Meet the Hive: Drone Bee
The Biology, Life Cycle, and Role of a Drone Honey Bee
In the intricate world of honey bees, drone bees—the male members of the colony—play a vital yet singular role: reproduction. Unlike the hard-working female worker bees or the all-important queen, drones have one primary task, and their lives revolve around fulfilling it.
Biology of a Drone Bee
Drones are noticeably different from their female counterparts. They are larger, with barrel-shaped bodies and large compound eyes that take up most of their heads. These large eyes help drones spot virgin queens during mating flights. Unlike worker bees and queens, drones do not have stingers or pollen baskets, and they lack the glands necessary for producing wax. Drones are solely focused on reproduction, and as a result, they do not perform foraging tasks, defend the hive, or participate in maintaining the colony.
A drone bee showing off his huge compound eyes.
Life Cycle of a Drone Bee
Egg Stage: A drone begins life as an unfertilized egg. The queen bee lays these unfertilized eggs in cells that are larger than typical worker bee cells. Drones develop from unfertilized eggs due to a process known as haplodiploidy, which is a common reproductive system in bees, wasps, and ants.
Larva and Pupa Stages: After hatching from the egg, the drone goes through the larval stage, where it is fed royal jelly for the first three days and then a combination of pollen and honey. The larval stage lasts about 6 days. Following the larval stage, the drone is capped inside its cell to begin pupation. The pupal stage lasts about 14 days, during which the larva undergoes metamorphosis, spinning a series of cocoons and emerging as a fully developed adult drone after approximately 24 days from egg to adult.
Adult Stage: Once the drone emerges, he spends some time inside of the hive begging his sisters for food. Thats right, he can’t feed himself so must ask the worker bees to feed him honey. Once his sexual organs are fully developed and he becomes strong enough, his main focus becomes mating. He’ll leave the hive each day in search of a virgin queen from another hive. Drones typically live for 6-8 weeks but can live for several months, depending on mating opportunities and the time of year.
The Life of a Drone Bee
The drone’s adult life revolves around one critical task: mating with a virgin queen bee from another colony. On warm days, drones leave the hive and fly to areas known as Drone Congregation Areas (DCAs). These are specific locations where hundreds or even thousands of drones gather in anticipation of a virgin queen's mating flight. The queen will mate with as few as 10 and up to 50 drones during her flight, collecting enough sperm to fertilize eggs for her entire lifetime.
For the drones that are successful in mating, the encounter is fatal. During mating, the drone’s reproductive organ is everted into the queen and his phallus is torn off, leading to his immediate death. The drones that don’t get lucky with a virgin queen continue to visit DCAs daily in hopes of finding another queen.
Drones also face a harsh reality as winter approaches. Since they contribute nothing to the hive’s foraging or maintenance tasks, worker bees expel the drones from the hive in late fall to conserve resources. Without the hive's protection, drones die of exposure or starvation.
The Drone’s Role in the Hive
The primary function of drones is reproduction and ensuring the genetic diversity of the species. While their role is limited and sometimes comical, it is critical for the colony’s survival. The queen mates with multiple drones to increase the genetic diversity within the hive, which can enhance the colony’s resilience against diseases and environmental stresses.
Although drones don’t have a direct role in hive defense, honey production, or brood care, their presence in the hive is a sign of a colony that is thriving and healthy since drone production is a luxury only strong colonies can afford.