206 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



is one of severity and force ; but, so far as I have 

 witnessed the scene, they are not executed. Possibly 

 the drones which I have seen hustled and expelled 

 from the apiary in the woods were treated more gently 

 than drones are as a rule. Certainly many bee- 

 masters have seen drones killed by the workers. But 

 my impression is, the drones' lives are not usually 

 taken by the worker guards or police, whose business 

 it is to clear the hive of them in late summer or 

 early autumn. In some years large numbers of ex- 

 pelled drones fly in at the west windows of the house, 

 and linger about the curtains and glass till far into 

 the autumn. This does not look like wholesale 

 execution. One spring I found a solitary drone which 

 had survived the winter, and late in the year a fire 

 in the bedroom roused another hibernating drone, 

 which was still bright, lively, and in fine condition. 

 These instances prove that the drone, unlike the 

 worker bee, can live for many months quite alone, 

 and without food. They show, too, that a drone is 

 not chilled to death so easily as the worker bees, 

 which live during winter in a temperature that some- 

 times reaches over ninety degrees at the bee cluster 

 in the hive. It has occurred to me that a drone 

 can live, or half-live, in conditions which would be 

 fatal to a worker bee, because through luxurious fare 

 and a life of leisure he has bujlt up much more 

 strength and tissue. He is too strong to be killed 

 by the first touch of cold autumn weather; and 



