Well now that I think about it, I do welcome literary devices when they are so obvious that they only assume primary schooling. Normally they make the text more human, more fun. Also, I can't really see someone getting deeply confused by this; and momentarily confusion is even good to revisit some knowledge from time to time.
No, its far from nonsense, it makes the article more fun and interesting or maybe the author has different definition of winter. They are not writing formal academic paper.
I define "winter" as the time honeybees don't fly. Summer bees don't fly below 13 Celsius, and winter bees don't fly below 8 Celcius. Winter bees are the first ones out of the hive in spring, raising up the summer bees for the big harvest.