the hive, which further accelerates the evaporation of water from the nectar, bringing the moisture content down even more. As the moisture goes down the sweetness is going up! 

4. Ripening:

As water evaporates, the nectar becomes thicker, stickier and more concentrated. It also will change color or darken as the moisture is removed, and the pollen condenses. The coloring and clarity of honey can range from very light, almost clear to deep dark brown. Honey coloring is determined by the type and amount of pollen it has in it. Some folks just love light and floral tasting honey, others gravitate toward rich bold dark flavored honey. We never know the color, flavor or sweetness of the honey until we harvest it out of the honeycomb, and each year it is a little different. 

5. Capping:

Once the moisture content is low enough (typically around 18%), bees cap the cells with beeswax, preserving the honey and preventing it from absorbing moisture from the air. This honey once capped will not go bad or spoil. Capped honey does not spoil due to a combination of its low water content, which dehydrates microorganisms, its high sugar concentration that creates an inhospitable environment for bacteria and mold, and its high acidity (low pH), which inhibits the growth of harmful microbes. Additionally, the bees add a glucose oxidase enzyme that, upon reacting with moisture, releases hydrogen peroxide, providing a natural antibacterial effect.

We like to let the bees dry or ripen their honey before we take it off the field. Some years, that’s a “wait and see” season as we are literally waiting to see, when it’s ready and at its best. Some beekeepers will harvest honey before its capped or dried, then either pasteurize it, or dry it mechanically before bottling it, we choose to let the bees do that. Often the honey our bees produce around 14% moisture content. 

When the “supers”, (boxes full of frames of honeycomb), are brought to the honey house, we uncap them, then extract the honey in our extractor, (think big centrifuge), and drain it into a clarifying tank. In the clarifying tank the light debris (wax, bee parts) floats to the surface and we pump the honey into our bottling tank, then into clean jars for our customers. 

The whole process of the bees making honey is indeed miraculous, and it all points to the Lord who loves us so much that he wanted to bless us with great tasting summer fruit that requires pollination, from which bees make their food for winter, and we get to enjoy. We are always saying, Isn’t God good. 

Once the honey is harvest, the work continues! We always leave around 50# of honey on each colony so they have something to eat during the winter. Because much of the nectar is no longer available we will supplement their foraging collection of nectar with sucrose (sugar) syrup, to make sure the colony has enough resources to get through the dearth of nectar at the end of the season as well as through winter. 

Beekeeping in JULY at Woodland Creek Honey Farm

July is a pivotal month in the beekeeping calendar here in our apiaries. Colonies are near their peak population and productivity, but this also marks a turning point in our seasonal cycle. Our focus is now starting to shift from the spring buildup to summer management and even early preparations for fall and winter. Understanding honeybee biology during this time helps guide our critical tasks.

Colony Biology in July

Worker bee populations are typically at their highest in early to mid-July. The queen’s egg-laying rate may begin to decline slightly by late July, especially if forage becomes scarce or temperatures are extreme. Fortunately, we enjoy mild summers here in the PNW. While brood rearing starts to taper off in some other regions, signaling the colony’s instinctive shift toward winter preparation, our queens are laying, and brood nests are continuing to grow. 

Even though drones are still present, their eviction may begin by month’s end in some hives elsewhere, especially in resource-limited areas. We typically don’t see that happening here until August.

Nectar flows from clover, alfalfa, fireweed, and other mid-summer sources are active in many agricultural areas, depending on region and rainfall. But for us, most of the berries and fruit nectar is coming to an end. Our bees will experience a nectar death that we need to be aware of and feed if necessary. In hotter, drier zones or during drought, nectar dearth can set in, creating a period of stress for colonies. This can lead to robbing behavior between hives, increased susceptibility to pests, and declining brood viability.

So this month we are;

Checking for Honey Ripening:

Supers may be full and ready for extraction, especially with the strong nectar flows in June. We use a refractometer to check moisture content (ideally <14%) before extracting. We want to avoid taking honey too early before the bees dry it as uncured nectar can ferment in storage. Typically, we harvest in late August or early September.

Monitoring for Mites:

July is the critical time for us to monitor for Varroa destructor. We use alcohol wash to measure mite infestation levels. If our mite levels exceed 2–3% per colony, we will treat them immediately to avoid colony collapse in late summer or fall.

Providing Water and Ventilation:

Bees need large amounts of water for cooling the colony and in their honey production. Fortunately, all of our apiaries have access to either a creek, pond or lake, that provide consistent a consistent water supply. Even though bees are masters at thermoregulation, on occasion we will prop open inner covers or provide ventilation to reduce hive overheating and moisture buildup.

Managing Space and Reducing Swarming Potential:

While the prime swarming season has passed, crowded hives in July can still swarm or develop supersedure impulses. We check for adequate brood nest space and remove excess queen cells if necessary. Often, we will move queen cells into a queen castle, to raise some late season queens.

Feeding if Needed:

When dearth or declining forage does come, we monitor the weight of our colonies and feed 1:1 syrup to maintain brood production and keep the colony strong. We don’t feed while honey supers are on, so our honey is never tainted or “funny honey.”

Watching for Pest and Potential Disease:

We keep an eye on our smaller colonies, looking for signs of wax moths, small hive beetles, and brood diseases like chalkbrood or European foulbrood. Strong colonies are always our best defense, and weak or queenless hives need our immediate intervention.

Requeening if Necessary:

July is almost getting close to being too late to requeen failing queens. We know that young queens lay more vigorously and overwinter better. However, requeening in July can be more challenging, so we have to be careful about how and when we requeen when it is necessary.

Combining Weak Colonies:

When a colony becomes queenless or is very small, sometimes the best move for us is to combine it with a stronger healthy colony. There are several methods we use to do this, but our goal is not let colonies get to a point where they need to be combined with another.

Collecting Pollen:

As long as the honey supers are on the colonies, we collect pollen. Some we feed back to the bees over winter in pollen patties. Some we collect to sell to our customers to help with their seasonal allergies. We use a pollen trap that is intentionally inefficient so we do not collect too much pollen, as it is the emerging bees source of protein.

Beekeeping in July, like most of the year, is about observation, prevention, and strategic action. It has been said that all beekeeping is problem solving. The decisions we make now set the stage for a successful fall honey harvest and healthy overwintering colonies.

We are also continuing our commitment to helping provide clean drinking water to impoverished people who do not have access to it. We do this by giving 40% of all our sales to Living Water International. When you buy any of our products; honey, chunk honey, honeycomb, pollen, or lip balm, nearly half of what you spend goes to help out those in need. THANK YOU!