Voluntary Act of Self-destruction by the Worker Bee. 607 
HE. And here I may as well dispose of the latter at once, by 
saying what I wanted to arrive at in its case. 
I saw it stated in a work on bees that they died in a tempera- 
ture of 34° F. 
Now I have often seen, about here, lazy cottagers having their 
hives the entire winter without covering of any sort, not even a 
wisp of straw. I have often, too, seen these hives covered on 
top with snow, all right of course so long as it was snow, but 
how about its “transition state,” and finally 1 have found their 
bees alive and doing well in spring. 
I had invested in a tube thermometer to lower down between 
the combs, but unluckily not a “self-registering ” one, so results 
were not noted as worth recording. 
C.D. Now, back to these four hives, which I shall conclude 
with. 
I next removed the zine slide altogether from the doorway of 
one of the hives on the boxes, as also from one of those without 
boxes. 
The first thing I observed was that on rainy days no bees 
issued forth, or wanted to get out, and if wet for several days 
together bees died and dropped down inside the hives and boxes. 
I saw, too, that in the case of the two hives left on their own 
stands when the weather cleared up the bees removed the dead, 
not out of the hive, but as far as they could from the combs (I 
always found them, on such occasions, when I lifted the hive, in 
a ring round the edge under the hive). 
Again, if after having swept the stand, wet weather prevailed 
for some time, and I then lifted the hive, I found the dead lying 
on the “stand,” under the clusters of bees collected on the brood 
combs in the centre, just where they fell. On the other hand I 
did not find cold weather, so long as it was dry, restrain the bees 
from coming forth, or trying too, in the manner I have described. 
Now, it is well known that bees, when they come out of their 
hive in winter time for amusement or sanitary purposes never go 
far from the hive, they content themselves with wheeling about 
and darting hither and thither in the immediate vicinity. 
But what did these bees mean by darting away, high in the 
