246 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



roots, and thus valuable lives would go down with 

 the worthless. The sole object seems to be to 

 rid the hives as effectively as possible of the 

 presence of the drones ; and the disablement of 

 one wing appears to be all that is necessary, and 

 therefore all for which the deft assassin strives. 



With some bee-races the massacre of the drones 

 is carried through in an incredibly short space of 

 time ; with others the agony of the thing is drawn 

 out for days together. The wretched sires of the 

 hive are caught between two evils, each as fatal as 

 the other. If they fly off to the fields, starvation 

 and the night-chills will swiftly bring about their 

 end. If they return to the hive, a still speedier 

 death awaits them. Night and day, at this time, 

 the guard-bees are doubled and re-doubled at the 

 city-gates ; and there is little chance of the wiliest 

 drone outwitting them. But he usually takes the 

 home-hazard ; and sooner or later comes blunder- 

 ing in, receiving with open arms, as it were, his 

 share of the knife, as Huddlestone faced the 

 Carbonari. 



All this is the common way with the bee- 

 republic, when the season goes as it should ; and 

 the hive is in possession of a mother-bee — young, 

 strong, and of proved fecundity. But there are 

 times when the drones — for all their great expense 

 and drain on the wealth of the colony — are suffered 

 to live on until the late autumn, or even to remain 

 unmolested throughout the winter and ibllowing 



