Althouse: The sleeping bee.

July 10, 2025

The sleeping bee.

At 5:33, this morning.

20 comments:

Howard said...: What I love about this photo is the scale is deceiving. At first I thought that was a hummingbird; 7/10/25, 8:13 AM
Quaestor said...: No one is quite sure what bees are doing when the sleep, or whether sleep is the right word. Unlike the hymenopteran cousins, the ants, bees are endothermic, at least part of the time. By buzzing their wings they can generate heat. For instance, if one where to attach a microphone to the outside of a beehive one could record the sound of hundreds of bees inside vibrating their wings -- for warmth inside the hive when it's cool outside or for cooling when the outside temperature exceeds the ideal inside temperature. They can also use their endothermy as a weapon against hive raiders, such as the Asian giant hornet. Their endothermic nature accounts for their ability to keep a hive "operational" year round, whereas wasp nests usually die back to a single surviving queen each winter. It may also be the reason why honeybees and their kin are fuzzy rather than naked like a wasp or hornet. One hypothesis suggests "sleeping" bees are workers that have lost their sun orientation and are waiting in an energy conserving state until their "internal compass" can realign with the sun and restore their homeward course to the hive.; 7/10/25, 8:58 AM
Quaestor said...: No one is quite sure what bees are doing when THEY sleep...; 7/10/25, 8:58 AM
Quaestor said...: Lots of typos... It's early.; 7/10/25, 9:01 AM
Ann Althouse said...: But don't bees sleep in their hive overnight? I know they can get exhausted while out and about during the day and take a nap, but it was 5:30 in the morning, just after sunup.; 7/10/25, 9:05 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I wondered if bee societies ever exile individuals. I think the answer is occasionally but only because they're diseased or deformed and therefore not good for the group.; 7/10/25, 9:06 AM
Tina Trent said...: Emily Dickinson weighs in on the bee:

I taste a liquor never brewed –
From Tankards scooped in Pearl –
Not all the Frankfort Berries
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of air – am I –
And Debauchee of Dew –
Reeling – thro' endless summer days –
From inns of molten Blue –

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door –
When Butterflies – renounce their "drams" –
I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats –
And Saints – to windows run –
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the – Sun!; 7/10/25, 9:25 AM
Quaestor said...: "But don't bees sleep in their hive overnight?"

There is always activity in the hive, day and night. Inside, the darkness is near total, day or night. There is always work to be done. The queen produces eggs around the clock. She must be fed and groomed by her attendants. Larvae must be fed as well, and the temperature must be regulated continuously. The only task that ceases at night is foraging for nectar and pollen. Workers go through many task assignments during their adult lives. When they emerge from their pupal stage, their first task is cell cleaning. Later they perform other duties during their approximately 40 days of life. Each worker will act as forager for only 5 - 7 days. Throughout the day, individuals workers may rest briefly between tasks, but there's no sleep period for the whole hive. Even during the winter when there's no foraging, the hive must be kept warm. That's the entire purpose of honey -- its a store of chemical energy that allows the hive to survive the winter. Wasp and bumblebee colonies die off in the fall, leaving only the queen alive in a state of torpor to found a new colony in the follow spring.; 7/10/25, 10:02 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/10/25, 10:03 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/10/25, 10:04 AM
Quaestor said...: Drones are expelled in the fall to die -- useless mouths to feed with resources that can't be replenished until the flowers bloom again. Workers are dying all the time from various causes. Mortuary duty, i.e. the task of finding dead or dying bees in the hive and carrying them outside is one of the early tasks in a worker's career. The dead are not just thrown out, however. The "undertakers" carry the corpses away for a considerable distance. Otherwise a pile of dead bees near the hive would become a source of contamination. Beekeepers watch for signs like dead bees near the hive. That can be an indication of an epidemic infection that could spread to other hives.; 7/10/25, 10:19 AM
Quaestor said...: Colony collapse syndrome -- one of the fashionable concerns of the 1990s (What will we do without the bees? Oh my, global warming!!) -- was caused by a parasitic mite, Varroa destructor, which can spread from colony to colony. The mites can weaken the undertaker bees such that they can't properly dispose of the dead, thus making it easier for the mites to spread. They also affect the behavior of workers, confusing them to the point that they try to enter neighboring colonies. They usually are detected and expelled immediately, but a mite can infect the guard bee while it expels the intruder. Beekeepers learned to watch for accumulations of dead or dying bees, and they learned to increase the separation of the hives. Varroa infestations are still a problem, but the situation is manageable these days. Honey is in short supply and consequently expensive, but there's no shortage of fruit and produce pollinators.; 7/10/25, 10:39 AM
Quaestor said...: Off!; 7/10/25, 10:40 AM
Quaestor said...: Damn it. Off!; 7/10/25, 10:41 AM
Quaestor said...: ...but it was 5:30 in the morning, just after sunup.

Reasons a bumblebee may appear to be sleeping at just after sunup.

(1) It lost its sun-fix the previous afternoon and spent the night outside. By fighting the overnight chill it exhausted its energy reserves and as lapsed into exothermic torpor.

(2) It is sick or parasite infested.

(3) The colony has been raided by ants or yellowjackets. This is a survivor. Ants and wasps rarely attack honeybee colonies because honeybees live in groups of many hundreds to thousands of well-armed and well-coordinated defenders, whereas a bumblebee colony might consist of a few dozen adults plus a queen and a few drones -- easy prey by comparison.; 7/10/25, 12:05 PM
Narr said...: Buzz off?; 7/10/25, 12:19 PM
Candide said...: Wow, what a great composition!; 7/10/25, 12:52 PM
Original Mike said...: Italics, be gone.; 7/10/25, 1:04 PM
Saint Croix said...: I just finished the world's first detective story...

The Murders in the Rue Morgue, by Edgar Allan Poe. What a great writer!

I was surprised to discover that it's a short story, not a novel. In fact it must have been a serial, published in six parts. I deduce this because every chapter starts off with a quick summary of what happened before.

Doyle copied his methods shamelessly. So did Christie. We have a clueless narrator who is dumbfounded by the great detective who solves what is unsolvable.

This is also a great locked room puzzle.

Poe is known for his horror. So he adds some R-rated images to really show his murders to us. (Doyle and Christie are PG, or G, really). In the 20th century, the murder mystery genre would split in two, with the English masters creating bloodless murders, making the crime an intricate puzzle to solve. While the Americans went with blood and guts.

But back in 1841, Poe combined both forms in an amazing little story that inspired everybody.

Anyway, if you like murder mysteries, the first amateur detective is August Dupin. And The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a fun and quick read.; 7/10/25, 6:44 PM
Iman said...: “I wondered if bee societies ever exile individuals. I think the answer is occasionally but only because they're diseased or deformed and therefore not good for the group.”

A little known fact: A bee society will take drastic measures to exile the worst offending bees that can’t seem to get their act together. These bees are known as “Bungle Bees”.; 7/10/25, 7:45 PM