Remember the famous line âBirds do it, bees do it, even orangutans in trees do it!â This week I learned how bees fall in love. While buying my monthly supply of local honey from Mr. Grutzmacher, my apiarist, I learned that despite his best efforts to winterize his hives, his bees all died. He said this happens about 50% of the time. The long January we experienced with below freezing temperatures and no warmup days created a situation where the bees could not feed, despite having a more than adequate food supply in their hive. He found them in a ball at the top of the super (boxes on top of the hive) with plenty of food on either side of them. It was so cold here for so long the bees did not leave the safety of their heat-preserving ball protecting and defending their queen against the cold, even to go out to the edge and get food. Tragic, but evidently common in the Midwest.