PERSONALITY OF THE HONEY-BEE 1 1 



fact is that there are in each hive three distinct 

 kinds of bees, each performing different func- 

 tions. The most numerous by far are the 

 workers we have just described. The next in 

 point of numbers are the drones. These are 

 only to be found in the hive during the summer 

 for a longer or shorter period, varying according 

 to the season and other circumstances. 



Ancient writers had the very vaguest notions 

 as to what drones really were. That they were 

 comparatively idle and useless had, indeed, been 

 commented upon by writers from the very earliest 

 days, but down to the middle of the eighteenth 

 century the very strangest ideas prevailed about 

 them. A very quaint writer, who seems to have 

 found out for himself, with much diligence and 

 patience, the true functions of the drone, tells us : 



" There are none that have kept bees at all, but 

 they know the Drone from the working Bees ; 

 but they are for the most part absolutely ignorant 

 what these Drones are, or what Nature hath 

 designed them for. I perceive the opinion that 

 most prevails among the Country Bee Mistresses 

 is, that they are Bees that have lost their Sting 

 and so growing to that prodigious bigness (out 

 of all proportion to the other Bees) they become 

 Drones. Now this their mistake is occasioned by 

 their seeing that they do no work, nor cannot 

 sting, and so they give them that Contemptible 

 Proverbial Name of a Drone." 



