Everything you need to know about the drone in the hive

The drone is the only male bee in the hive. It develops from unfertilized queen eggs and the difference between the worker bee and the drone is that it cannot sting. You could easily recognize drones because they have big eyes and bodies. Even the queen bee doesn’t have eyes as big as the drone. However, the body of the queen is larger than the body of the male bee. Drones are exorcised by worker bees during the fall and do not return to the hive until late spring. That is typical of cooler climates.

All the drones have to do is procreation. The worker bees have to feed the male bees and also take care of them, in case the queen dies and a virgin queen takes her place. The virgin queen bee must mate with the drone. The place where the drone mates with the queen is really interesting. It’s called the ‘Drone Mating Area’ and it takes place in the air, maybe two or three hundred feet in the air. However, it dies right after mating because the most important part of its body is ripped off. They are similar to worker bees in that because worker bees die after skewering.

Drones are also known as really lazy bees that can’t even take care of themselves. All they have to do is breed and that is why they are tolerated in the hive. Drones might even mate with a queen from a different hive because they begin to leave the hive and colony only a few days after turning into bees, but their job is to spread the hive’s genetics. Another interesting fact is that the life expectancy of the unpaired drone is about 90 days. When it comes to protecting the hive, drones are useless because as we all know they do not have a stinger. In fact, it turns out that mating is the biggest goal in the drone’s life and also its only reason for existing. However, it is true that they play a very important role in the hive.

In fact, there is not a useless bee in the hive. Everyone has a particular job to do. Therefore, we cannot say that the drone is useless to the hive because the males do one really important thing: they propagate the genetics of the hive. They don’t collect nectar or pollen like worker bees do, but they could help a lot when they feel the temperature in the hive is not right. In fact, they could function as ventilation because they could generate or expel heat by using their wings to move air. When they have to generate heat, all they have to do is tremble. Although they do not have a stringer, they could also help if some intruders disturb the hive or nest. They will use their wings again to disorient them.