Barbara Samel, age 11, of Yorkville, N.Y., for her question:

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BEES IN WINTER?

When the fall weather grows cool, the honeybees prepare their hive for the winter. Cracks are sealed with special wax to make it draft free and weatherproof. Stores of honey are sealed in the waxy cells. The queen mother stops laying eggs, and the busy workers throw the lazy drones outdoors  to perish from cold and starvation. Many of the worker bees grow tired and die also. But the queen and usually several thousand workers do their best to survive.

Before the snow blows, all survivors huddle into the hive. They cling together in a big brown ball to keep warm. Now and then those on the inside change places with those on the outside. They live on the stored honey, which is rationed out to last through the winter. The queen gives up her usual royal jelly and even she lives on honey. And there they stay in their cozy hive until the first breath of spring comes to coax them them outdoors again.