The Life of the Bee 
unique kiss of an instant that shall wed 
him to death no less than to happiness ; 
while the others will fly helplessly round 
the intertwined pair, and soon will perish 
without ever again beholding this prodi- 
gious and fatal apparition. 
[ 83 ] 
I am not exaggerating this wild and 
amazing prodigality of nature. The best- 
conducted hives will, as a rule, contain 
four to five hundred males. Weaker or 
degenerate ones will often have as many 
as four-or five thousand; for the more a 
hive inclines to its ruin, the more males 
will it produce. It may be said that, on 
an average, an apiary composed of ten 
colonies will at a given moment send an 
army of ten thousand males into the air, 
of whom ten or fifteen at most will have 
the occasion of performing the one act 
for which they were born. 
298 
