112 
FOLLOWING THE BEE LINE 
real interest in the subject. . . . They wonder, 
for instance, what bees do in the winter when there 
are no flowers, and how they can endure the cold 
of northern winters. On considering the long spells 
of bitterly cold weather, when for weeks the mercury 
stays in the neighborhood of zero, it is remarkable 
that a colony of bees can remain alive in its thin 
wooden-walled hive, often with no protection what¬ 
ever in the form of packing or wrapping, against the 
elements. 
But we must realize that there are many thousands 
of bees, and Government experiments demonstrate 
that when the temperature goes below 57 degrees 
the bees cling together in masses between the combs. 
By eating honey and going through various gym¬ 
nastics with wings and legs, they can raise the 
temperature within their cluster; now and again 
they change places, those more quiescent on the 
inside moving out to take up the activities of those 
on the outside. 
Their hive entrances are always left open as bees 
need, every now and then, to take what is called 
a “cleansing flight” to prevent dysentery. These 
flights are only taken in the middle of an unusually 
warm sunny day. 
In this manner do the bees pass the winter in 
