The Busy Bee 121 



alarms the novice into thinking that the hive 

 is about to swarm. 



But the mating queen cares not for the 

 alarm of her subjects, she has more important 

 business on hand this morning. 



Up, up she soars in a graceful spiral, 

 searching the upper air for her mate. As 

 every hive contains several hundred drones 

 who were hatched for this express purpose 

 and for this alone, the queen is usually suc- 

 cessful the first morning of her quest. 



In the one-hundredth part of a second, 

 while flying like bullets, the virgin queen and 

 her mate make possible the laying of from five 

 hundred to seven hundred thousand fertile 

 eggs which may produce in time two or three 

 dozen new hives of honey gatherers. 



But the poor drone forfeits his life in the 

 act. His generative organs are torn from 

 his body and carried back by the queen to the 

 hive, while the drone flutters to earth and dies 

 having served his end in the economy of 

 nature. 



After the mating season is past the drones 



