If you deprive a drone of its wings, and then replace it
in the hive, it will pull off the wings of the other drones.”

Needless to say, it will not pull off the wings of the other
drones if reduced to that unpleasant condition. Neither
will it labor, no matter how mercilessly it may be
punished.
After ages of scorn and contumely, it is time for some
one to break a lance in the service of the drone.
It is time for some one to proclaim him for what he is,
next to the queen the most important bee in the hive, and
to demand that he be recognized as such by the old and
the young, by the wise and by the foolish.
His destiny is a hard one, but he is not ignoble. He
merits the crown of martyrdom, though he is the most
cheerful martyr imaginable. He is the male bee; and if
in other creatures his sex is pre-eminent, in him the tables
are indeed turned, and he finds himself wholly at the mercy
of the worker-bee, who has no mercy.
He is carefully nurtured in infancy, being, like the queen,
fed on royal jelly.
He comes forth an innocent and happy bee, capable of
enjoying life, but unfitted to share in the labor of the
hive.
