CHAPTER 3 

 Drones and Drone Production 



"The drone" wrote Butler, in 1609, "is a gross stingless 

 bee, that spendeth his time in gluttony and idleness." After 300 

 years, we cannot find a better description. The drones are the 

 male bees. They are reared in large numbers, in a state of nature, 

 in every hive, because the young queens mate, out of the hive, 

 on the wing, and it is necessary that each queen be enabled to 

 promptly find a mate, in the air. In domesticity, or when colonies 

 of bees are congregated in large numbers in a single spot, the 

 drones produced by one or two colonies are ample for the one 

 hundred young queens that may be produced ; since each colony 

 easily rears two or three thousand drones. The drone requires 25 

 days to change from the fresh laid egg to the perfect insect. 

 He never visits the flowers, goes out only in the warm part of 

 the day, to seek a mate, and comes home with a good appetite, 

 to feed upon the stores gathered by the indefatigable workers. 



There is quite a little prejudice in favor of the drones among 

 a certain class of bee owners. They see the strongest colonies 

 produce a large number of drones, then swarm, and they deduce 

 from 'this that the drone, in some manner, is an influence of 

 benefit to the colony. Some say they keep the brood warm; 

 others think that they encourage the bees to greater activity; 

 in short, they believe that, outside of his functions as male, 

 the drone has a beneficial influence upon the success of the 

 colony. They mistake the result for the cause. Bees rear many 

 drones when they are prosperous, but they are not necessarily 

 prosperous because they rear many drones. Similarly, if we 

 meet a man with a frock coat and a silk hat, we may conclude 

 that he is wealthy, but we must not ascribe the cause of his 

 wealth to the wearing of expensive garments. We take it to 

 be a result instead. 



This matter of drone production and of their possible 

 usefulness was thoroughly tested by us. Selecting our best 



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