Honey bees (apis mellifera) are the only social flying insects that do not hibernate. Honey bees live through the Winter and feed on the honey they have collected, if this has been harvested the bees will have been given sugar syrup by the Bee Keeper. They will only leave the hive if the temperature is above 10 degrees.

At its peak a colony of honey bees is 60,000, half will be flying bees who forage for nectar, pollen and water, the other half are house bees who guard/feed the Queen and larvae whilst keeping the hive clean. In the Autumn the Queen slows down her egg laying and the colony will reduce to about

1,500, these bees will live through the Winter.

There is only one queen bee and her job is to increase the colony and she can lay 2000 eggs a day. A hive will also contain drones, male bees, whose only function is to mate with a new queen.

Swarming is the natural way honey bees increase the number of colonies and takes place mostly in May and June. Half of the the colony, together with the Queen, leave the hive and find a new home, meanwhile in the hive a virgin queen hatches, goes on a mating flight with the drones and returns to

build up the original colony.

We had three national hives in the apiary with one colony of bees.

The Chelmsford Beekeepers' website is good place to get further information – chelmsfordbeekeepers.com.