02 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



is round, eggs full, and tongue or proboscis short ; 

 the form of the abdomen or belly is quite different 

 from both queen and worker, the organs of generation 

 being located in the drone where the sting is found 

 in the worker. It makes a much coarser and more 

 boisterous noise when flying, a peculiarity of itself 

 sufficient to recognize it. 



The drone is now admitted by all writers to be the 

 male bee. A careful examination of their physical 

 organization shows this clearly ; they have no sting 

 to defend themselves with ; in short, they are physic- 

 ally disqualified for the performance of any needful 

 work in the colony ; the only necessity for their pre- 

 sence seems to be to impregnate the young queens. 

 When this is accomplished, or circumstances change 

 so that they are no longer wanted for this purpose, 

 the workers either kill them or drive them out of 

 the hive, and there permit them to starve. If a hive 

 has by any accident lost its queen, the drones are per- 

 mitted to live, with the hope, no doubt, that a young 

 queen may yet be raised, and their services needed. 



The drones generally make their appearance in 

 this latitude, in the latter part of April or first of 

 May ; in the Sacramento Valley, California, about 

 the middle to latter part of March. This is also 

 varied by locality and circumstances. They generally 

 appear in very strong stocks, a little earlier than 

 others; but there is a strange unanimity in the ap- 

 pearance of drones in the spring. In very weak 

 stocks, few if any appear until perhaps the latter part 

 of the clover, or beginning of the buckwheat, season. 



