Bees go to different places and use various strategies to survive winter depending on their species:
- Honey bees stay inside their hive, forming a dense cluster around the queen to keep warm. They vibrate their flight muscles to generate heat, maintaining the cluster's inside temperature up to around 90–100°F. They rely on stored honey for food during winter. On warmer winter days, they might leave the hive briefly for cleansing flights. They do not hibernate but remain active inside the hive all winter.
- Bumblebees mostly die off before winter except for the newly hatched queens, which hibernate in protected places like leaf litter, wood piles, or underground. These queens wake up in spring to start new colonies.
- Solitary bees survive winter mostly as larvae in underground nests or cavities sealed off by their mothers with stored food. The adult solitary bees die before winter.
Thus, honey bees cluster in hives, bumblebee queens hibernate in shelters, and solitary bees overwinter in brood cells underground or in cavities.
