Hello,

I can’t find the meaning of the expression in the subject. Does it have anything to do with sticking to timetables or just doing what you’re supposed to do? In:

Bees, who work strictly to rule, swarm only in the afternoon, so this must have started on the day when we went to see the lions at Longleat.

Thank you,
Ana

I have no idea about the lions, but as to the bees:  Bees, in conformity with instinct,————

To ‘work to rule’ means to be deliberately uncooperative (in an industrial dispute) by doing only the very minimum required by one’s contract of employment.

Thank you.

Since bees apparently work a lot, could it be that they follow all the rules, I mean that they only do things when they’re supposed to?

Rules set by Mother Nature: Instinct?

aalvares - 10 February 2009 08:35 AM

Thank you.

Since bees apparently work a lot, could it be that they follow all the rules, I mean that they only do things when they’re supposed to?

Yes, I think that’s right.