"I know of no evidence that a guard or soldier bee has any such  awareness
of threat, the concept of colony, or potential risk to self (death due to
stinging).  On the contrary, their stinging can be explained by simple
hard-wired responses to cues that trigger certain behaviors."

Then why is it that a bee harasses me in the yard, zinging around my head and buzzing my hair or baseball cap, but as I move farther away from the hives it leaves me alone? It seems clear to me that it perceives sufficient threat to the colony to warn me off but not enough to sting me.

Eugene Makovec

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