Urban gardens are impacting winter bumblebee hibernation

Without food and resources, bee colonies typically die off in winter with just the queen in hibernation. But in Britain, that’s changing. A study that was published in 2010 has showed that bumblebees have plenty to eat in the winter in our gardens and parks. The study team, led by Ralph Stelzer, placed active hives into heated greenhouses in winter and allowed bees to forage (Stelzer, R.J., L. Chittka, M. Carlton, and T.C. Ings. 2010. Winter active bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) achieve high foraging rates in urban Britain. PLoS ONE 5: e9559). Only cultivated ornamental garden plants were blooming at that time. The researchers found that there was plenty of high quality nectar and pollen available to bees even though it was the dead of winter. There have been reports of bees feeding on plants in winter when they should be hibernating, providing evidence that bees are establishing winter generations in southern England. Our gardens are indeed changing the world. The Stelzer, et al, article is available online at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0009559