Drones
August 23, 2013
Drones are often overlooked
in the bee world because they really don’t do anything other than mate. And
when they mate, they die. Doesn’t sound like the greatest but I guess some bees
have to do it. Drones are different from worker bees in a couple ways. Drone
cells are larger than worker bee cells and it takes 24 days for a drone to be
born. They do not forage for food and early in life are fed by worker bees.
They have no stinger so they can’t really defend themselves. They can be
distinguished from queen and worker bees because of their large eyes. Having
large eyes helps a drone to spot a queen bee on her “maiden flight.” As mating
is the drone’s sole purpose, these large eyes are very important. During a
mating flight, drones can actually mate seven to ten times, but they die
quickly afterwards. This is because a drone’s endophallus
is removed which rips open his abdomen. Drones that happen to survive the
mating flight are ejected from their nests, as they have served their sole
purpose by mating. Some hives will also kick
drones from the hive when the weather starts to get cold, causing many drones
to become prey for larger animals.
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