The drone is the male bee. Drones don’t sting, unlike female worker bees. As a result, they cannot feed without the assistance of worker bees. A drone’s sole job is to mate with an unfertilized queen.
The job of a male bee is determined by its sex. The male drones spend their lives eating honey, waiting for the opportunity to mate with the queen in mid-air, and if they mate successfully, they fall to the ground in a victorious death.
The queen lays eggs at a rate of 1,500 eggs per day for two to five years, determining which eggs become female workers and which become male drones.
Quick Navigation
What is the Role of Male Bees?
Male drones are exclusively for mating with the queen. They can’t sting, don’t produce honey, and do not work. Queens only need to mate once, so most drones won’t get the chance. Nevertheless, worker bees keep them around for mating purposes.
Do male bees do any work
Male bees, or drones, do not work. A typical colony has ten percent of these bees, and they eat honey all their lives and wait for mate opportunities.
Why do Male Bees Die After They Mate
A virgin queen honey bee mates with several male honey bees, ejaculating semen and ripping his endophallus from his body.
Honey bees can only mate seven to ten times during their mating flight, and the drones die quickly after mating when their endophallus is removed.
Can Male Bees Make Honey?
Honey can only be made by female “worker” bees who collect pollen and nectar from plants while pollinating. The honey is then stored in wax honeycombs inside the nest.
The Role of The Drone Bee
Drones fertilize queens when they are near drone congregation areas, where worker bees remove inbred drone larvae to recycle protein.
Drones mating occurs in flight, which accounts for the large eyes. Drones lose control of their bodies after mating and fall apart.
In order for a queen mating to be successful, there must be a lot of drones. The drones are driven from the hive in the autumn.
When a drone mates with a queen, his abdomen is ripped open, and he generally won’t survive.
Drones generate heat and exhaust heat when they sense the hive’s temperature varying from proper limits.
The Drone Behavior
Drones do not gather nectar or pollen or construct hives. They can buzz around intruders and may sting in defense of the hive.
The Drone Congregation Areas
Drones and virgin queens mating takes place in congregation areas. These areas have distinct boundaries, and drones must find them anew each year.
Congregation areas are often located above open ground, away from trees or hills, where flight is protected from the wind, but also away from water or the forest canopy.
A drone visits multiple congregation areas to mate with a virgin queen. The drones follow the virgin queen, and if there is not enough semen to mate, they go on a ‘nuptial flight’ to mate with the virgin queen.
The drone waits in the congregating area to mate with a queen and notices her if she flies into the radar.
The Queen Bee
A queen only mates during one brief period in her early life but will mate with drones from numerous colonies.
Genetic diversity is important to a colony’s survival. Drones may help with the cooling effort when temperatures rise in the hive.
A hive’s queen mates with 10-20 drones to increase the chance of her being strong and resilient.
Anatomy of a Drone
The drone bee is stumpier than the queen bee and has a thick abdomen and long legs.
The drone’s stomach is more of a box shape than the workers or the queen, and his head is very round. He has very large eyes, and his wings cover his stomach completely.
Kicked Out of the Hive
Worker bees kick drones out of the hive, usually in the fall when foraging becomes scarce. The worker bees starve the drones to weaken them, then throw them out of the hive.
