PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING 17 



their haste they fly in zig-zag darts and with a clear ringing note. 



Watching the bees thus we may occasionally hear a coarse buz- 

 zing note and a larger and more clumsy bee will drop down on the 

 alighting board. These are the males or drone bees, and are 50 

 named because they are bees of leHsure, n'ever working in the field 

 or in the colony. If it should happen to be about two or three tn 

 the afternoon of a bright spring day, we may witness a very inter- 

 esting exercise which at first, to the novice, may be mistaken for 

 the issuing of the proverbial swarm. Suddenly numbers of bees 

 will rush out quite excitedly and with their heads toward the col- 

 cny will actively fly in ever increasing semicircles. These are the 

 young bees taking their daily flight to gain deftness in the handling 

 of their wings, and also to mark the location of the colony, so that 

 later they can easily find it when returning from the field with stores, 

 for the work of gathering honey and pollen, is done by the older 

 bees. At present these young bees are serving an apprenticeship 

 in the hives as nurses, and this flight is their daily exercise and 

 recreation from their busy life indoors. Their flight lasts usually 

 about twenty minutes, and then all is quiet again, except for the 

 dull hum of the incoming bees laden with their stores. Occasion- 

 ally the monotony may be broken by the excitement of repelling an 

 invader in the shape of a bee from another colony, or an intrus- 

 ion by some other insect, a wasp or an ant, perhaps. Tkese invad- 

 ers are taken care of by the guards already spoken of, and being- 

 dragged to the edge of the alighting board, are set free. These 

 stray bees we call robbers, as they go from hive to hive seeking to 

 get admission for the purpose of stealing. They ar,e not unusually 

 shiny black, as the coat of hair has been worn of! by the many en- 

 counters they have experienced. 



If we observe closely we may see a number of dead bees on the 

 ground, especially if it is early in the spring, as the death rate of 

 old bees is very great at that time of the year. We may happen to 

 see a couple of bees come out tugging at a corpse to get it out of the 

 colony. Successful in getting a good hold, one of the bees, having- 

 gotten the burden close to the edge of the alighting board, will rise 

 in the air and fly slowly away, dropping its burden some yards from 

 the colony, for the bees are very mindful of the cleanliness of their 

 habitation. 



Getting somewhat bolder, we may come close to the entrance 



