198 The Relation of Apiculture to Science. [ March, 
economy of the hive, except the sexual function. As already ex- 
plained, the drone loses a portion of his reproductive organs, in 
mating, which act is attended with immediate death. 
Though doubt is sometimes expressed as to the origin of 
drones by parthenogenesis, there is no such doubt among intelli- 
gent apiarists. If the wing of the virgin queen is clipped, or the 
entrance to the hive so contracted that she cannot fly, or again, if 
she is reared when there are no drones, she will be, not sterile, 
but from her eggs will come only drones. Often these will be in 
the small cells, when the drones will be no larger than the 
workers. The eggs from fertile worker bees, and also from old 
queens, with depleted spermathecas, will likewise produce only 
drones. In,appearance and structure these drones are every way 
normal. I have no doubt but that they are functionally perfect. 
There is an interesting fact connected with the appearance and 
disappearance of drones, whose explanation seems to call for an 
intelligence above instinct. As the colonies become very popu- 
lous in spring, the worker bees build drone comb, and rarely even 
tear down and replace worker with drone cells, and the queen 
lays the unimpregnated eggs in such cells, preparatory to rearing 
queens, and to swarming. If we remove a queen none but drone 
comb will be built. Now suppose a colony is strong and pre- 
paring to swarm, and suddenly, from lack of bloom, continuous 
rains or great drought, the secretion of nectar suddenly stops. 
Honey gathering of course ceases, brood rearing is discontinued, 
and, not infrequently, the bees kill all the drones, and even drag 
the larve and pupz from the cells. As soon as the honey 
harvest is hopelessly cut short by the autumn frosts, the worker 
bees commence at once to bite and worry the drones, till the 
latter are driven forth to die. But if the colony be queenless, or 
if the queen has become superannuated, the drones will be per- 
mitted to remain in the hive all winter. The fate of the drones 
hangs on the prosperity of the colony. With rapid increase of 
bees and honey they are safe; adversity in these respects, unless 
caused by loss or impotency of the queen, betokens their speedy 
extinction. 
Drones are tolerated in a strange colony, which is not gener- 
ally true of either the queen or workers. 
The longevity of drone bees, as we have seen, is largely de- 
pendent upon circumstances, There is good reason to believe 
that they may live through the entire season, 
