84 



PHYSIOLOGY OP THE HONEY-BEE. 



their pleasure excursions, having digested their dinners, are 

 prepared for a new supply. 



Aristotle (" History of Animals," Book IX, Chap. XI) 

 speaks of the irregular and thick combs built by some colo- 

 nies, and the superabundance of drones issuing from them. 

 He describes their excursions as follows : 



" The drones, when they go abroad, rise into the air with a 

 circular flight, as though to take violent exercise, and when they 

 have taken enough, return home, and gorge themselves with 

 honey." 



" The drone," says quaint old Butler (1609) " is a gross, sting- 

 less bee, that spendeth his time in gluttony and idleness. For 

 howsoever he brave it with his round velvet cap, his side gown, 

 his full paunch, and his loud voice, yet is he but an Idle compan- 

 ion, living by the sweat of others' brows. He worketh not at 

 all, either at home or abroad, and yet spendeth as much as two 

 laborers : you shall never find his maw without a drop of the 

 purest nectar. In the heat of the day he flieth abroad, aloft and 

 about, and that with no small noise, as thoughhe would do some 

 great act ; but it is only for his pleasure, and to get him a stom- 

 ach, and then returns he presently to his cheer." 



191. The bee-keepers in Aristotle's time were in the 

 habit of destroying the 

 excess of drones. They 

 excluded them from the 

 hive — when taking 

 their accustomed airing 

 — -by contracting the 

 entrances with a kind 

 of basket work. Butler 

 recommends a similar 

 trap, which he calls a 

 "drone-pot." 



One of the modern inventions to destroy them is Alley's 

 drone-trap* improved by J. A. Batchelder ; but it is much 



* The perforated zinc, used in dione- traps, which we think was invented hy 

 CoUin, ("Guide," p. 3. Paris, 1865), is so cnt, that neither queen or drone 

 but only the worker bee can pass through its opening. 



Fig. 33. 

 alley's DRONB-TRAP 



