We cannot tell how bees are able to find their way home to the hive so cleverly. They may fly two, three, four, or even more miles away to the flowers, but they are always able to return. If a forager bee is imprisoned in a box, and carried a couple of miles away and released, she will reach the hive long before we could; in this respect you will see that bees are something like homing pigeons. CHAPTER XXXI THE WINTER SLEEP During the summer the bees work only with the idea of storing away sufficient honey to last them during the dark days of winter, when there are no flowers. In the tropics, where perpetual summer reigns, the bees live as it were from hand to mouth, and do not store nearly so much honey as those bees which live in climes where the summer is followed by a long winter. When autumn comes, and the flowers vanish, the bees gather round the queen on the combs of the hive; we see some of them in Plate XXV. The builders block up the doorway with wax until only a narrow passage is left, just large enough to allow them to travel in and out. This is done to keep out the cold of winter, for then it is necessary for the temperature inside the hive to be as high as possible. In this cluster the bees pass the winter in a kind of sleep. They eat the honey which they have stored, and wait for the arrival of spring. The outermost bees of the cluster are of course the coldest, and so that each may take a turn at being on the outside, they constantly change places. They only leave the hive on a few occasions during this time, and then it is to take a short flight for exercise. [Illustration: PLATE XXV From a photograph by] [E. Hawks Bees clustering in Winter] When the bright sunshine comes, and the crocuses tell of the coming of spring, the bees begin to bestir themselves. Sometimes when it has been snowing, and the snow is lying on the ground, the bees are deceived by the glare into thinking that spring has come; they fly out to look for flowers, but many of them are killed by the cold. When spring is actually at hand, however, the pollen gatherers are despatched to the crocuses and other early flowers. They come back laden with pollen, and as soon as the queen bee sees this she commences to lay. These eggs will develop into the bees which will carry on the work of the hive during the summer. The bees which have slept through the winter only live long enough to look after these eggs, and to bring the young bees safely into the world.