About the episode
A busy bee is what we call someone who works a lot and hard. Now it is precisely this work ethic that causes problems among the really busy bees. Due to longer periods of favorable weather, they work overtime for which they actually do not have the energy.
Every time a bee goes out to find flowers, it shortens that bee’s life. If the flying weather and the temperature are good, which is already the case from 10 degrees, then a worker bee will go out, even if there is already enough honey in the hive.
Now, climate change means that in the part of the US where this research was conducted, there are more autumn days with favorable flying weather. This makes the bees go out more often and increases the chance that a colony will not survive. This has to do with the age distribution in the colony. The adult worker bees die faster than new worker bees are born.
The research was conducted using climate models and bee population models. Even with a little warming (and without additional problems such as diseases and pollution), the problem already arises.
In the simulations that were performed, they saw the effect in both favorable and unfavorable climate scenarios. Whether we reduce our emissions in the near future or not. So this is not a problem that bees will have to deal with in 100 years. This is happening now, the researchers warn.
Now they also think that the bees can be helped. By moving colonies in warming areas to some kind of refrigerated storage at the right time. That would hopefully cause the bees to retreat to the hive, as they normally would when temperatures drop in the fall. A technique that is already used by some beekeepers and could possibly make a difference in the future.
Read more about the research here: Honey bees at risk for colony collapse from longer, warmer fall seasons
