Lee Alexander has been keeping bees most of his life, and learned from his grandfather and great uncle. He’s quick to mention he’s no beekeeping expert, but in 50 years, he’s seen a thing or two.
And this year has really thrown him for a loop.
“I've never experienced a season like this one,” he said.
Alexander says spring and summer temperatures came earlier this year. Wildflowers arrived with them, weeks ahead of schedule. This set up his bees to collect a lot of nectar and pollen, creating some unexpected problems in the hive.
Alexander’s bees quickly made more honey than they could store in the upper chambers of the hive, where it belongs. Instead, they began storing it in the brood chambers, meant for reproduction.
“They put honey everywhere they possibly could,” he said. “And the queen said, ‘Hey, what's going on here? I have no place to lay eggs.’”
Worker bees only live for about a few weeks to a month, and a queen has to lay thousands of eggs each day to replace them. Without room to do so, Alexander’s hives will dwindle in numbers, threatening their survival as fall approaches.
Alexander said there are steps beekeepers can take to deal with high volumes of honey. He recently spent a day clearing out the brood chambers in his hives, to give the queen space for her eggs. Some of the hives have improved. But it’s not easy to manage.
“I’m a reasonably experienced, mostly capable, somewhat handsome beekeeper,” he said. ”But… I couldn’t keep up.”
Feeling cramped, two of his hives swarmed. In the wild, it’s a natural biological process that usually takes place in the spring: half the bees leave their hive to start a new colony somewhere else.
For a beekeeper, it’s troubling. Summer is the most active season for a hive, and swarming can leave one without a queen to lay eggs.
Olivia Saunders, a field specialist with University of New Hampshire extension, said Alexander isn’t alone in facing challenges.
“Some of the more seasoned beekeepers…when they started, it was just get a hive, check on it at the end of the year, harvest your honey, repeat the next year,” she said. “Now there's just so much more management and skill you need to have as a beekeeper to read the hive and understand what's going on.”
Saunders said the amount of stressors a hive sees each year has increased due to climate change. She works through UNH extension to support beekeepers, and said extreme weather is a big challenge.
High heat and humidity can make a hive feel uncomfortable, and may be one reason a hive swarms, like Alexander’s did.
Winters can also pose problems. Mild winter temperatures can cause bees to leave their hive too soon, only to freeze to death during a cold snap.
Extreme rain events can create too much moisture in a hive, leaving bees unable to dry off and at risk for hypothermia. Heavy rainfall or flooding can also wash away pollen, leaving bees without enough food.
That’s what happened to Concord beekeeper Jim Watt a few years ago.
“You need to manage your hive in that situation,” he said. “You need to give them pollen substitutes.”
Saunders says bee pests are another issue exacerbated by climate change. The varroa mites are one of the greatest causes of colony loss, and research suggests that changing seasonal patterns are making them worse.
The mites are to bees what a giant tick might be to a human. They weaken bees, and make them more vulnerable to disease and death. A Varroa-weakened hive is unlikely to survive the winter months.
“They are basically like having a frisbee sized mite attached to your back. That's how, like, proportionately large they are,” Saunders said.
Alexander says that while these challenges can seem discouraging, he doesn’t plan to quit beekeeping anytime soon. Instead, he works with his local beekeeping club to find ways to adapt.
To deal with rainy winters, he’s started using a hive quilt: a shallow box filled with wood chips that draws moisture from the hive, and provides insulation. He’ll find new queens for his swarmed hives if needed, and do his best to help them grow before the fall.
“I think seeing a healthy hive, that everything is going the way it should…it's like raising children,” Alexander said. “You hope for the best, but you do what is needed.”
