NATtJRAI, IlISTOUr OF THE HONEY-BEE. 51 



climates, of -wMch the bee is probably a native, they 

 increase with astonishing rapidity.* Every new swarm, 

 except the fii-st, is led oil' by a young queen ; and as she 

 is never impregnated until she has been established as the 

 head of a separate family, it is important that each should 

 be accompanied by a • goodly number of drones : this 

 requires the production of a large number in the parent- 

 hive. 



As this necessity no longer exists when the bee is 

 domesticated, the breeding of so many drones should be 

 diseouraged. Trapsf have been invented to destroy them, 

 but it is much better to save the bees the labor and ex- 

 pense of rearing such a host of useless consumers. This 

 can readily be done, when we have the control of the 

 combs ; for by removing the drone-comb, and supplying 

 its place with worker-cells, the over production of drones 

 may be easily prevented. Those who object to this, as 

 interfering with nature, should remember that the bee is 

 not in a state of nature; and that the same objection 

 might, with equal force, be urged against killing oif the 

 supernumerary males of our domestic animals. 



When a new swarm is building its combs, if the 

 honey-harvest is abundant, the bees will frequently con- 

 struct an unusual amount of drone-combs, for storing it. 

 In a state of nature, where bees have plenty of room, as 

 in the hoUow \>f a tree, or cleft of a rock, this, excess of 

 drone-comb will be used another season for the same pur- 

 pose, and new worker-comb made to meet the enlarged 

 wants' of the colony ; but in hives of a limited capacity 

 this cannot be done, and thus many stocks become so 

 crowded with drones as to be of little value to their owner. 



* At Sydney, in Anstralia, a single colony is stated to have mnltiplied to 800, in 

 three years. 

 i Snch traps were nsod in Aristotle's time. 



