> Hate to be a stickler but this is one of my pet peeves.
> Bees cannot be who; who is reserved for people. 

This is at odds with the style guides - animals are clearly individuals, and
can be described by any pronouns we choose.  The usual style guide
suggestion (the Chicago Manual of style and its less authoritative
imitations) is to reserve pronouns for animals with which a personal
relationship exists, so one's dog would be a "who", while a wolf would be an
"it".  A ship upon which one has sailed may also be referred to as a "she",
for precisely the same reason.   There is no error of anthropomorphism in
using "who", "he", or "she", given that it is easy to speak of specific
individual bees and to note their gender. 

As beekeepers, we have very very personal relationships with our bees, so
any/all pronouns are perfectly acceptable, and prospective gatekeepers can
be ignored.

> Anyway, this was discussed recently. 
> The lost bees are likely senescent. Just plain old and lost.

The hard evidence at hand seems to contradict that unsubstantiated opinion.
Here is a much higher-rez image than the one that could be attached to a
Bee-L posting.  Note the lack of tattered wings, and other signs of wear and
tear. I also see at least one drone.

https://dropbox.com/s/g10q7nqyiiou4si/Pipe_Bees.JPG?dl=0

One of >>my<< pet peeves is the intoning of flat statements about bees
unsupported by any shred of data with some statistical validity, as if one's
own opinion, or mere idle discussion here on Bee-L resolves any issue
authoritatively.  Neither do.  If beekeeping cannot teach one a little
humility, moreso about the near-universal lack of unconditional certainty
regarding purported "facts" about bees, then one has learned nothing at all
from one's bees.  We can all agree on many things, and we can accept much as
"generally true" based upon anecdotes alone, but there is no need to
"correct" a choice of words when it is strictly "proper style".

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