Buzzkill: How Climate Change Threatens Pollinators

Honeybees are thermodynamic wonders. Their natural clocks, their bodies and their social order are driven by temperature. 

When spring arrives, bees take the cue from warmer temperatures and to head out to forage for pollen. When temperatures start to drop, they start preparing for winter by amping up honey production. When winter comes, they hibernate and feed off those honey stores until temperatures warm up again.

But climate change is threatening their natural order. Drastic swings in temperature send mixed signals to bees. A warm spike during Wisconsin winter can trick the bees into thinking it’s spring. They leave the warmth and safety of their hives in search of pollen. But flowers bloom based on a mix of temperature and how long the sun is out, and winter days are too short. If a colony starts foraging in January because of an unseasonal warm spell, they won’t find any pollen. They’ve also left the hibernation sanctuary of their cluster, which they can’t quickly return to when the temperatures drop back to normal winter levels.

The increasing length of fall leads to another issue: more time for varroa mites to wreak havoc on bee health. This bee parasite sucks off the fat stores of baby bees and spreads disease throughout hives. Like bees, they hibernate during the winter. But with longer autumns, bees and their parasites are active for longer stretches of the year. But days continue to get shorter as they always have in the northern hemisphere, so pollen is in short supply. This prompts bees to raid other hives for honey. Those raids transmit mites to other colonies. More on how varroa mites are the equivalent of a honeybee pandemic.

With the BeeBox beekeepers can offset the effects of external climates by creating a safe microclimate for their hives.