What is a Drone Bee?

A drone bee is an adult male bee who has a special role within a honey bee colony. Like all bees, he needs to mate in order to live, but unlike female worker bees, he does not collect pollen or nectar, or make honey or royal jelly. He also does not build comb, nurse young bees, or clean contaminated comb.

Drones are produced when a queen places an egg in a special cell designed to accommodate drones. The eggs hatch and develop into larvae, consuming a power food called royal jelly for the first two days. Once larval drones become sexually mature, they will spend the rest of their lives mate.

In addition to mating, drones provide an important service for the colony by aiding in thermoregulation during cold weather. By surrounding the queen and conserving energy by decreasing their internal temperatures, drones help to warm the hive and prevent its collapse during times of adversity such as a drought or winter.

They are not only a valuable service to the colony, but they are also extremely useful in detecting incoming bees. They can detect a swarm from several kilometers away, and they are capable of recognizing a queen bee from a distance.

Once a virgin queen is ready to mate, she leaves the hive on a nuptial flight (also called a swarming flight) and goes to a drone congregation area to seek out a partner. When she arrives, a comet-shaped swarm of drones pursues her, with large compound eyes that allow them to see the queen’s pheromones and follow her as she enters the congregation area.

When the queen lays her eggs, the embryos are fertilized by the sperm that she carries with her from the nuptial flight. When the eggs hatch, they are haploid – that is, they have half the chromosomes of a worker bee, 16 instead of 32.

During the active season, drones are entirely reliant on the female workers for their food. They do not collect pollen or nectar, nor do they make honey or royal jelly – all the food they need is provided to them by the workers.

They cannot defend the hive, but they will try to frighten away any disturbers. They are also susceptible to infection with a virus that causes nectar fever, known as Nosema apis.

A queen bee will mate with an average of 12 drones at a time. However, she may mate with up to 40 drones during the course of her life.

When the mating is complete, the queen and a swarm of male bees, known as drones, fly off together into the air. When the swarm disperses, it will take with it any bees that were not involved in the mating.

Drones are also very vulnerable to infection with Nosema ceranae, which is a bacterial disease that is spread through the stings of other bees and is found in bumblebees. This bacteria is also transmitted by worker bees who have contaminated comb with it.