A BRIEF HISTORY. 
11 
vided with a sack, or bag, for honey. Basket-like 
cavities are on their legs, where they pack the pollen 
of flowers into little pellets, convenient to bring home. 
They are also provided with a sting, and a virulent 
poison, although they will not use it abroad when un- 
molested, but, if attacked, will generally defend them- 
selves sufficient to escape. They range the fields 
for honey and pollen, secrete wax, construct combs, 
prepare food, nurse the young, bring water for the use 
of the community, obtain propolis to seal up all crev- 
ices about the hive, stand guard, and keep out intru- 
ders, robbers, &c., &c. 
DESCRIPTION OF DRONES. 
When t|ie family is large and honey abundant, 
a brood of drones is reared ; the number, probably, 
depends on the yield of honey, and size of the swarm, 
more than anything else. As honey becomes scarce, 
they are destroyed. Their bodies are large and rather 
clumsy, covered with short hairs or bristles. Their 
abdomen terminates very abruptly, without the sym- 
metry of the queen or worker. Their buzzing, when 
on the wing, is louder, and altogether different from 
the others. They seem to be of the least value of 
any in the hive. Perhaps not more than one in a 
thousand is ever called upon to perform the duty for 
which they were designed. Yet they assist, on some 
occasions, to keep up the animal heat necessary in 
the old hive after a swarm has left. 
MOST BROOD IN SPRING. 
In spring and first of summer, when nearly all the 
