210 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



the honey yield, the more certain is their de- 

 struction. Mr. Haviland* has, in a very thoughtful 

 and well-argued paper, treated this matter. He 

 points out that, "If hive bees were in the habit of 

 producing, as most solitary bees do/males not greatly 

 exceeding in number the females, then the queen of 

 that colony which produced most drones and fewest 

 swarms would leave most descendants, for a queen may 

 leave descendants by her sons, or by any daughter who 

 is provided with a swarm of workers ; and it must cost 

 the colony far less to rear a drone than a queen, and 

 all the thousands of workers who must accompany 

 her if she is to have a chance of leaving descendants. 

 Hence, indeed, until the chance that a drone would 

 have of leaving descendants is far less than that a 

 queen would have, the excessive drone-producing 

 colonies would naturally be selected, and the selection 

 of variations favourable to the colony might conquer 

 those favourable to the species." Paraphrasing, in 

 part, Mr. Haviland's words, it is clear that the mating 

 queens of an apiary are more likely to meet drones 

 from those colonies raising them in vast numbers 

 than from those furnishing few. The instinct, then, 

 of heavy drone-production is carried into the greater 

 number of new colonies, an effect to be intensified 

 at each swarming epoch, so that there is a perpetual 

 tendency to increase the evil. It must, however, also 

 be argued, that a large production of drones is, in 

 one respect, favourable to the species, in that it 

 minimises the risk of the young queen in seekin°- 

 fertilisation ; for, the greater the certainty and prompti- 

 * " The Social Instincts of Bees, their Origin and Natural Selection " 1882. 



