Propolis Production as Indicator of Future Weather

[nkybeekeeper]

Is there any evidence that the amount of propolis production in a hive, or the timing of production is any idication of future weather?

For example, lots of propolis in August = cold winter, etc.

[ArmucheeBee]

How can insects that are going to die in 60 days predict the weather in 6 months?  The ones that will over winter are not even eggs yet??????

[nkybeekeeper]

By that same logic, would they then store honey?  It's well known and documented that the animal and insect kingdom 'prepare' for weather events.  I was just curious about bees and propolis production.

[Irwin]

Maybe they had a good second grade teacher :roll:

[ArmucheeBee]

You got me on the honey production, but that's pretty hard wired (genetic).  I thought you were going by old wives' tales such as 'hornets nesting lower, then a bad winter', wholly bears having more black than red, etc.  That stuff is just fun to say but has no real meaning.  I've lived in the "country" all my life and heard a lot that but it's never been more of a coincidence.  One year I found 4 hornets in one summer, all less than 6 feet high.  That winter it got to 30 degrees only two times.  Wait, maybe if they nest low it will be an easy winter!! 

All you need to know you learned in second grade!!  I taught high school science for 8 years, I learned a lot there too! 

[bassman1977]

Even the 1st year beek would notice that bees tend to collect propolis throughout the year, constantly sealing up cracks and crevices, etc.  My theory is that maybe during the fall, propolis is more readily available than in the spring and summer.  If that's the case, then maybe the bees are more prone to collect it at its peak.  Just like if nectar from flower A is more available than nectar from flower B, the bees will be more inclined to take the nectar from flower A.

[Card]

I'm not willing to agree that all the old wive's tales for predicting future weather patterns are hogwash.

Let's face it, some of them are just silly - but I'm a hunter, and I've killed and butchered a lot of deer, and I've really come to suspect that the color of the deer's coat in early and late fall, and the thickness of the deer's fatty tissue layer are pretty important indicators of what's coming. I don't think they're 100% accurate or anything, but I do think there are signs in the environment that we're either unaware of or unable to detect, and that those signs either change the deer's behavior, or change their environment so that the deer change as a consequence. Whatever the cause, I've learned to observe the resulting changes and pay attention to them.

As for bees? I dunno. To be honest, I don't think I've spent enough time with them yet (first-year beekeeper, after all) to have formed an opinion. Ask me again in 20 or 30 years and I may have observed enough to have something to say on the subject.

[bassman1977]

or change their environment so that the deer change as a consequence.

This is a good explanation and this is pretty much what I was trying to get at in the case of the bees.

[ArmucheeBee]

I hunt deer too and I hear what your saying.  Maybe the build up of fat is due to either a good spring/summer or one in drought like here in the south.  the doe I killed last year in nov. had very little fat, almost none on the shoulders.  but we were in a drought, and acorn harvest was pitiful.  Not a bad winter this past, but it was colder than the previous year as attests my heating bill.  i think animals prepare for the worst case senario no matter what.  if they did not, they'd all be dead.  Nature has a rythem that we do not get sometimes, I agree with you there.  think about this:  could an animal predict a single event blizzard or ice storm here in the south that will last 4-5 days?  of course not, but they must be prepared for it through 1000's of years of natural selection.  only the strong survive--right, but Darwin never said it.

[1of6]

Things are out of whack this season.  Chicory bloomed really early, as did many of the varieties of aster.  To be honest, the goldenrod here has been starting a tad early, and this is the first year that I've seen my bees touch the early variety.  I've also never seen bees on burdock before either.  Our blackberries started blooming before the raspberries, and that's just downright strange - they still ripened in the correct order, so I have absolutely no explanation for that either.  Some of this can be explained by dry spells, but other parts of it don't seem like they'd be related to that.

Some colonies do make more propolis than others, but I'd not be too quick to make that decision not to buy snow tires this year.  I have a couple colonies trying to glue the outer covers to the inner covers.

[Brian D. Bray]

I listen to both the birds and the bees when it comes to weather patterns and such.  Here's what they are saying in my area (your area might be different):  After a cold spring that made winter last until May we're expecting an early onset of winter with either a prolonged cold season or record cold temps or both.

That tells me this is primarily the fact that my bees are keeping their brood chambers small and backfilling as much of the habitual brood areas with stores.  They started this in late June.  We're now experiencing an unusual dearth post blackberry flow that usually doesn't happen until mid-September.

As for the birds they are reacting to weather changes by staying airborne for long periods and making unusual erratic flight patterns while airborne.  The also feed heavy and often when not in the air.  Homing pigeons are getting "lost" in unusually high numbers. 
This indicates some atmoshperic changes are taking place and the birds are "fatting" for a hard winter and/or long migration.