The egg-laying of the queen goes on more or less for nine or ten months of the year, under favouring conditions; but the season of greatest activity is during April, May, and June. Various circumstances after that time cause a diminution of the number of eggs, till in November, December, and January, as a rule, the queen ceases her motherly functions. CHAPTER IV. THE DRONES. Distinguishing Characteristics--Time of Hatching--Numbers--Purposes served by them--Destruction by Workers or other means--Unusual Survival. [Illustration: Fig. 8.--A Drone.] The drones are the male population of the bee-community. In general form they are more cylindrical than the queens or workers. They are shorter than the former, but larger and more robust than the latter. Their colour is of a deeper brown, and they are much more hairy, especially at the lower extremity. Their wings are strong, and greater in proportion to the length of their bodies than those of the females or neuters, reaching, indeed, to the full extent of their abdomen. The posterior expansion of the lower pair gives a broad backward sweep, and enables the heavy body of the drone to fly with great rapidity, and to rise very freely in the air. Another peculiarity of structure is the vertical enlargement of the compound eyes. By the meeting of these eyes over the brow, the drone is able more readily to see the virgin queen when she issues for her one bridal excursion. Drones have a strong odour, which becomes very perceptible when several are confined together in a box. Their proboscis is not fit for the collection of honey; moreover they have no receptacle for carrying the liquid, and, in fact, show no inclination even to feed themselves from flowers. They take their nourishment from what is stored in the cells. As Evans accurately and concisely says of them, they "wheel around On heavier wing, and hum a deeper sound. No sharpened sting they boast; yet, buzzing loud, Before the hive, in threatening circles, crowd The unwieldy drones. Their short proboscis sips No luscious nectar from the wild thyme's lips; From the lime's leaf no amber drops they steal, Nor bear their grooveless thighs the foodful meal; On others' toils, in pampered leisure, thrive The lazy fathers of the industrious hive." This inability to feed themselves from Nature's sources makes them almost unique among the fully developed creatures of the animal world. Their consumption of the stores of the hive is not resented by the workers till the swarming season is over, and what is further remarkable is, that they are permitted to enter without molestation communities other than that in which they were bred, though strange workers would be strictly prohibited from such trespassing.