THE DRONE. 17 
sting. Upon them devolves the whole labor of the colony ; they rear 
the young, guard the entrances, elaborate the wax, collect and store 
the provision, and build the cells in which it is warehoused as well as 
those which contain the brood. 
CHAPTER VI. 
THE DRONE. 
Tue drones or males number from 300 to 600 in a family, according 
to its strength. These make their appearance about the end of April, 
and are seldom to be seen after the middle of August, except under 
peculiar circumstances. They are one-third larger than the workers, 
somewhat thicker and of a darker color; they. have shorter jaws as 
well as a shorter proboscis, and are more blunt at the tail than either 
the queen or workers; the last ring of the body is fringed with hairs, 
extending over the tail and visible to the naked eye. They make a 
greater noise in flying, are destitute of baskets on their thighs, and 
have no sting; are rather shorter than the queen, but generally much 
larger. Underneath the tail two small protuberances of a yellowish 
color may be seen, which are regarded as the distinctive marks of 
their sex. In someswarms no drones are observable; probably these 
are first swarms, which, being always led off by old queens, have no 
occasion for drones. : 7 
We have before stated that the queen was the parent of the bee 
colony ; the working bees are the laborers who gather and store the 
sweets for the supply of the family, and the drones are evidently for 
the purpose of impregnating the queens. We give Huber’s account 
of this discovery of the uses of the drone in a hive of bees. It also” 
accords with all writers on this subject at the present day. 
