Honeybees in Winter
一只蜜蜂无法度过严寒的冬天。一群蜜蜂则不同。据说蜂箱中的蜜蜂要过冬的时候，往往要抱成一团。最外面的一层是工蜂，它们拼命地煽动着翅膀，像厚厚的衣服一样阻隔着外面的寒冷。在这样严严实实的“包裹”之下，里边的温度恒定在摄氏13度左右，舒适如春。被工蜂“包裹”在里边的不仅有蜂王和雄蜂，还有另外的工蜂。饿了，它们依靠夏天采集来的蜜获得足够的能量。但里面的工蜂并不总在里面呆着，它们还需要到外面来“换岗”。就这样，蜜蜂的家族度过了寒冬。
Many insects hibernate or migrate during the winter, but honeybees are more like us, they bundle up and wait for spring.
When winter comes, honeybees form a ball deep in their hive to regulate the hive temperature. This means they stay close together, vibrating their wing muscles to generate heat and keep the center of the hive around eighty-six to ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. If the core temperature drops too low, the colony will die.
Bees also eat a lot of honey to stay warm, and the fastest way to kill off a hive if you’re a beekeeper is to take out too much honey, too late in the season. Healthy beehives have at least twenty-thousand bees, and that’s a lot of mouths to feed.
Some bees on the outside of the ball will not stay warm enough and will die over the course of the winter, but its for the good of the colony. (Fortunately, we humans have central heat.)
With bees one always talks about the colony as a single entity. This is because each bee has a very specific role, but together they work as a unit. You could say each bee functions like a cell in your body. Honeybees start out cleaning the hive and feeding larvae, but will progress to collectors and foragers, and even hive guardians.
Honeybees try their best to keep the hive clean, so on a warm winter day, they clean house and fly a few hundred yards away to use the bathroom! This can be dangerous, though, because if it’s colder out than they thought, the bees might not make it back.
译文：
许多昆虫在冬天的时候冬眠或者迁徙，但是蜜蜂和人类一样，它们也把自己弄的暖暖和和的，等待春天的到来。
当冬天来临的时候，工蜂会在蜂巢的深处形成一个球来调节蜂巢的温度。这就意味着它们挤在一起，震动他们的翅肌来增加热量，以至把蜂巢中心的温度控制在华氏86到85度。如果中心温度降的太低，整个蜂群就会死掉。
蜜蜂也吃很多蜂蜜来保持热量，如果你是一个养蜂人，消灭一个蜂房最快的方法就是在深冬从蜂房中取出大部分蜂蜜。健康的蜂窝里面大概会有2万只蜜蜂，它们需要很多的食物来生存。
一些靠近蜂球外围的蜜蜂会因为不能保持温暖而在漫长的冬天里死去，但是这也是为了整个群体的利益（幸好我们人类有集中供暖）。
对于蜜蜂来说，我们经常把它们看成一个单独的个体，这是因为，它们每一个都有一个非常特殊的角色，但是它们作为一个整体工作。你可以把单个蜜蜂的作用比作人身体中的一个细胞。蜜蜂要从清理蜂巢和喂养幼蜂做起，渐渐地就可以去采集蜂蜜和食物，甚至成为蜂巢的警卫员。
蜜蜂不惜一切的保持巢穴清洁，所以它们会在冬天比较温暖的日子里清洁巢穴并飞到几百码以外的地方“洗澡”。这样做是很危险的，因为天气比它们预计的更冷，这些蜜蜂可能会一去不返。 |