ESSEX SOCIETY. 8^ 



genus homo — they make more noise and fuss, than all the rest 

 of the tenants of the hive put together. Like furious orators 

 on town meeting days, and at political caucuses, they keep up 

 a miscellaneous kind of bother and buzz, with the intent, very 

 likely, to make up in noise, what they lack in sense, and to 

 draw upon their inflated selves the eyes of the " dear people," 

 upon whose honey they feed, though contributing nothing there- 

 to. With both these classes, as Tony Lumpkin says, " It's all 

 buzz ! " 



They are an idle, cowardly, inactive, lazy, and clumsy set of 

 fellows, and it is well that they are stingless, for it is serious 

 matter of doubt, whether, if they had one, they could get up 

 spunk enough to use it. Their life is a short and merry one, 

 scarcely reaching beyond the brief period of three months, by 

 which time, being of no further use in their peculiar vocation, 

 they are all cast out, and killed off by the workers. Behold 

 the picture of the life and death of your lazy, pot-bellied, 

 ease-loving drones : — 



Their short proboscis sips 

 No luscious nectar from the wild thyme's lips ; 

 From the lime's leaf, no amber drops they steal, 

 Nor bear their grooveless thighs the foodful meal ; 

 On others' toils in pamper'd leisure thrive, 

 The lazy fathers of the industrious hive.* 



Such being the drones, the committee dismiss them from fur- 

 ther consideration, proceeding to the more grateful subject of 

 the 



Worker bees. — These constitute the great mass of the pop- 

 ulation, being, as we have before hinted, unproductive or bar- 

 ren females. By them all the varied labors of the hive are car- 

 ried forward. They are shorter and less in size than either the 

 queen or the drones. Taking the queen at one inch in length, 

 which is about right, the drone is two thirds and the worker 

 one half an inch in length. The number of working bees in a 

 healthy hive, may be safely put at from twelve thousand to 

 twenty or thirty thousand. And in non-swarming hives, (such 

 as have been in successful use by the writer, to which further 



* From an unfinished poem, called " The Bees," by Dr. Evans, of England. 



