16 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. 
destruction of her colony is rendered inevitable (unless 
the remedy be applied), for the reason that no eggs are 
now in the hive from which a queen can be reared, the 
old and fertile queen having left two weeks before. A 
month or two later in the season, a wonderful display of 
drones takes place every afternoon ; and toward autumn, 
if perchance the bee-keeper (?) happens to “ heft” the 
hive to ascertain how the honey harvest progresses, he 
finds it wofully deficient in weight, that most essential 
requisite of a bee-hive at this season of the year. A 
closer inspection discloses the fact that the interior of 
the hive can boast of more worms than bees, if, indeed, some 
neighboring robber bees have not already discovered its 
condition and taken charge of the disconsolate orphans 
and their precious stores; while the bee-destroyer — for I 
shall call no such person a bee-keeper — goes straight to 
his neighbor and tells the old and oft-repeated story that 
“the robbers and moth have ruined his bees!” All stuff! Let 
such person get a hive giving perfect control of all its 
combs, and facilities for the ready inspection of its con- 
tents, and he may soon be convinced that the loss of his 
bees is justly chargeable only to himself. Having thus 
rapidly glanced at the prominent characteristics of the 
queen, and incidentally seen something of the workers 
also, we will now turn our attention to the 
DRONES. 
‘“‘ These lazy fathers of the industrious hive.” 
They are the male bees, and are ordinarily the offspring 
of the queen, although it sometimes happens, that in the 
absence of the queen, workers are found laying eggs that 
produce them. The drones are short lived, averaging but 
