DRONES. 



143 



DRONES. 



more ; in fact, the cappings very much re- 

 semble a lot of bullets laid closely together 

 on a board. The young drones will begin to 

 cut the caps of these cells in about 24 or i5 

 days: the cap»s come off in a round piece, 

 very much like those from a queen-cell. 



The IXKiy of a drone is hardly as long as 

 that of a queen, but he is so much thicker 

 through than either queen or worker that 

 you will never mistake him for either. He 

 has no baskets on his legs in which to carry 

 pollen, and his tongue is s<» imsuited to the 

 gathering of honey from flowers that he 

 would stane to death in the midst of a clo- 

 ver-field. 



We presume the young drones are ready to 

 leave their hive after they are about tw^. 

 weeks old. and ihev do this shortly after 



DKOXE-BEE tXL^IiOr£I> aiiVEX TEMES. 



noon, of a warm pleasant day. They come 

 out with the young bees as they play, and 

 first try their Tsings : but their motions are 

 far from being graceful and easy, and 

 they frequently tumble about so awkwardly 

 that, as they strike against your face, you 

 might almost think them either drunk or 

 crazy. We do not know how we can very well 

 decide how old a drone must be to fulfill 

 the sole purpose of his existence, the fertil- 

 ization of the queen, but should guess any- 

 where from three weeks to as many months. 

 Perhaps they seldom live so long as the last 

 period named, but we think they sometimes 

 do. Many facts seem to indicate that they. 

 as well as the queen, fly long distances from 



the hive — ^perhai>s two nules or more. We 

 have now satisfactory evidence that the 

 meeting between queens and drones takes 

 place not very high up from the ground. 

 Several obser%'ers. during the season of 

 18b9- reported having seen this meeting 

 not very far from the hives, during the 

 swarming se.as<3n. The queens and drones 

 both sally forth during the middle of the 

 day. or afternoon, and in from fifteen min- 

 utes to an hour, or possibly a couple of hours, 

 the queen returns with a white appendage 

 attached to the extremity of her body, that 

 microscopic examination shows to be the 

 generative organs of the drone. These facts 

 have been observed by hundreds of bee- 

 keepers, and are well authenticated. In at- 

 tempts to have queens fertilized in wire -cloth 

 houses, we have, after letting the queens 

 out. seen the drones pursue them until both 

 parties vanished from sight. Still another 

 fact: If you take a drone in your hand 

 some warm afternoon just as he has sallied 

 from the hive, and press him in a certain 

 way. he will burst open something like the 

 I>opping of a grain of com. extruding the 

 very same organ we find attached to the 

 queen, and dying instantly. 



The manner in which the meeting of the 

 drone and queen takes place has been wit- 

 nessed a great many times. We give here 

 the statements of a few observers. 



The Eev. Mr. Millette. of Whitemarsh. 

 Pa., appears to have been the first who wit- 

 nessed the actual encounter. The following 

 communication from his pen. which we 

 copy from the Former nnd G^ird^infT for 

 November. 1S9^. settles the imjxjrtant fact. 

 as it came under his observation in the pre- 

 rf-diricr sxmimer: 



HBOyZ AKI» QUKES BEE. 



In liife montb of Jane, an old stock threw oflf a 



mtftitA swarm in which there were fcrar qneeDS. 



During- the proe*s= of hiring, one of the queens wa5 



observed on tbe wine, and in a motnent was seized 



by a dronfc Atver Qyine abcnrt a rod tbey both came 



to the ground in close contact : tbe writer instant]}- 



followed tbem up: and as tbe drone was about df- 



parting fbaving broken loose*, seized both tbe bees, 



the queen in one hand and the drone in tbe other. 



Ibev were taken into tbe house, and left at liberty 



tofly. wb«j tbe queen flew to the closed window: 



but tbe drone, after crawling about on the hand , 



' was laid ui»on tbe window-s.eat. and in a very few 



t minutes expired. Br>th the queen and tbe drone 



had a milky-wbite fltiid upon tbe extremity of the 



, abdomen, ana upon pressing the drone there was no 



' indicati<^»n of bis pf>s?eg=ing the speciahx of his sex. 



To this we api:*end the following extract of 

 i a letter written by Mr. S. B. Pareons recent- 

 I ly dead), of Flushing. New York, confirm- 



