BEE-KEEPER'a MANUAL. 75 



of her laying ; provided, that she has room in which to 

 deposit her eggs. 



RELATIVE PROPORTION OF DRONES. 



The relative proportion of drones and workers is 

 about one to twenty, that is, for a family of workers 

 amounting to 8,000 the ordinary number of drones is 

 about 400. Some wi-iters state the number of drones 

 in a hive to be from 1,000 to 2,000 ; but they are beyond 

 the mark, as a general rule. There is no law that 

 governs, the production of drones, so as to enable the 

 apiarian to make any calculation, in regard to their 

 relative proportion, when compared with the number of 

 workers, that may be relied on in all cases. Some fami- 

 lies may have a thousand, while another, equally strong, 

 may have but 500. 



Nature does not, in all cases, operate without a loss, 

 or waste of the animal functions ; for, in the case of the 

 laying of drone-eggs by the old queens, after they have 

 left the parent hive with a swarm, we find that brood 

 entirely useless, coming as it does after the swarming 

 season is past. 



The old queens are aware of the uselessness of this 

 drone-brood, and consequently, the larvae are drawn out 

 of the cells and cast on the ground. Why queens are 

 thus compelled by nature, to lay a brood of eggs, that 

 are worse than useless, some one must answer, more 

 deeply versed in the nature of the bee than I am. 



It may be said, in the case of the drone-brood pro- 

 duced by queens with swarms, that since a swarm some- 



