The Drone is a male bee, fat, round, and lazy, like an old abbot in
mediæval times, who preferred the cellar to his cell. Huber remarks:--
"Naturalists have been extremely embarrassed to account for the number
of males in most hives, and which seem only a burden on the community,
since they appear to fulfil no function. But we now begin to discern
the object of nature in multiplying them to such an extent. As
fecundation cannot be accomplished within the hive, and as the queen
is obliged to traverse the expanse of the atmosphere, it is requisite
that the males should be numerous, that she may have the chance of
meeting some one of them. Were only two or three in each hive, there
would be little probability of their departure at the same instant
with the queen, or that they would meet in their excursions; and most
of the females might thus remain sterile."
The queen selects a drone for her husband, who dies invariably at the end
of the honeymoon or wedding-trip in the air. But the widowed queen does
not marry a second husband. Her whole mind from that day to her death,
though surrounded by two thousand suitors, is devoted to the interests
and order and government of her realm. During May, and not later than
June, the massacre of the drones takes place. They have become at this
date encumbrances only. Their mission is ended, and their extermination
becomes the duty of the industrious bees. I stated, in my letters to _The
Times_, that I believed the drones had a value additional to that usually
assigned to them--viz., that they sustained the temperature of the hive
during the chief breeding season. Mr. Cotton--no mean authority--states
what substantially confirms all I said:--
"I have watched the drones for many years very attentively, and I will
freely give you the result. I will tell you, in the first instance,
the facts I have seen, and what I have drawn from them. The drones are
hatched just before the new swarms rise; very few go off with them. I
for a long time thought that none did; but I am free to confess that I
was wrong. They do not fly out early in the day, but about two o'clock
they go out to take the air, and make a fine buzzing, which joins very
prettily with the milder hum of the bees. Many people kill the drones
directly they see them; but they are quite wrong, as the bees know
best when they have done their duty, and so we may leave to them the
unpleasant task of killing them, though they do not do it in the most
merciful way.
"Why do the drones stay in the hive all the morning? Most of the bees
are then out gathering honey, so the drones have to stay at home to
keep up the heat of the hive by their great fat bodies, just as a
gadding wife leaves her husband to look after the children, while she
is out taking her pleasure."
It does seem a too great excess of provision to furnish two thousand
drones out of whom the queen may select her consort. It looks like unusual
waste. It leads to a massacre on a larger scale than is necessary.
The average number of excursions made by each bee is probably ten or
twelve, over an area of half a mile; but fewer, of course, in proportion
to the greater distance of suitable pasture. Kirby calculates that during
a good season a hundred pounds of ponderable material is carried by these
tiny workers into their hive. He justly observes:--
"What a wonderful idea does this give of the industry and activity of
those useful little creatures! and what a lesson do they read to the
members of societies that have both reason and religion to guide their
exertions for the common good! Adorable is that Great Being who has
gifted them with instincts which render them as instructive to us, if
we will condescend to listen to them, as they are profitable."
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