$6 GUARDING THE TREASURE 



from which they do not awake. This is an oppor- 

 tunity for the prowling toad. It is usual for one 

 or two of these gentlemen to keep about the 

 neighbourhood of a hive, on the chance of picking 

 up stray bees. Frequently one ensconces himself 

 the whole summer under the floorboard of a hive. 

 He does not get much in the daytime, but at night 

 he comes out and picks up the stray bees, some 

 of which are always to be found round about the 

 hive in the evening — mostly exhausted foragers 

 who have sunk under their last heavy load — 

 but the honeyflow does not provide him with 

 such a feast as these castaway drones. 



It occasionally happens that drones are allowed 

 to live all through the winter. This is no mere 

 freak of a colony, for in every such case it will be 

 found, either that the queen has died, or that 

 she is so weak and failing that there is a possibility 

 of drones being required to fertilise a new mother. 

 Only under such circumstances are drones ever 

 permitted to live after the cold weather begins. 



