
Bumblebees Sleeping in Flowers (2012) - DoreenMichele
https://beeisbeautiful.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/bumblebees-sleeping-in-flowers/
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ezequiel-garzon
I noticed the use of _male bee_ instead of _drone_. English has been my second
language for a long time, and only recently did I learn that mechanical drones
get their names from that. Do you native speakers use _male bee_ more often
than _drone_?

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pvaldes
Drone is the name for the male of the honey bee. This is a close relative, but
different kind of animal. The animals sleeping in flowers aren't necessarily
male.

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ezequiel-garzon
Thanks! In those cases (honeybees), do you tend to say _drones_?

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mikekchar
Sometimes yes, but especially children often don't know the word so when you
use it you often have to explain. Beekeepers do tend to say "drone" in my
experience (Source: my father kept bees for a while).

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presscast
Are the bees actually sleeping (in the neurological sense) or is their
metabolism slowed by the cold?

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saagarjha
Sleep is ill-defined for non-mammals, so it really depends on what you mean by
"sleep".

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labster
Mammals and birds sleep. Everything else has some kind of circadian rhythm
that approximates sleep to varying degrees.

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Dylanfm
Last summer bumblebees liked sleeping in our pumpkin flowers most of all,
sometimes 2 or 3 together.

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Double_a_92
All kinds of bees like that apparently. Gotta be careful when you harvest the
flowers.

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KozmoNau7
Some people cannot or will not see the simple and honest beauty of something
like a bumblebee in a flower, and would rather trample them all in the name of
industry.

Those people should be scorned and ridiculed.

