BKES, BEE-HIVES, AND BEE CULTURE. 7 



Ou others' toils in pampered leisure thrive, 

 The lazy fathers of the industrious hive ; 

 Yet oft, we're told, these seeming idlers share 

 The pleasing duties of parental care ; 

 Witli fond attention guard eacli genial cell, 

 And watch the embryo bursting from the shell. 



But Dr. Evans had been " told " what was not correct when he 

 sought to dignify drones with the office of " nursing fathers/' — that 

 task is undertaken by the younger of the working-bees. No occupation 

 falls to the lot of the drones in gathering honey, nor have they the 

 means provided them by nature for assisting in the labours of the hive. 

 The drones are the progenitors of working bees, and nothing more ; 

 so far as is known, that is the only purpose of their short existence. 



In a well-populated hive the number of drones is computed 

 at from one to two thousand. "Naturalists," says Huber, "have 

 been extremely embarrassed to account for the number of males in 

 most hives, and which seem only a burden to the community, since 

 they appear to fulfil no function. But we now begin to discern 

 the object of nature in multiplying them to such an extent. As 

 fecundation cannot be accomplished within the hive, and as the 

 queen is obliged to traverse the expanse of the atmosphere, it is 

 requisite that the males should be numerous, that she may have the 

 chance of meeting some one of them in her flight. Were only two 

 or three in each hive, there would be little probability of their 

 departure at the same instant with the queen, or that they would 

 meet her in their excursions ; and most of the females might thus 

 remain sterile." It is important for the safety of the queen-bee that 

 her stay in the air should be as brief as possible : her large size, 

 and the slowness of her flight, render her an easy prey to birds. It 

 is not now thought that the queen always pairs with a drone of the same 

 hive, as Huber seems to have supposed. Once impregnated, — as is 

 the case with most insects, — the queen-bee continues productive 

 during the remainder of her existence. It has, however, been 

 found that though old queens cease to lay worker eggs, they may 

 continue to lay those of drones. The swarming season being over, 

 that is about the end of July, a general massacre of the " lazy fathers " 

 takes place. Dr. Bevan, in the "Honey Bee," observes on this 

 point, "the work of the drones being now completed, they are 

 regarded as useless consumers of the fruits of others' labour, love 

 is at once converted into hate, and a general proscription takes 



