49 AUSTRALASIAN 
generally slow and matronly, and indeed she looks every inch 
a queen. 
The drones, or male bees, are much stouter than’ either 
the queen or workers, although their bodies are not so long 
as that of the queen. They are neither furnished with a 
sting nor a suitable proboscis for gathering honey, no baskets 
on their legs for carrying pollen, and no pouches on their 
Fig 5,_THE DRONE, 
/ 
abdomens for secreting wax, so that they are physically 
incapable of doing the ordinary work of the hive. Their 
office is to impregnate the young queens, but very few have 
the chance of doing so; those that have, die immediately 
afterwards, and the rest are usually destroyed by the workers 
at the end of the swarming season, having by this time 
become an incumbrance only. - 
Fig, 6. THE WORKER. 
The worker bees, the smallest in size, constitute the bulk of 
the population of the hive. A good-sized swarm should contain 
at least twenty thousand,* and a well-stocked hive, during the 
* About 4000 ordinary bees weigh one pound, so that a5 Ib i 
about 20,000. Good swarms, however, sometimes weigh 7 Ib. ay i0 Wee 
