What is Dearth in the Beekeeping World?

Last Updated on August 12, 2024 by Anthony

In beekeeping, a dearth refers to a period of scarcity or absence of nectar and pollen, often due to seasonal changes, extreme weather, or habitat loss, which can lead to reduced food availability for bees, impacting their health and hive productivity.

In the below paragraphs, we will take a more detailed look at this topic.

As you will know, your bees live on nectar taken from plants, which they turn this into honey. Dearth is the word used to describe those times of the year when nectar is not available for the bees.

Dearth means scarcity and is particularly used when food is in short supply.

How The Colony Works

Honeybees are natural foragers and highly resourceful when it comes to finding food. As long as some food sources are available, they are unlikely to starve, even in challenging conditions.

The life cycle of a worker bee is fascinating and highly structured, with roles changing as they age. In the winter, worker bees are born in smaller numbers and have a longer lifespan, helping the colony survive the colder months. Conversely, in the spring and summer, worker bees are born in large numbers to support the hive during its most active period. However, their lives are shorter due to the increased workload and foraging demands.

A worker bee’s life begins inside the hive. For the first 10 days, they perform essential tasks such as cleaning the comb, maintaining the hive’s structure by secreting and applying wax, and processing nectar into honey. These young bees also help care for the brood by feeding larvae and tending to the queen.

Around the 10-day mark, many worker bees transition to foraging duties, leaving the hive to gather the vital resources needed for the colony’s survival. Foragers collect four key substances: nectar, pollen, propolis, and water.

• Nectar is gathered from flowers and is processed into honey, which serves as the primary energy source for the colony.
• Pollen is also collected from flowers and provides essential proteins, vitamins, and minerals needed for the development of young bees.
• Propolis, a resinous substance collected from tree buds and other botanical sources, is used to seal gaps and strengthen the hive’s structure.
• Water is gathered to regulate the hive’s temperature and humidity and to dilute stored honey for feeding purposes.

Each bee plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance and productivity of the colony, ensuring its survival through the changing seasons.

The Rhythm of the Hive

But bees will always collect nectar to make into honey. If it is out there, they will go after it.

If you watch your bees, you will see pollen and propolis coming in attached to the legs of the foraging bees. But nectar is stored inside the bees in the honey stomach, which is designed to transport it back to the hive. Once in the hive, the worker bee passes this nectar to other worker bees, which, through various processes, will turn it into honey and store it in a honeycomb.

A worker bee in the summer typically lives for about 4 to 6 weeks (or approximately 28 to 42 days). After spending the first 10 days as a house bee, performing tasks within the hive, she transitions to becoming a forager. This shift is driven by physiological changes within the bee’s body, particularly in the development of her internal organs, which adapt to support the different roles she will undertake. These changes enable her to efficiently perform the tasks necessary for the colony’s success, such as foraging for nectar, pollen, propolis, and water.

Nectar is principally a suspension of sugar in water, and different plants produce nectar with higher and lower concentrations. Even the same plant can have different sugar content for nectar depending on whether it came from the sunny side (greater) or shady side (lesser).

When a foraging bee returns to the hive, it waits for a house bee to unload the nectar from its honey stomach. House bees tend to prioritize unloading nectar with a higher sugar content first, which encourages foragers to seek out and collect nectar from the richest sources available. Over time, this behavior helps the colony optimize its foraging efficiency by focusing on the most rewarding floral sources.

The physiology of the bee plays a crucial role in regulating hive activities. During the winter, worker bees live significantly longer, often around six months, as they are not required to forage due to the scarcity of resources. Instead, these winter bees focus on maintaining the hive’s temperature and caring for the queen and any remaining brood, ensuring the colony’s survival until the return of foraging opportunities in the spring.

While you could describe the winter months as a dearth period, one of the reasons why colonies build up honey supplies is so that they have plenty of stores to survive this period.  For a beekeeper, dearth is more of a concern when the bees are expecting to be collecting nectar.

Things to Watch Out For

Therefore, colonies can die of starvation in winter or summer. But summer is a more acute period of risk for the beekeeper. Think of it this way: the natural population of the hive grows sharply in the spring. This is so that the bees can collect as much nectar as possible. If the nectar tap is switched off, then the colony is full of bees that are designed to live in a time of abundance, and they are not able to cope.

The plants that are available to the bees in the land around the hives, be it urban or countryside, will set the expectations for the colony about how big to grow. While farmers may play a crucial role in this by changing the crops that they sow, bees generally find the nectar that they want. As a beekeeper, you should be used to observing what pollen is being carried in by your bees.

You also need to pay attention to the weather. When it is cold, nectar production reduces. Plants either secrete less nectar or stop altogether. Heavy rainfall is another hazard as this can wash all the nectar out of a plant.

One major risk is if the plant life around the hive consists mainly of spring flowering plants and autumn flowering plants, with no flowers in the summer.

Successful beekeepers need to know something about botany. You need to find out what plants provide good nectar and to be aware of where they grow locally. By being aware of what is growing and whether it is flowering early or late will provide you with an early warning of what may be happening in the hives.

When nectar is widely available, you will probably not see your bees because they are flying fast and high and all day. So a warning sign could be that you notice bees clustering near the entrance to the hive (like they do when preparing to swarm).

You may also notice that they are bringing in pollen from plants that are lower down the pecking order in terms of nectar quality.

Or they are flying lower.

Or that the hive sounds different.

Another sign of problems is when you see bees from a stronger colony trying to get into a weaker colony to rob its stores. This is especially a problem because it can cause cross-contamination of colonies.

For the newcomer, this is always quite confusing because observing bees closely provides you with multiple things to worry about. The more experienced beekeeper develops a sense of what is going on in his/her hives, in part from worries overcome.

As with many aspects of beekeeping, you need to think about the whole environment around the bees before acting.

Actions to Take in Case of Dearth

If you have starving bees, you can feed them by making a syrup. The ingredients are simple: white granulated sugar mixed with warm tap water.

As a guide, you should expect to be half-filling a container with warm water and then stirring in the sugar until the container is full.

The syrup is put into a specially designed feeder and given to the bees. Many beekeepers prefer to use feeders that sit inside the hive rather than by the entrance. This is because an external feeder may attract other colonies and encourage robbing.

Another thing to do to prevent robbing is to reduce the size of the entrance. This will make it harder for robbers to enter. Also, check the supers for signs of holes. If you find them, cover then with tape for now.

If you are a gardener, one thing to consider is to stock your beds or containers with summer-flowering plants that will provide plenty of food for your bees. What you may lose with less attractive displays in the spring and autumn you will make up with happier bees.

What is Dearth in Beekeeping – Conclusion

In conclusion, understanding dearth is crucial for beekeepers as it can have significant impacts on the health and productivity of their colonies. By being aware of the signs of dearth and taking appropriate measures such as providing supplemental feeding, beekeepers can help their bees survive through these periods of resource scarcity. With proper care and management, beekeepers can ensure the long-term sustainability of their colonies and contribute to the important role that bees play in our ecosystem.