Drones

What role do they have in the hive?

Many times we ask ourselves the role that drones play in the hive and we would like to know more about their characteristics.

Drones have the main task of fertilizing the queen bee of the bee colony with their sperm.

A very important fact to keep in mind is that those drones that fertilize the queen bee on bridal flights die (the reproductive organs are torn and die). Thus, when those drones who have managed to fertilize the queen with their sperm die, the hive ensures that there is no consanguinity within the same species.

Thus, we can determine that the drones are the male bees of the bee colony and, as their main function is that of reproduction, there will be a greater number of drones in the flowering months since it is the season in which the queen bees They are fertilized during bridal flights.

A curiosity is that the drones have no sting and, in addition, they cannot collect the nectar from the flowers since the tongue of the drone is too short. Thus, we find that the drones have no capacity to collect nectar or snack (since they have no stinger).

Thus, the hive needs drones in the period when virgin queens have to be fertilized by their sperm and there is also an abundance of pollen.

When queen bees have already been fertilized on bridal flights by sperm between 10 and 14 drones and the time comes when there is a shortage of nectar, the bees stop feeding the drones and expel them from the hive (remember that drones cannot feed themselves by nectar by having their tongues too short, and they cannot defend themselves by not having a stinger).

In the following flowering season, the queen bee will return to drone eggs so that they are born and the fertilization process is repeated again.

Mundoabejas.com team