84 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



witnessed the operation, "I've seen, and sure I ought to 



know." 



The subject is one of great detail, as well as of great curi- 

 osity, and would occupy too much space to be here discussed. 

 It is true, that apiarians are at issue upon the modus, and give 

 varied explanations, but the best authorities all agree, that 

 when there is a loss of the queen at the time of a supply of 

 brood comb, the workers can make good the loss. Our own 

 theory is, that the workers are all barren females, the organs of 

 generation not being perfected for the production of eggs ; that 

 on the occasion of the loss of the queen, these organs are, in 

 the worker worm, selected by some mode and by some appli- 

 ances known to the instinct of the bees, duly and suitably elab- 

 orated for the production of eggs. A difficulty is, and not a 

 small one, that the form and size, and length of sting, are all, 

 also, altered. As our excellent friend. Sir Roger de Coverley 

 says, in the Spectator, " a good deal may be said on both sides 

 of the question," and a good deal has been said, and written, 

 and scolded, and we do not think it worth while to bother the 

 Essex bee masters about the arguments. Let us be thankful 

 for the thoughful, wise, and excellent provision of the bee's 

 great Creator, and go on with our report. 



We will then say a word or two about the great aristocrats 

 of the hive, applying that much abused word to those therein 

 who live on the labors of others, themselves furnishing neither 

 capital, skill, nor work, and whose only office is to assist in 

 propagating the race. A useful, necessary, and indispensa- 

 ble vocation it is, the committee are willing to concede, but 

 they wish the drones had something besides, about which to 

 emjiloy their leisure moments — 



" Those moments of leisure, 

 Not devoted to pleasure." — Old Song. 



The drones, then, are, with the exception before specified, 

 the regular do-nothings of the hive ; your fine gentlemen-at- 

 large, and very portly and well fed gentlemen too. " They 

 toil not, neither do they spin; they lay not up in garners ; " 

 they add nothing to the common stock, and yet, like some ani- 

 mals that go about on four legs — like some noisy fellows of the 



