What happens to bees in winter? I guess you could call it a sort of hibernating that happens every winter in a beehive. Bees will cluster for warmth and snack on the honey that they have made during the warmer months. For a beehive, 40 degrees during winter is a good temperate to have the hive at and the bees will stabilize this as much as possible. The queen will actually "shut down" laying eggs in the winter and also a bee's metabolism will slow down and the reduced activity allows a bee to actually live a couple weeks longer than it would in summer time.