How is that bees can survive following hours frozen and submerged?  Somehow
come to life with a quick warm wash?

Bees which appear in EVERY aspect to be completely dead - tongues sticking up,
solid bodies, submerged in honey/syrup for hours & stone-cold .... only to
awaken after running them under warm water and dumping onto a paper towel.

Last night I left out a bucket of scrap comb and watered-down honey for my
'house hive' to rob out. Since I didn't get home until late, that bucket set
out all night long in Colorado February weather (30F?).  This morning I found
hundreds of bees stuck to the bottom of the bucket sucked down into the
syrup.  Not that I'm trying to save every bee in my apiary, but I wanted to
see if they could survive so I scooped them out and washed them in a strainer
for a few seconds and dropped them onto some paper towels.  Their antennae
start twitching, then the abdomen starts pumping followed by shaky legs and
finally ...it's alive! (reference Young Frankenstein).

Over half of those bees came through and are upstairs in a jar trying to find
a way out.

How far can a bees metabolism slow?


Matthew Westall
Earthling Bees - Castle Rock, CO