Description Of Drones
Categories:
A BRIEF HISTORY
Bee Keeping:
Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained
When the family is large and honey abundant, a brood of drones is
reared; the number, probably, depends on the yield of honey, and size
of the swarm, more than anything else. As honey becomes scarce, they
are destroyed. Their bodies are large and rather clumsy, covered with
short hairs or bristles. Their abdomen terminates very abruptly,
without the symmetry of the queen or worker. Their buzzing, when on the
wing, is louder, and altogether different from the others. They seem to
be of the least value of any in the hive. Perhaps not more than one in
a thousand is ever called upon to perform the duty for which they were
designed. Yet they assist, on some occasions, to keep up the animal
heat necessary in the old hive after a swarm has left.