THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



17- 



hind legs are not adapted, as they 

 have no spoon-like cavities or pol- 

 len baskets), nor can the}- build 

 comb, or perform the other duties 

 common to the worker bee. 



They are very sensitive regard- 

 ing the cold, flying only during the 

 warm sunshine from eleven o'clock 

 in the forenoon until five or six in 

 the evening, and keep mostly near 

 the centre of the brood nest in or- 

 der to promote the secretion of the 

 seminal fluid and increase their 

 physical strength. 



EXPULSION AND DESTRUCTION OF THE 

 DRONES. 



The drones are usually first 

 hatched out in May and then 

 toward the end of July and in Au- 

 gust ; in some hives also first in 

 September or first in October even, 

 particularly^ when a rich harvest of 

 honey is brought out by the bees. 

 If bad weather should occur in early 

 spring and there should be a scar- 

 city of honey, then the drones are 

 destroyed, but afterwards new ones 

 are hatched, when a better harvest 

 of honey is made. For, when gen- 

 erally the queen no longer truly 

 produces any young, when a famine 

 occurs the hives become very 

 much depopulated and- man}- die. 



But in this unfortunate time, not 

 onl}'^ the lack of honey for the nour- 

 ishment of the 3'oung, but also the 

 fear of foul brood (in case, they 

 by continuing want, let the young 

 starve, so as to cause certain de- 

 struction to them), prompts them 

 to discontinue the breeding of the 

 drones once so important to the 

 bees. 



The bees partly bite and partly 



sting the drones to death, but for 

 the most part drag them out of the 

 hive and prevent their return, that 

 they fly away and are lost, or, on 

 account of the chilly nights, per- 

 ish. During the extermination of 

 the drones, the bees show such 

 great cruelty that, as soon as the 

 drone battle begins they spare not 

 even the eggs and the immature 

 drones, but tear them out clean and 

 even destroy them. It costs more 

 by half to support one drone in 

 honey than two or three worker 

 bees, as the drones will not put up 

 with more common food, like the 

 worker bees who also make use of 

 the pollen and thereby save much 

 honey. The}^ also, during a large 

 portion of the year, prove too much 

 of a burden, as well as unprofitable 

 members, who do not work but eat 

 what the others with sweat and toil 

 have gathered early and late. Be- 

 sides, their fecundation of the eggs 

 is no longer needed, as few young 

 bees more are wanted until the 

 spring. 



It is to be noticed that some 

 bees do not willingly begin the ex- 

 termination of the drones, and will 

 often suffer them to remain even 

 into October. In such case, one 

 does well, especially if the number 

 of drones is great, if one assists the 

 bees in their work of destruction. 

 The bees close about them so 

 fiercely that one wonders that they 

 should permit any drone to escape 

 to run about the hive again ; for 

 the bees, as is their custom, fall 

 upon them, suck out their honey 

 and drive them out. If one helps 

 the. bees in the death of the drones 



