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A Multitude Of Drones Needed

Categories: LOSS OF QUEENS.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

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

impregnat
d, and be got safely back, or the stock is lost. Every time

she leaves, there is a chance of her being lost, (one in fifteen). If

the number of drones was any less than it is, the queen would have to

repeat her excursions in proportion, before successful. As it is, some

have to leave several times. The chances and consequences are so great,

that on the whole no doubt but it is better to rear a thousand

unnecessarily, than to lack one just in time of need. Therefore let us

endeavor to be content with the present arrangement, inasmuch as we

could not better it, and probably had we been consulted, would have so

fixed "the thing, that it would not go at all."



But what is the use of the drones in hives that do not swarm, and do

not intend it, situated in a large room or very large hives? Such

circumstances seldom produce swarms, yet as regular as the return of

summer, a brood of drones appear. What are they for? Suppose the old

queen in such hive dies, leaving eggs or young larvae, and a young queen

is reared to supply her place. How is she to be impregnated without the

drones? Perhaps they are taught that whenever they can afford it, they

should have some on hand to be ready for an emergency. I have already

said when bees are numerous, and honey abundant, they never fail to

provide them. I once put a swarm in a glass hive. The queen was a

cripple, having lost one of her posterior legs; in two months after she

was replaced by one young and perfect. Here was an instance of drones

being needed, when no intention of swarming was indicated; the hive was

but little more than half full.



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