bee-keefhr's manual. 65 



their persecutions. Had a part of their number been 

 dead, — some dying, and others lively, I should not con- 

 sider it as a singular case ; but every bee was dead, and 

 in precisely the upright sitting posture, in which they 

 had arranged themselves at. evening! 



There is, in the circumstances attending the destruction 

 of drones, much to excite our curiosity and surprise-much 

 to reflect on pertaining to the instinctive agency that is 

 brought into action with the workers, at the period when 

 further swarming is known to them not to take place ; 

 and the intuition that produces a concert of action, and 

 steels their consciences to all feelings of kindred affec- 

 tion in their merciless ejectment of fellow bees, whose 

 agency has been no less important to the welfare of the 

 community, than that of the executioners themselves, — 

 all of which conspires to elicit the admiration of man, 

 and causes him to exclaim, " verily the wisdom of nature 

 is past finding out !" 



One or two points more, and I have done with drones. 

 It has been frequently asserted, that drones have been 

 seen to effect their amours with the queens in the hive, 

 or in tumblers where they had been placed for the pur- 

 pose of experimenting with them ; but the evidence has 

 never been adduced, in so strong a shape, as to be en- 

 titled to credence. One thing is certain, which is, that 

 no person ever confined a queen /rom birth, either with 

 or without drones, that proved fertile. This has often 

 been tried, but no queen has ever been productive, until 

 she was at liberty to leave the hive, consequently, I con- 

 sider that the question ought to be forever set at rest, 



