XX THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



ruthlessly slaughtered, and her place filled by 

 another specially raised by the workers to meet 

 this contingency during her lifetime and in her 

 full view. Drones are bred in plenty, plied with 

 the richest provender in the hive, and allowed to 

 wanton through their days of insatiate appetite, so 

 that no young queen may go forth on her nuptial 

 flight unchallenged. But when the last princess 

 is happily mated, and safely home again in the 

 warm, awaiting cluster, every drone is callously 

 done to death, or driven out of the hive to perish. 

 If hard times threaten, or the supply of stores is 

 arrested, the old and worn-out members of the 

 hive are exterminated, breeding is stopped, the 

 unborn young are torn from their cradle-cells and 

 destroyed, so that there may be as few mouths as 

 possible to fill in the lean days to come. The 

 signs of dawning prosperity or adversity are 

 watched for, and the working population of the 

 hive is either increased or checked, just as future 

 probabilities seem to indicate. * 



But the most bewildering, most uncanny thing 

 of all about this bee-republic is the fact that, in it, 

 has been successfully solved the problem of the 

 balance of the sexes. While all other creatures in 

 the universe bring forth their kind, male and female, 

 in what seems a haphazard, unpremeditated way. 



