A Description of the Bar-and-Frame-Hive Part 4

The _drones_ or _males_ in a hive are computed at from six hundred to two thousand, but the numbers are remarkably irregular, and the proportion is not regulated by the number of bees contained in a hive; for a small swarm or colony will contain as many, or more sometimes, than a large one.

The drone may be easily distinguished from the _queen_ or _workers_, from its greater breadth, having large eyes which meet at the top of the head, and no sting, and from its making a loud humming whilst flying.

It takes twenty-four days from the time of the laying of the drone _egg_ to its coming forth a perfect insect. Drones are generally hatched about the end of April or the beginning of May; they venture out of the hive only in warm weather, and then only in the middle of the day, and they are generally expelled by the bees from the hives about July or August, after the impregnation of the young queens has taken place.

When the destruction of the drones takes place earlier, it may be considered a certain indication that no swarming will take place during that season; but the retention of the drones after August, is a very bad sign, as the swarm must certainly perish in the winter, unless their vacant throne is supplied with a prolific queen.

The _neuter_ or _worker-bee_, is the least of the three, and of a dark brown colour; the abdomen is conical, and composed of six distinct segments, and armed with a straight sting; it possesses a long flexible trunk, known by the name of a proboscis, and has on its two hinder legs a hollow or basket, to receive the propolis and farina which it collects as before described.

The number of workers in a well-stocked hive is about fifteen thousand or twenty thousand. Upon them devolves the whole care and labour of the colony, to collect pollen, propolis, and honey; to build the combs and to attend upon the brood or young bees.

The _worker-bee_ is short-lived, seldom surviving more than a year, but this is more from the toil they have to endure, though it be a labour of love, and the many risks they run upon each occasion of going out in search of food, &c., from the weather, or their numerous winged enemies.

"Sunt quibus ad portas cecidit custodia sorti: Inque vicem speculantur aquas et nubila coeli, Aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent.

Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella."