HOW LONG DO DRONES LIFE? 125 



Their average life will not be more than three months. 

 If the colony has suffered the loss of their queen and is 

 forced to raise another from the egg of a worker, then 

 the hive defers the destruction of the drones. In cases of 

 this kind they may be allowed to live four months. In 

 some few instances we have discovered drones in the hive 

 in the depth of winter, but never in a stock hiving a 

 vigorous and fertile queen; it has been in hives devoid of 

 a queen. Huber is said to have found them in his hive in 

 January. We have never found them in prosperous hives, 

 and it may be at once set down that something is going 

 wrong if drones are seen so late in the season, and the 

 sooner the hive is overhauled the better. 

 Drones die immediately after the 



QUEEN'S WEDDING. 



We do not know whether this statement has ever been 

 satisfactorily solved; it is, however, generally believed. 

 Neighbour in his excellent little manual thus writes: — 

 " The drone that happens to be the selected husband is by 

 no means so fortunate as at first sight appears, for it is a 

 law of Nature that the bridegroom does not survive the 

 wedding-day. Her Majesty, although thus left a widow, 

 is by no means a sorrowful bride, for she soon becomes 

 the mother of a large family. It cannot be said that she 

 pays no respect to the memory of her departed lord, for 

 she never marries again. As is the case with most insects, 

 the queen once impregnated continues productive during 

 the remainder of her existence." Old queens, however, 

 are said to lay none but drone-eggs. 



