95 
k owledge already acquired, with that which is still to j 
Jearned, we shall be astonished at the immeasurable dif- 
SEPTEMBER. 
have now arrived at the last month of the year 
culture of bees. The queen continues to lay, and 
the drones continue to fecundate the eggs. However, 
_ the moment approaches for the destruction of all those 
dividuals, who are a charge on the public. From the 
eighth till the fifteenth of this month, (particularly in north- 
ern climates,) a general attack is made on the drones, on 
points, and they are unmercifully massacred, and drag- 
d out of the hives by the neuters. All the young queens, 
ho have not departed with swarms, share the same fate. 
The massacre extends to every living being of the species 
of drones or queens, already hatched into worms or nymphs. 
_ But the same lot does not extend to the eggs yet unhatched, 
and which will not hatch until the return of spring. These 
_unhatched eggs do not fall under the general proscription. 
_ Around and between the combs, and in the cells containing 
_ these eggs, the bees pass the autumn and winter, and pro- 
tect them from the enemies of the state. They never aban- 
don them in autumn, winter, or spring, till they be hatched. 
_ They (the eggs) are the only hope of the country. 
- The bees, however, are not diverted from their domestic 
_ labours by these sanguinary operations. Those who are ac- 
- customed to field service, go and return to the hives as 
usual, loaded with booty, and full of cheerfulness. ‘Those 
of the interior continue to build, and the queen to supply 
the cells with eggs. But the fecundation of these eggs 
must be deferred till spring, till the birth of new drones, 
hatched from eggs fecundated before the general massacre. 
No disorder is observed among them. The morning after 
these tragic scenes, the upper stories of the pyramidal hives 
are disposable, and on the first fair night of the second — 
arter, or of the full moon, preparations may be made to 
gin the harvest. 
