DEONES OE MALES. 27 



Drones wanting to be fed place their feeding -tubes 

 alongside of those of workers, and thus remain apparently 

 motionless while the pumping process goes on. 



But tliese idle gentlemen know the country geographi- 

 cally better than the working community. In tine weather 

 they take longer excursions into the country for pleasure 

 than working bees do for food. If a hive be removed in 

 fine weather two mUes, some few bees and a great many 

 drones return to the old place. If removed three or four 

 miles, a considerable number of drones return, but no 

 workers. Drones have been known to return five miles. . 



Comparatively useless in their lives, drones come to a 

 sorrowful end. "What is termed the massacre of drones 

 is a strangely cruel process : they are starved to death. 

 "WeU might a great naturalist, and a friend of the writer, 

 exclaim, — "The climax of drone-life is wonderful — a 

 chapter of horrors, which clouds the harmony of an other- 

 wise beautiful system of insect-life.'' 



About fourteen days after the queen of a hive has -been 

 impregnated, or some days after she has begun to lay, the 

 working bees begin to haul and maul the drones about. 

 Day by day the bees seem more anxious to worry the 

 drones, and feign to sting them, but seldom use their 

 stings. Inside the hive the drones are driven from the 

 honeycombs, and may be found in heaps on the board for 

 days. Here they become weak from want; and when they 

 leave their hive many of them have savage tormentors on 

 their backs. Some fall off the flight-board so weak that 

 they cannot fly; but most die at a distance, being unable 

 to return. 



Some drones go with the first swarm, but as they are 

 not wanted there they are soon destroyed. But as the 

 hives of these first swarms become fuU of combs and bees, 

 drone-ceUs are buUt, and preparations for swarming are 



