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Most ViewedAn Experiment 2An Experiment Bees Do Not Increase If Full After The First Year In Same Hive Remedial Experiments Ignorance Of Officers And Committees Bee Pasturage Not Properly Understood Burying Bees Expense Of Renewing Combs A Moth Can Go Where Bees Can Least ViewedAn Experiment 2An Experiment Bees Do Not Increase If Full After The First Year In Same Hive Remedial Experiments Ignorance Of Officers And Committees Bee Pasturage Not Properly Understood Burying Bees Expense Of Renewing Combs A Moth Can Go Where Bees Can |
A Multitude Of Drones NeededCategory: LOSS OF QUEENS. 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. 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. Next: The Queen Liable To Be Lost In Her Excursions Previous: A Disputed Question
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