A Late Author affirms, that the Drone Bee is the Male, and that his Business is to sit upon and hatch the Eggs, and nourish the Young, whilst the Females follow their Work ; and, that he was made without a Sting, and is of the same Species of other Bees, differing only in Sex; and, that you may compare the male to a Man, and the female to a Woman; so that the male Bee or Drone is absolutely necessary to the breeding of Bees, managing the Young while the female or Honey-Bee goes abroad to gather Honey; all the while they are gone the Drone stirs not from the Brood, but about 1 or 2 a-Clock the female Bee returning home, she takes his post, and gives him liberty to fly abroad to recreate himself.  

Therefore I caution Bee-masters against the unhappy Error of killing the Drones as fast as they can, for by this means they hinder their Breed, and damage or utterly destroy their whole Hives ; but they had better kill six Honey (or female) Bees than one Drone in May or June; for 'tis as if they would encrease animal Creatures by destroying the Males : And indeed the Male or Drone is but short-life'd at best, therefore spare him, and he will make you amends. 'Tis a gross Error to say the Drones have loft their Sting; so grow idle, and live by robbing.

From: "A Sure way to order bees and fruit-trees, or, A compleat bee-master : shewing, I. The way to manage and encrease them. A platform for a bee-hive. What food ought to be propagated about the bee-houses. To raise large stocks of bees. Their errors that kill the drone-bees." By John Worlidge, active 1660-1698 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html