> To know if honeybees have consciousness, limited it may be, is a difficult question to even ponder, indeed: why would they stop bearding when I replace the wooden bottom board with a screened one under a triple digit heat?  

In these cases, I always think of my furnace. When the thermostat detects a temperature below a setpoint, the furnace kicks on. Is this an example of consciousness? Of course not. 

If an organism has nerve endings which can feel stimuli, and it responds to them, this is not consciousness either. Pain is felt and the organism responds to it as an instinct of self preservation. 

Consciousness as we perceive it is  sense of ourselves in time. It is a juxtaposition of memory and the here and now. Bees definitely exhibit the hallmarks of consciousness, in my view. 

Regarding the drumming, it's a nice thought, but it could be that everyone is simply reacting to chaos in the same way, which results in a semblance of order. Bees do this too, trying to make order in the nest while everything conspires against it.

PLB

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