THE DRONE OR MALE BIKES. pal 
The drones take no part in the collection of 
stores, nor in any operation or process of the hive, 
from which fact they have proverbially suffered 
much reproach really ignorant and absurd, since 
nature has denied them the necessary means, and 
in their creation has allotted them a distinct. office. 
Indeed, their flights from the hive are only occasional 
short ones, and they rarely alight during such ex- 
cursions. They are of the male sex, their presence 
in a hive being only required at that particular period 
when the young queens are arriving at maturity. 
Pairing invariably takes place upon the wing, or at 
any rate abroad from the hive. The virgin queen 
then sets sail from home, and will continue so doing 
day after day if unsuccessful in mating upon the first 
flight. Having at length been met by a drone—who 
forfeits his life as the speedy or in most cases the 
instantaneous consequence—she returns to the hive 
with the male organ adhering to her extremity, 
and constituting what is known as the “wedding 
token.” No attempt should be made to release her 
from this, as the consequences are dangerous to 
her; but she will as a rule succeed in detaching 
it by her own efforts, and will in the course of 
two or three days commence her functions as 
a mother bee. It has been debated whether this 
pairing takes place between a queen and drone of 
the same or of different hives. It appears estab- 
lished that there is no actual law in the matter, 
but as a point of fact, interbreeding would seem 
the exception. That cases of the latter have occurred 
is altogether beyond dispute, nay more, the pre- 
