NATURAL niSTORY OP TITE nONEY-BEB. 
29 
CHAPTER III. 
THE QUEEN, OR MOTHER-BEE ; THE DRONES ; THE WORKERS J 
FACTS IN THEIR NATURAL HISTORY. 
Honey-Bees can flourish only when associated in large 
numbers, as in a colony. In a solitary state, a single bee 
is almost as helpless as a new-born child, being paralyzed 
by the chill of a cool Summer night. 
If a strong colony preparing to swarm is examined, 
three kinds of bees will be found in the hive. 
1st, One bee of peculiar shape, commonly called the 
Queen-Bee. 
2d, Some hundreds and often thousands of large bees, 
called Drones. 
3d, Many thousands of a smaller kind, called Workers, 
or common bees, such as are seen on the blossoms. Many 
of the cells will be found to contain honey and bee- 
bread ; and vast numbers of eggs and immature workers 
and drones. A few cells of unusual size are devoted to 
the rearing of young queens. On Plate XII., the queen, 
drone, and worker are represented as magnified, and also 
of the natural size. 
The queen-bee is the only perfect female in the hive, 
and all the eggs are laid by her. The drones are the 
males , and the workers , females whose ovaries, or “ egg- 
bags,” are so imperfectly developed that they are incapa- 
ble of breeding; and which retain the instinct of females, 
only so far as to take care of the firood. 
These facts have been demonstrated so repeatedly, that 
they are as well established as the most common laws in 
the breeding of our domestic animals. The knowledgo 
