Image of a honeybee on spring flowers
October 06, 2024

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: How Bees Collaborate in Spring

Have you wondered what an average day looks like for bees in springtime?

As spring blossoms bloom, fertile scents fill the air and delight our senses. This is nature’s adored way of letting bees know that it is time to get busy.

It’s not just about pollinating and collection, it also signals a critical period for reproduction, hive maintenance, and overall colony expansion - it’s a veritable starting flag for nature’s great collaborators.

The bee to-do list

As nectar and pollen become plentiful, worker bees take on the task of foraging. Bees use their unique form of communication known as the "waggle dance" to inform their hive mates about the direction and distance to rich food sources. 

Within the colony, tasks are divided among the bees. Some focus on foraging, while others stay behind to tend to the queen, nurse the brood, or maintain the hive. 

During spring, the queen lays thousands of eggs, and worker bees provide a diet of royal jelly, pollen, and honey to nourish the growing larvae. 

Bees also work together to maintain optimal temperatures in the hive, crucial for the development of eggs and larvae. They cluster around the brood and vibrate their bodies to generate heat when needed.

Hive expansion and maintenance for a growing colony means worker bees set about secreting wax from glands on their bodies to create hexagonal honeycomb cells (used in our beautiful beeswax!). 

When the colony grows too large, they prepare to swarm with scout bees searching for new locations, while others create queen cells. Once a new queen emerges, the original queen and a portion of the workers will leave, an energetic swirl of cohesion, if you have ever had the good fortune to witness it.

Honeybee on spring flowers. Source: Jane Munro

So how can we support bees during Spring?

To support our local bee populations, we can create bee-friendly spaces in our gardens. This spring, we’re once again offering our free organic Bee Flower Mix with every candle purchase made via our website - so you can create a bee haven at home!

One small seed packet can do so much...

You can create a dramatic display of shape and colour in your garden while providing bees with a wonderful range of flowers that they need to feed from.

As an added bonus, you will also attract more ‘good bugs’ to your garden and help keep pests away from your veggies and flowers, so you can limit the use of chemicals in the garden.

How do you get your FREE organic seeds?

When making a candle purchase from our website, simply put ‘yes please to the organic Bee Flower Mix’ as a note in the special instructions on the check out page.

Happy gardening and welcome to the bee team!

BTW, if you have a favourite bee story or photos, drop us a line…we would love to hear from you.

You might also like our blog post about why Honeybees are so important to the planet, go here.

Author: Jane Munro. Jane is an award winning Journalist, and wonderful friend of Happy Flame.