Drone (insect)

“ MY compassion has often been stirred in autumn as I watched the number of unhappy drone-flies buzzing on the window-panes, day after day, until they perished from cold and hunger. These flies closely resemble the real drones, which are the males of the honey-bee and have four wings, while these, being flies, have but two.
They are large, handsome insects, with a downy, yellow-brown thorax and shining black body which moves up and down in a wasp-like manner. When flying about the room they keep up a loud humming noise, which at once betrays their presence. ”

“ Throughout the hive may be seen the workers chasing the drones over the combs which, but a few days before, supplied them with honey. The drones have no sting, nor any means of defence, so that they are absolutely at the mercy of their pursuers. The bee-city is alive with the terrible cries of the victims, and as the workers catch the drones they commence to bite off their wings. Sometimes, too, they will even gnaw off the legs or the antennæ or cut through the drone’s slender waist, their one idea being to disable him. ”

“ That the sexual intercourse takes place high in the air, is highly probable from the fact, that other insects of the fly tribe do copulate in the air, when on the 67 wing, as I have repeatedly seen. That the drone is the male bee, is probable from the fact that the drones are not all killed at once; but at least one in each hive is permitted to live several months after the general massacre. ”

“ It is not by starvation that the drones die, however, for they are massacred by the bees. Some time about August, perhaps, when the bees find that the honey is not coming in as fast as it used to, the step will be taken, for they have now to think about the winter months which are close at hand. If there are any drone cells in the hive with eggs or grubs in them, the workers tear them open, the young drones are dragged out, and their bodies thrown out of the [92] door of the hive. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Unlike the queen or the worker bees, the drone has no sting, and so you may let him crawl over your hand without fear of being hurt, even though he should become angry.
The life of the drone is a life of luxury and ease, for he does not work in the hive, neither does he gather any nectar or pollen. He is fed by the workers, and he also takes good care to help himself from the storehouses, whenever he thinks he would like a little more food. ”

“ In the spring or early summer, when the hive has become populous, and storing very active, the queen, as if conscious that a home could be overcrowded, and foreseeing such danger, commences to deposit drone-eggs in drone-cells, which the worker-bees, perhaps moved by like considerations, begin to construct, if they are not already in existence. In fact, drone comb is almost sure of construction at such times. No sooner is the drone brood well under way, than the large, awkward, queen-cells are commenced, often to the number of ten or fifteen, though there may be not more than three or four. ”

“ Laws, as we read in ancient sages,
Have been like cobwebs in all ages.
Cobwebs for little flies are spread,
And laws for little folks are made;
But if an insect of renown,
Hornet or beetle, wasp or drone,
Be caught in quest of sport or plunder,
The flimsy fetter flies in sunder. ”

“ The drones, aside from contributing somewhat to the general warmth of the hive necessary to the development of the brood, seem to have no other office but that connected with reproduction. In the wild state colonies of bees are widely separated, being located wherever the swarms chance to have found hollow trees or rock cavities, hence the production of many drones has been provided for, so young queens flying out to mate will not run too many risks from bird and insect enemies, storms, etc. Mating in the hive would result in too continuous in-and-in breeding, producing loss of vigor. ”

“ Idle drones have also been emerging from their cells; and when the young queen starts forth on her nuptial flight she is followed by the drones, mates with one of them, and returns a potential mother of thousands. So long as there is abundance of food the useless drones are tolerated; but when there is scarcity they are ejected, and drone eggs, larvæ, and pupæ are said to be destroyed. ”

“ Any time during the summer when the bee-keeper finds the workers attacking the drones he may be very sure it means that the honey crop is exhausted.
Our pity is usually much more excited for the fate of the drone than for that of the busy worker, which dies from overwork at the end of a few weeks; and this is undoubtedly because the death of the worker seems voluntary, while the drones are manifestly murdered. Once we witnessed the slaughter of the drones in an observation hive, the entrance of which was too contracted to allow the bodies of the drones to pass. ”

“ 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. ”

“ After the location has been thus marked, the bees leave the hive in a direct line, and return by their way-marks with perfect accuracy and regularity.
The drone bee is a clumsy fellow. The drones are the male bees. Where a dozen or more hives are kept, there is no necessity for more drones than one swarm would naturally rear, yet each one of the twelve swarms carries out its natural proclivities, and rears a large number of these useless consumers, not one of a thousand of which is ever of any use. Swarms should not be permitted to rear a large number of these non-producers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 drones are no more use, for the queen will not fly out again, and these idle bees will never do any work in the hive. So the worker-bees begin to kill them, falling upon them, and stinging them to death, and as the drones have no stings they cannot defend themselves, and in a few days there is not a drone, nor even a drone-egg, left in the hive. This massacre seems very sad to us, since the poor drones have never done any harm beyond being hopelessly idle. ”

“ Drones are smaller than the queen, and larger than the working-bees; and when on the wing, they make a greater noise. Their office is to impregnate the eggs of the queen after they are deposited in the cells; but when this is effected, as they become useless to the hive, they are destroyed by the working-bees, without the power of resistance, as they have no sting. After the season of the increase of the bees is past, and when they attend to the collection of winter-stores, every vestige of the drones is destroyed, to make room for honey. ”

“ It is enough to have seen the Segestria capture some large Fly to be convinced of the overwhelming effect of her fangs upon the insects bitten in the neck. The death of the Drone-fly, entangled in the silken funnel, is reproduced by the sudden death of the Bumble-bee on entering the Tarantula's burrow. We know the effect of the poison on man, thanks to Antoine Duges' investigations. ”

“ 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 ”

“ As soon as a drone-breeding-comb is filled, it should, without delay, be placed in a hive deprived of the queen, because those hives in their queenless state, seize the opportunity to bring up drones as if they were aware that they would be necessary for the impregnation of their future queen. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Other insects classed as aquatic, because they pass their larval and pupal stages in water, are drone flies (the oxen-born bees of the ancients) , dragon flies, pond-skaters, tube-making caddis-worms, etc.; all are air-breathers in the adult form. A phenomenon which profoundly affects the lives of these creatures is the surface film of water. By curious adaptations they take advantage of its tension, while on the other hand some minute creatures find it a death-trap. The reader must not look for a severely logical arrangement in this book. ”

“ The drone-cells are somewhat larger than the ordinary worker-cells, but this is probably not of much import, and it is said that the larvae intended to produce drones receive a greater proportion of pap than worker-larvae do: about twenty-four days are required to produce a drone from the egg. ”

“ To increase the Italian drones as fast as possible, deprive the Italian mother of a hive of her drone-cells, and place instead, empty cells for further filling them with drone-brood, which she will do forthwith. The Italian drone-brood hang into the black hives for hatching, taking and destroying, as much as possible, their own black-broods.
Food must not be spared with brood-hives, as that will induce them to continue breeding. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To cause a sufficient supply of Italian drones care must be taken that the hives with Italian mothers are always well provided with drone-combs, which will cause the queen, when they are placed in the middle of the breeding-layers, to put in more drone-brood; the more so by continual feeding with liquid honey. The continuous feeding, with proper strength of people is the most effective way for the production of drones. By insertion of ripe breeding-combs near upon running out a hive can be most effectively and quickly strengthened. ”