Drone (bee)

“ The drone-bee may be known by his broad body, long wings and large eyes, which almost meet on the top of his head. The drone is stingless. The queen, on the contrary, possesses a sting, but she cannot pierce the skin with it, so we may handle her, when necessary, without fear. ”

“ A drone is a great, worthless bee that won’t work. [21] They stand around the hive until the time comes for them to die. He is nearly the last. For almost a month we have been driving them away, and when they won’t go sometimes we sting them. You see, they never work and are useless. Of an afternoon they fly up into the sky with a deal of buzzing. Sometimes they follow the Queen into the deep of heaven. If they would stop there! But worse than that, they bluster about over the hive and eat a lot of honey. ”

“ The drone comb is exactly the size, and like worker comb made by the bees already in Europe and America. The workers are brown with a very ringed abdomen, the bands to the tip of the body being broadly marked with yellow, and thorax very fuzzy, with a large shield between the wings; the drones are black, inclining to a blue-black, and are 1⁄2 of an inch long; the queens are leather-colored, and large compared with the workers. These bees are very active, wonderful breeders, regular little beauties, and can be handled without the least smoke, scarcely ever offering to sting. ”

“ The drones—in fact all bees—when they first emerge from the cells, are gray, soft, and appear generally unsophisticated.
Just what the longevity of the male bee is, I am unable to state. It is probable, judging from analogy, that they live till accident, the worker bees, or the performance of their natural function causes their death. The worker-bees are liable to kill off the drones, which they do by constantly biting and worrying them. They may also destroy the drone-brood. It is not very rare to see workers carrying out immature drones even in mid-summer. ”

“ The drone is without a sting, and, indeed, seems never to show fight at all. Its jaws might furnish no despicable weapons, but the insect seems to lack spirit to use them, even in self-defence, and when attacked by the mandibles only of the workers, manifests no inclination to employ its own against its tormentors. Struggles to escape, and haste to flee, seem to betray its absence of courage ”

“ Another peculiarity of structure is the vertical enlargement of the compound eyes. By the meeting of these eyes over the brow, the drone is able more readily to see the virgin queen when she issues for her one bridal excursion. Drones have a strong odour, which becomes very perceptible when several are confined together in a box. Their proboscis is not fit for the collection of honey; moreover they have no receptacle for carrying the liquid, and, in fact, show no inclination even to feed themselves from flowers. They take their nourishment from what is stored in the cells. ”

“ If the increase of drones grows into an intolerable nuisance a trap may be applied for their partial extermination. Aston's drone-trap is an ingenious contrivance, though we recommend its use only under limitations. - 202 - It consists of a box to affix to the hive entrance, with an opening from the inside, but no means of exit except through perforations which admit only the workers; the bees are attracted into it by the light, while their proper flight-hole is darkened by a ridge over which they can just make their way into the hive. The drones are thus left in the box to perish. ”

“ They stay with us all winter, and hunt out sleeping flies, and the eggs and chrysalids of moths and beetles. The king-bird is called the bee-martin, and has been accused of eating honey bees. It has been found that it eats only drone bees. Drones have white faces, and no stingers. And it catches the robber-fly that destroys bees. King-birds protect poultry yards and other song birds by driving away hawks, crows and jaybirds. They eat such wild fruits as elder berries. Hawks and owls live mostly on mice, moles and other small rodents. ”

“ But in abnormal circumstances, as with a drone-breeding queen, the law does not hold, and drones of a diminished size are hatched from worker cells, though the bees, on discovering the state of things, do their best by subsequent elongation to adapt the cradles to their unexpected occupants. Such is the explanation of the existence of "small drones;" but workers hatched in drone cells do not appear to be in any way peculiar. In regard then to the main fact we are confronted with the question, Has the queen a knowledge, at the moment of laying, of the gender of each particular egg? ”

“ Many bee-cultivators make a great blunder in that respect, in cutting out the drone-cells, thinking that they are unnecessary eaters, but not considering that, the fewer drones there are on a stand the greater the danger of losing queens. For, natural enough, the queen flies out to mate and to find a drone, if she finds one immediately, she can return home directly and the hive is saved. But if the drones - 25 - are scarce, and the queen cannot soon find a lover, she will delay her wedding-journey, or even go home again without having gained her object ”

“ The male bee is a drone. His only purpose in life seems to be to await the period when the queen bee in her instinctive desire to perpetuate the life of the swarm is ready to receive the sperm-cells from the male. The drone is stingless and helpless. The germ of the queen bee was developed in a special cell, was fed on royal food and tenderly reared. Her office is not only to preside over the destinies of the swarm, but to her alone is assigned the entire work of reproduction. She never leaves the hive but once, and then upon her nuptial flight, accompanied by a male bee. ”

“ There is nothing to prevent there being grubs, and honey, and drones in the same comb. As long as the king bee is alive, they say that the drones are produced in a separate place; but when he is dead they are produced by the bees in their own cells, and such drones are more passionate: for this cause they are called stingers, not that they have any sting, but that they would sting, if they had the power to do so. The drone cells are larger. Sometimes the drone cells are placed by themselves, but are generally combined with those of bees, for which reason they cut them off. ”

“ When I depended on box honey, the hive was crowded with honey before the bees would work in boxes.
As it took two pounds per month in winter to support a colony of bees, at this rate the twelve ounces of honey required to rear a thousand drones would keep a thousand workers four and a half months. I believe drones usually live about two months. So when Novice shaves off the heads of drone brood sealed over, he has already lost two-thirds of what it would cost to let them live; and the presence of drones might perhaps prevent the raising of more drone brood. ”

