a kind of large bees which make their appearance in hives about the month of May, but never work nor prepare any honey: and are at last all killed by the reft. Under the article BEE, N° 20. et seq. we have given an account of the experiments of Messrs Debraw and Schirach concerning these animals: but in a Treatise upon Bees and their Management by Mr Bonner near Berwick on Tweed, who has made the management of bees his study for a great number of years, this author differs from the opinions of the above-mentioned gentlemen for the following reasons, which we shall give in his own words. Having mentioned the opinions of Mr Debraw concerning the little drones mentioned in the article above mentioned, he proceeds thus:

"1. Can it be thought that the prying eyes of multitude in many generations should have escaped seeing those little drones (they being, according to his account, vastly numerous) thrust their posterior parts into the cells? Yet none ever saw them do it except himself; while many have seen the queen do it, though but a single bee.

"2. It is well known the queen is very long behind the wings, wise nature having made her so, in order that she might thrust her posterior part into the cells, and yet her wings scarcely touch them, nor receive the least injury. If these imaginary little drones had to thrust their posterior parts into the cells in the same manner as the queen, certainly their wings would have been made in the same manner short, and their posterior parts long and taper, which is not the case. Whereas were a bee of any kind (the queen excepted) to thrust its hinder part into a common cell, its wings or coats would come over its head, and be antic-like, and injure both them and its body. Besides, I scarcely think they could get into the common cells that way at any rate for want of room.

"3. Mr Debraw grants, that without a queen or eggs bees will not begin to work, as well knowing they cannot propagate their species without her; and yet he says, those bees which wanted little drones began to work, and the queen laid eggs, and all went forward, till they were not impregnated, and then they gave over work, and deserted the hive. Certainly those fagacious creatures would have been as sensible that they wanted drones at the very first, when they were put into the hive, and that they could not do without them, as they are sensible when they want a queen, and that it is needless to begin work without her; and it might be added that two different kinds of drones in one hive does not appear to be probable, or serve any end.

"But I shall narrate some of my own experiments on that head, which will put it, I hope, beyond dispute: On September 1st, I had a hive breeding fast; I took out all her bees (among which were only four large drones, which I killed), and I put them in a hive that had nothing in her but empty combs: I waited ten days, when, by looking between the combs, I saw her have new sealed up maggots in her cells. I then took all her bees out, and shook them into a tub full of water, and recovered them gradually; and when recovering, I pressed every one of them, in order to see if I could find any of those little drones, but could not find one; but all and every one of them had stings: they were in number 3000. After which I searched the hive I took them out of, and cut out all her combs that had eggs in them, and found they had new laid eggs, four days old eggs, and maggots in them. I then recovered the queen and all her bees, and put in the same hive again, which had not an egg in her now, and waited other twenty days, and saw her in fine days working very well; a sure indication she was breeding again. I then turned her up, and cut out one of her brood combs, and saw in it new laid eggs, four days old eggs, and maggots and some young almost fit for emerging out of their cells.

"The very fame day I made a further experiment: I had a hive which I saw had some brood combs in her, but the had not had a large drone for four weeks before in her; she had not above 500 bees in her, which favoured me, because few in number. I took the hive into a close place in my house, in order that not a single bee should escape me; I then took all the bees out of her, and immersed them in water; and when recovering, I pressed every one of them, and each bee had a sting, as in the former experiment.

"I think the above experiments may satisfy any judicious person, that there is no such thing in being as little drones, unless in Mr Debraw's brain. And if Mr Debraw, who can find 57 in a small swarm of bees, will send me the odd seven, I will send him one of my best hives for them, and he will scarcely think he is ill paid. I add, I never saw a hive in spring, however few bees in her, but the bred some, if she had a queen, though to be sure few in proportion to her bees.

"By this time the reader will be very ready, no doubt, to ask me the use of the drones. I beg to be excused on that head, as I have not the least idea of their use in a hive; they do not fecundate the queen, for she can lay and breed too though she never see them. Their heat does not appear to me to be necessary for hatching the young, as they are mostly hatched before any are bred in a hive; and when drones are in the hive, the weather is so warm, and so many common bees in it, that they appear to have rather too much heat, by their lying out of the hives often.

"I have many times had good hives with few or no drones in them all the year; and Keys is quite wrong when he says a top swarm will not do without drones in her; for I am positive to the contrary, as in the summer 1785 I took off four swarms of mine own in one day with not a single drone in any of them, and they all thrived well, and bred drones in themselves about four weeks after.

"Although I cannot say what use the drones are of to a hive (unless it be to help away with a great deal of her honey, which they are very good at), yet the best hives have them foeneft in the year, they generally appearing in such about the latter end of May, and the bees put a period to their lives about Lammas, at which time I give them all the assistance I can. The DRO

Drone, way they kill them is thus: They pull and bite them with their teeth, and sting them also. I have seen great havock made of them in one day, as appeared by their lying dead before the door of the hive. But their most effectual way of killing them is their banishing them from the honeycombs; upon which the drones betake themselves to the under edges of the hives in great numbers, and to the board the hive stands on; and sometimes, though rare, I have even seen them come to the outside of the hive, and cluster there about the bulk of a man's hand. When they are banished thus, they are very dull and lifeless: and I have lifted up a hive from the board, and there they would have been sitting close on it, with scarcely three or four common bees among them; and I have trode to death 40 or more at a time.

"We may now take a view of the disadvantages attending the old, and also Mr Debraw's principles on bees, were they true; and next see how a hive of bees may be preserved from coming to ruin, according to my sentiments on them.

"1. The old principles on bees say, that without a queen or royal cell be in a hive, it will come to ruin.

"2. Mr Debraw's principles say, that without little drones be in a hive it will come to ruin.

"3. I say, if a hive have only new laid eggs in her (which may easily be got the greatest part of the year, in case she have none of her own) and common bees, she will find herself a queen, and so thrive.

"According to the old principles, it is easily seen that, in case a hive lose her queen, when there is no royal cell in her, and no queen can be got to put to her (neither of which can be expected but in June and July), she is entirely ruined.

"According to the Frenchman's scheme, there must be drones in a hive at all times of the year to fecundate the eggs, otherwise the hive is useless. Supposing his sentiments to be true (which, however, can by no means be admitted, seeing there is no such thing as little drones), how perplexed would the owner be to know when there were little drones in the hive! When he wanted to make an artificial swarm, he might bring off a queen and common bees with her; but how should he come to know whether there were any, or a sufficient quantity, of little drones among them, as they cannot be distinguished from the commons but by immersion and pressure, which would be intolerably troublesome, and next to killing the bees, and not at all practicable? All that could be done would be to hope the best, that there were little drones in her at any time of the year.

"I say, if a queen die in a hive, and that hive have some new-laid eggs in her, or some put to her, in case she have none of her own, she will nourish up some of these eggs to be a queen to herself: and also by taking out a queen and some commons out of a hive (without a single drone, large or small), and putting them in an empty hive, will make a swarm, and the old hive will breed herself a queen again, if she have eggs in her."

DRONE Fly, a two-winged insect, extremely like the common drone bee, whence also the name.