WINTERING BEES 59 



for weeks at a time, and yet revive on exposure to warmth. 

 As is well known, also, ants have been repeatedly dug out 

 of logs, froaen solid — ^in fact, fairly enveloped in frost; yet 

 on exposure to warmth they wiU come to. Some hibernators 

 can endure a freezing temperature, while others, like the 

 bear, woodehuck, and the like, can .not. Other very inter- 

 esting incidents may be taken from natural history ; but the 

 purpose of this article is to consider whether bees go into 

 a quiescent state that approaches hibernation, in which there 

 is low respiration and a small consumption of stores. 



Two or three years ago we put a number of cages of bees 

 with some queens (laying the cages down on cakes of ice) 

 in a refrigerator. The bees were chilled to absolute stifEness. 

 Every day we would take out a cage, and each time the bees 

 would revive, including the queen. This thing was continu- 

 ed for several days, and yet the bees would " come to " each 

 time. 



The strange part of it was, that the queens went on laying 

 normally when put back in the hives, instead of laying drone 

 eggs as we expected. Just what the temperature to which 

 these bees were subjected was we can not say — probably 

 something below 40 and something above 35, for the doors 

 of the refrigerator were frequently opened, and the ice was 

 constantly melting. 



During one winter, when a very cold snap came on — the 

 temperature going down to zero— we put out some cages of 

 bees, exposing them to the cold wind, which was then blowing 

 a pretty good gale, when the temperature was 5 above zero. 

 We had expected that the bees possibly might be able to 

 survive the shock for a number of hours, and yet revive; 

 but 20 minutes of zero freezing was sufficient to kill them 

 outnght. If we had taken the bees and gradually acclima- 

 tized them to the cold, first subjecting them to 40, then to 35, 

 and gradually down to th? zero point, they would possibly 

 have withstood the shock. 



When the weather warmed up a little we took several 

 cages of bees and buried them in the snow, leaving with 

 them a thermometeer so that we might know the absolute 



