26 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. i. 



the drones having previously been petted and fed with 

 prepared pollen in the same way as the queen herself. 

 Von Berlepsch describes the work of destruction as com- 

 mencing with the casting forth of the drone brood just 

 issuing from the cells, after which the larva and nymphs 

 are similarly treated. Then the drones themselves are 

 chased from the honey stores, and a watch is kept to 

 prevent their access thereto. On finding it hopeless 

 they crouch away together in corners, till, when thoroughly 

 exhausted by hunger, the workers drive them out one by 

 one, and they die with cold and hunger : very few of 

 them are stung. This work goes on night and day, and 

 occasionally they collect to die in such a heap before the 

 flight-hole that there is a danger of their suffocating the 

 hive. Disabled or useless workers are dealt with in an 

 equally summary fashion; but in the case of a super- 

 annuated queen, the best opinions are that she is allowed 

 to take her own quietus. 



Supposing the drones come forth in April or May, 

 which is the usual period, then, as their destruction takes 

 place somewhere about the commencement of August, 

 three or four months will be the ordinary extent of their 

 existence; but should it so happen that the develop- 

 ment of the queen has been retarded, or that the hive 

 has by chance been deprived of her, the massacre of 

 the drones is deferred. On the other hand, in case of 

 the cutting short of the gathering season by bad weather, 

 it occasionally happens at an earlier date— even so soon 



