What Insect Air-Conditions Its Home?

Inside a bee hive, there may be more than 50,000 bees crowded together, each busily going about the work of making honey or tending to the young.

So you can imagine how hard it is for fresh air to reach all the bees inside the hive. But bees have developed an ingenious way to accomplish this, they keep beating their wings to create a draft that cools the hive, brings in fresh air, and forces out stale air. Each bee, in fact, beats its wings about 200 times a second!

In the winter, this same beating heats the hive to temperatures of 50° to 60°F.!