时差N小时 蜜蜂如何过冬（在线收听）

Many insects hibernate or migrate during the winter, but honeybees are more like us, they bundleup and wait for spring.

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。

When winter comes, honeybees form a ball deep in their hive to regulate the hive temperature.

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。

This means they stay close together, vibrating their wing muscles to generate heat and keep thecenter of the hive around eighty-six to ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit.

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。

If the core temperature drops too low, the colony will die.

如果中心温度降的太低，整个蜂群就会死掉。

Bees also eat a lot of honey to stay warm, and the fastest way to kill off a hive if you're abeekeeper is to take out too much honey, too late in the season.

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。

Healthy beehives have at leasttwenty-thousand bees, and that's a lot of mouths to feed.

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。

Some bees on the outside of the ball will not stay warm enough and will die over the course of thewinter, but its for the good of the colony.

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。

(Fortunately, we humans have central heat.)

（幸好我们人类有集中供暖）。

With bees one always talks about the colony as a single entity.

对于蜜蜂来说，我们经常把它们看成一个单独的个体，

This is because each bee has avery specific role, but together they work as a unit.

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。

You could say each bee functions like a cell inyour body.

你可以把单个蜜蜂的作用比作人身体中的一个细胞。

Honeybees start out cleaning the hive and feeding larvae, but will progress to collectors and foragers, and even hive guardians.

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。

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!

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”。

This can be dangerous, though, because if it'scolder out than they thought, the bees might not make it back.

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。