130 THE HISTORY OF BEES... 
‘The employment of the commons is to gather wax, 
(which takes up moft of the firft week after the fwarm) 
in order to build the combs ; to fetch in honey, with ne- 
ceflary materials, as proper nutrition for the young; to 
keep guard, carry forth the dead, kill the drones, and 
cleanfe the hives, &c. 
‘Then the office of the drones is either procreation 
according to fome, or hatching and haftening the young 
brood according to others. Yet thefe are but of fhort — 
duration, few living above three months, others not 
more than two, and many not one. And the nymphs 
often dragged out of the cells before they are perfect, 
and caft out of the hive. 
CHAP, 
