The Winter Solstice - the Shortest Day of the Year

I try to post on this every year because I find it so phenomenal.  In the dark depths of the beehive, I hope my bees are alive and making it through what has already been an unusually cold winter in Atlanta.  On warmish days most of my hives are flying.  I've learned not to assume those who are not flying are dead-outs until later in the winter because if they have stores, sometimes they aren't flying and are still doing fine.

Today is a turn-around time for bees and all of us.  From now until the Summer Solstice on June 21st, the days begin to extend in length.  I don't know how the queen bee knows this in her life of darkness.  Inside the hive, she has no idea if the sun set early or late; if the day was short or long.  But somehow she senses it and on the Winter Solstice, her biology tells her that it is time to start her spring build-up.
From today, the queen will gradually start laying more eggs and begin to raise bees who will increase the hive numbers so that when the nectar flow begins, the hive is truly ready with the bee numbers needed to gather stores for the winter.

That's all the bee is really about, isn't it?  She lives to gather nectar and make honey so that her hive can survive the winter.  We beekeepers take what we deem to be the surplus honey and hope to have left the bees enough to feed themselves and the developing young through the winter.  But all we are doing with our honey harvest is interrupting a process of supply buildup that is the cycle of life in the beehive.