OR, MANUAL OF THB APIARY. 127 



biting and worrying them ; though principally, I think, by 

 withholding their albuminous food. They may also destroy 

 the drone-brood. It is not very rare to see workers carrying 

 out immature drones even in midsummer. At the same time 

 they may destroy inchoate queens. Such action is prompted 

 by a sudden check in the yield of honey, and in case of drones 

 is common only at the close of the season. The bees seem 

 very cautious and far-sighted. If the signs of the times pre- 

 sage a famine, they stay all proceedings looking to the increase 

 of colonies. On the other hand, nectar secretion by the 

 flowers, rapid increase of brood, crowded quarters — whatever 

 the age of the queen — are sure to bring many of the male bees, 

 while any circumstances that indicate a need of drones in the 

 near future, like loss or impotency of the queen, will prevent 

 their destruction even in late autumn. 



The function of the drones is solely to impregnate the 

 queen, though when present they add to the heat of the hive. 

 Yet for this they were far better replaced by worker- bees. 

 That their nutrition is active, is suggested by the fact that, 

 upon dissection, we usually find their capacious honey-stomachs 

 filled with honey. 



Impregnation of the queen always takes place, as before 

 stated, while on the wing, outside the hive, usually during the 

 heat of a warm, sunshiny day. After mating, as before sug- 

 gested, the drone-organs adhere to the queen, and may be seen 

 hanging to her for some hours. The copulatory act is fatal to 

 the drone. By holding a drone just returned from a long 

 flight in the hand, the ejection of the sex-organs is quickly 

 produced, and is always followed by immediate death. As the 

 queen meets only a single drone, and that only once, it might 

 be asked why nature was so improvident as to decree hundreds 

 of drones to an apiary or colony, whereas a score would sufiice 

 as well. Nature takes cognizance of the importance of the 

 queen, and as she goes forth amidst the myriad dangers of the 

 outer world, it is safest and best that her stay abroad be not 

 protracted, that the experience be not repeated, and, especially, 

 that her meeting a drone be not delayed. Hence, the super- 

 abundance of drones — especially under natural conditions^ 

 isolated in forest homes, where ravenous birds are ever on the 