“ But flies of the drone-fly kind cannot sting, and, so far as is known, are perfectly innocuous and edible. The advantage to the fly of its deceptive resemblance to the bee is theoretically perfectly evident and practically can be demonstrated by experiment. It is in the first place a matter of common knowledge that human beings who have been taught to avoid handling bees invariably fear to touch drone-flies, unless specially trained to distinguish the one from the others. ”

“ The modern bee-keeper, therefore, allows just so much drone comb in the hive as will produce a sufficient number of drones to ensure queen-mating, while affording to the bees the satisfaction of dwelling in a home equipped according to natural conditions, and containing all the elements necessary to bee-life. The action of the bees themselves makes this point clear, for when the season of mating is past the drone is no longer needed, the providing of winter stores taking first place in the economy of the hive. ”

“ When the honey season is over, the worker bees drive out the drones, and a prosperous swarm will not tolerate a drone in the hive through the winter. In September I have seen a quarter or more of drones clustered together near the entrance of the hive, whence they had been driven by the bees. The workers on guard about the entrance of the hive, would not let one pass into the hive, though they were constantly making the attempt. ”

“ The worker bees are, indeed, wondrous creatures: they are known to - 11 - have their feelings of friendship and dislike almost human in their intensity; their expressions of sorrow on the loss of their queen or when their stores are failing are as unmistakable as their hum of contentment when the hive is thriving, or the buzz of anger when rudely-disturbed.
The Drone.—The drone is the male bee. He is the progeny of an unfertilised egg laid by the queen, or by a fertile worker. His life is usually a short and merry one. ”

“ I asked him, “are not drones absolutely necessary in a hive? The population cannot increase without the male bees.”
“Good drones are just as important in a bee-garden as high-mettled, prolific queens,” he said; “and drone-breeding on a small scale must form part of the work on every modern bee-farm of any size. But my own practice is to confine the drones to two or three hives only. These are stationed in different parts of the farm. They are always selected stocks of the finest and most vigorous strain, and in them I encourage drone-breeding in every possible way. ”

“ In the same country the honey ratel will sit and hold one of his paws before his eyes, about the time of sunset, in order to get a distinct view of the objects of his pursuit; and when he sees any bees flying, he knows that at that hour they are returning home, and so he follows them.
The domestic bees afford a good opportunity for studying the habits of this wonderful race of insects. Three kinds of bees are discovered in the hive; the drone, the queen bee, and working bee. The drones are the fathers of the young bees, and live an idle life. ”

“ The drone is probably the male bee, notwithstanding the sexual union has never been witnessed by any man; yet so many experiments have been tried, and observations made, that but little doubt can be entertained of its truth. ”

“ A MULTITUDE OF DRONES NEEDED.
Instinct teaches the bee to make the matters left to them as nearly sure as possible. When they want one queen, they raise half a dozen. If one drone or only half a dozen were reared, the chances of the queen meeting one in the air would be very much reduced. But when a thousand are in the air instead of one, the chances are a thousand times multiplied. If a stock casts a swarm, there is a young queen to be impregnated, and be got safely back, or the stock is lost. ”

“ When on the wing the drone is by far the noisiest of bees, although the sound he makes is somewhat similar to that made by the worker when on the warpath, the note of warning to the disturbing human, and the trumpet call to her fellow-workers.
Owing to the peculiar structure of the drone, mating can only take place in the air, and when it has been accomplished the drone returns to the hive but to die. When the honey-flow fails the death warrant of the drones still in the hive is issued. They are seized by the workers and killed or ejected from the hive. ”

“ Should they have run into a hive deprived of the queen, or only provided with queen-cells, they will be heartily glad that a queen is given them and will not leave her. The bees generally become anxious and tame if the drones and drone-brood are taken away. Endeavouring now, on the one hand, to permit no black drones on the Italian stand, which is kept for the improvement of the races, and to destroy them with their drone-brood and cells, care must be taken, on the other hand, that the Italian bees breed the largest possible quantity of drones. ”

“ They will also crawl outside and hide under the edges of the hive. But sooner or later they are all killed or kicked out. The drone makes no resistance, except to pull back and try to get away; but (putting yourself in his place) with one bee a-hold of your collar or the hair of your head, and another a-hold of each arm or leg, and still another feeling for your waistbands with his sting, the odds are greatly against you. ”

“ The wax, that is a secretion from the bees’ own bodies, will generate only under great heat, and the temperature of the hive is naturally greatest when all the family is at home. In the night also such works as transferring a large mass of honey from one comb to another are undertaken. It is curious to note that at night time the drones get together in the remotest parts of the hive, apparently to keep up the heat in these distant quarters, which are away from the main cluster of worker-bees. There is hardly another thing in creation, perhaps, with a worse name than the drone-bee. ”

“ The activity of the bees now takes another direction. In order to leave over as much honey as possible for the provisionless season that stands before them, a system of saving is now pursued. To compensate for the unavoidable loss of population from the journeys - 33 - abroad, a certain quantity of worker brood is still continually set on, but to a limited extent, while the breeding of drones is not only given up, but the already deposited drone brood is usually thrown out, and the drones themselves, as no longer of any use, are expelled from the hive. ”