GRAND RAPIDS — Spring is trying to stick around in West Michigan as soon we’ll see everything in bloom again along with hearing that familiar bee-buzz. Our winters though can actually have an impact on the bees each spring as our climate is tied the bee population.
There are more than 450 different species of bees in Michigan and as a state our climate is extremely important to the bee population. Michigan is typically in the top 10 for honey production and top 3 for specialty crop production across the country.
Bees, weather and plant blossoms go hand in hand. During winter many bees don’t go into full hibernation but hunker down in a cluster waiting for spring. Colonies are temperature dependent as they use up stored energy and food, waiting out the back-and-forth winter temperatures.
"Honeybees metabolism, it kind of goes like in a u shape. So they're very efficient at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit and then they use way more energy when it's warmer than that and more energy when it's colder than that," said Meghan Milbrath, MSU assistant professor and MSU pollinator initiative coordinator.
How our bees handle our climate is a multi year process and according to Milbrath it’s still too early to tell how they will be this year. The process includes not only the weather in Michigan but all across the country.
"Most of our honeybee colonies actually are still working and are traveling around the country providing pollination," said Milbrath.
Hundreds of colonies of Michigan bees are snowbirds. Taking road trips to Florida, Texas and California as they keep pollinating because without bees we wouldn't have fruits and vegetables.
"We always talk about food webs and plants being the bottom of that food web, but the things that allow plants to reproduce is really going to be bees, so they're an integral part of both our agro ecosystems and our natural ecosystem," said Milbrath.
Climate change across the country is impacting our bees and making bee keeping that much more challenging and expensive. Not only losing bees in wildfires and floods but keeping up with the plant blooms.
"If the plant blooms too early, or if you know, weather makes things different, you're gonna get a pollination mismatch," said Milbrath.
Native bees struggle the most with climate change as they can only work with what mother natures provides while beekeepers help other colonies. The logistics of bee keeping across the country is demanding and locally beekeepers are anxiously waiting for food to arrive.
"The willows and the maples that will start to allow for pollen to come in and then we can breathe a sigh of relief," said Milbrath.
A sigh of relief as we at home can help to support the bees as well. MSU offers a free online class called Pollinator Champions to learn all about pollinators and why they are so important. We can also help by simply planting more flowers or even better more trees. Learn more information on MSU pollinator initiatives here.
