44 
Beekeeping 
honey stomach (Fig. 60) is well developed. The workers never 
mate with the drones and lay eggs only under abnormal 
circumstances, which are discussed under Chapter VIII. 
Speaking in general terms, the length of life of worker bees 
is measured not so much by days or weeks as by the amount 
of work which they do. During the period when nectar is 
being gathered abundantly, they literally work themselves 
to death and the population of the colony is appreciably 
decreased unless brood is being reared heavily. During 
such a period, the average length of life of worker bees is 
barely six weeks, while in periods when less work is necessary 
the life is lengthened. Those bees which emerge in the early 
autumn are the ones which live until the following spring. 
During the active season, the majority of worker bees die 
outside the hive, failing to return with the last load. Small 
wonder that in addition to their other burdens they must 
sometimes serve as examples of industry ! 
Drones. 
The males of the bee are known by this name. The use of 
the word drone, meaning a lazy person, arose from the name 
of the male bee, and it may be re-applied to them as fitting. 
They are not a useful part of the colony organization in the 
routine, for they do none of the work of the hive nor do they 
assist in gathering. The only function of a drone is that of 
mating with a young (virgin) queen and in this act it dies. 
Drones are heavy consumers of stores and are not in favor 
among beekeepers, so that their numbers are greatly reduced 
in the modern apiary. This is done either by restricting the 
number of cells in which they may be reared or by trapping 
them after they emerge as adults. 
The drone is a large individual, exceeding even the queen 
in girth of thorax. 1 The compound eyes (Fig. 69) are so 
1 This fact enables the beekeeper to trap out drones by means of the 
Alley traps (Fig. 30), which have openings iVo’ff of an inch wide, 
through which workers can pass but which are not large enough for most 
drones and queens because of their larger thoraces. 
