. California agriculturist and live stock journal. Agriculture -- California; Livestock -- California; Animal industry -- California. thought and observation. 3. The drones are the male bees. They are large, lusty lookiug fellows, and make a loud, coarse sound when on the wing. Their mis- sion is to fertilize the young queens. When this is accomplished, the workers have no fur- ther use for them; and as they are non-pro- ducers from necessity, not having the requi- site organs, and having no sting or means of defense, they are unceremoniously ejected from the hive or killed, when the honey or
. California agriculturist and live stock journal. Agriculture -- California; Livestock -- California; Animal industry -- California. thought and observation. 3. The drones are the male bees. They are large, lusty lookiug fellows, and make a loud, coarse sound when on the wing. Their mis- sion is to fertilize the young queens. When this is accomplished, the workers have no fur- ther use for them; and as they are non-pro- ducers from necessity, not having the requi- site organs, and having no sting or means of defense, they are unceremoniously ejected from the hive or killed, when the honey or pasturage begins to fail. They are retained much longer in strong colonies than in weak ones. When one colony keeps its drones long after the rest have destroyed theirs, it argues, in all probability, that it has no queen, and needs attention. The bees that Sampson found in the lion's carcass no doubt l:>uilt their comb to the skel- eton ribs in the same geological forms that bees of the present day build theirs. This may be instinct, the same that characterizes many of their other operations; but I have never yet found the economy of the hive to be governed by invariable law. Many of their actions and operation seem to be actuated by a higher instinct, bordering on the principle of cause and effect. Who of us is always capable of drawing the exact line of demarka- tion between instinct and reason?—/. P. II. Broimi, in Our Ucmie Journal. Shade for Bees.—My observation and rea- soning have led me to the conclusion that shade is an advantage, and a decided one, to bees. I do not mean a dense shade, but one partially relieved by sunshine, such as bees left to themselves "vould and do naturally se- lect—in the tops or upper part of trees, in a forest, seldom if ever the lower, humid part of the wood. Why is this? Evidently because bees require a temperate condition of the ut- , neither too cold nor too warm, too damp or too dry, too light or too dark. These t
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