OAKFIELD (NBC 26) — For the last five years, Bekki Kuber has been watching her tiny friends buzz around inside their Oakfield hives.
Hpwever, in a half decade she hardly ever sees them in the dead of winter.
"Not to this extent," Kuber said. "We come out and check them and we never see them."
That made it highly unusual when Kuber shot a video Thursday of her bees buzzing and flying around. They've been more active the past two days because of warmer weather. An active bee is a hungry bee, and therein lies the problem.
"Because you don't know if they'll have enough food," Kuber said.
Outside, there's no pollen to feed on. The only food is the honey they've already produced and stored, but there's not a lot there for them to feed on.
"The honey stores are the bee's food for the winter, so they need that, and if they're energetic for days at a time obviously they need more food, and they might not have enough honey stored to get them through," Kuber said.
They'll die if they can't get enough food. Some already have.
"We're hoping that they hunker down a little bit and maybe our winter gets a little cooler like it should be so they do what bees do in the winter," Kuber said.
Kuber has given the bees an alternative source of food. She's put what's called a 'pollen paddy' inside the hive, which hopefully can keep them fed through the winter.
