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The drone is one of the important members of the bee society. Contrary to the established glory of idlers and parasites. Paradoxical as it may sound, but without males, the bee family dies. There is not a single unnecessary representative in the bee community. Everyone has their own strictly defined role, and if at least one link falls out, the bee family suffers.
Who are the drones of the bees
A drone is a male bee that emerges from unfertilized eggs. The way of life of a bee family is such that a young queen needs to fly once in her life to “fly around”, that is, to meet with males for fertilization. At first glance, this seems illogical. After all, the hive has many of its own males. But nature requires the queen to mate with unrelated males to avoid inbreeding.
But as soon as the queen flies out of the house, a whole ball of “native” males immediately rushes after her. This is not an attempt to mate. At this point, the drones are the bee analogue of the royal escort and bodyguards. If a greedy beekeeper removes the “extra” drone combs so that the males that appear do not eat a valuable product, the uterus is doomed.
Birds feeding on bees are always on duty near apiaries. When the queen takes off with an escort, the birds attack and catch the bees. Since the same golden bee-eater does not care who it is: a worker bee, queen or drone, it catches males. The queen flies unharmed several kilometers to the mating site.
Having met foreign males, the uterus mates with them until the seed receptacle is filled. The fertilized female should still safely return home. On the way back, she is again accompanied by an escort of “boyfriends” from her native hive. If there are no other colonies nearby, the queen flies much further than the males and is forced to return home alone. In such a situation, birds eat 60% of the queens during the period of incubation of eggs and catch 100% while feeding the chicks. Without a retinue, the “flying around” uterus will inevitably die.
If the male brood was unreasonably destroyed and the retinue is small, the bee-eaters will catch the queen while they are still hatching. In this case, the bee family will die if the beekeeper does not add a new fertilized female to them in time.
What does a drone look like
Drones are easy to spot among the bees. They stand out in size. But the differences are not only in size, although the male can be 1,8 cm long and weigh 180 mg. The chest is broad and fluffy. It has long wings attached to it. Large, oval abdomen with a rounded posterior end. The sting is missing. It is replaced by the sexual apparatus.
The male bees have highly developed sense organs. In a worker bee, the eyes are relatively small; in a male, they are so large that they touch each other at the back of the head. The antennae are also longer than those of worker bees. The proboscis of the male is short, and he cannot feed himself. It is fed by workers. The male does not have a device for collecting pollen.
What do drones do
There are two opinions about the male role in bee colonies:
- drones in a bee colony are parasites that are needed only for a few days to fertilize the queen and consume too much honey;
- drones are useful members of the bee family, performing not only the functions of fertilization and contributing to an increase in honey reserves for the fall.
The first point of view was generally accepted 40 years ago. And now many beekeepers adhere to it. In this regard, drone brood is mercilessly destroyed, replacing drone combs with the so-called “dry” – artificial combs for the brood of working females.
The second point of view is gaining popularity. Especially after it turned out that the male bees in the hives not only eat honey, but also help the workers to ventilate the hive. And ventilation is necessary for the production of honey. Without maintaining the required temperature and humidity, honey will not dry out, but turn sour.
Also, the presence of males mobilizes bees to collect honey. Bee colonies, where the drone brood has been completely destroyed, work worse in the high season.
Due to the lack of a sufficient number of drones in the colony, the bees experience anxiety on an instinctive level. Instead of calmly collecting honey and rearing working young, they begin to clean the hive and build drone combs again. Beekeepers who destroy drone brood cut out such combs 2-3 times in those 24 days, during which males develop in the combs with no human intervention.
Beekeepers who adhere to the point of view “do not get dirty hands into fine natural adjustment” observe the construction of drone combs only once a year in the spring. And, despite the excellent appetite of the drones, they end up getting more honey from each hive. A bee family with drone bees works quietly and stores honey. Also, she does not degenerate into a tinder colony, which can easily happen in the hive where the males were destroyed.
First of all, the tick attacks the drone cells. If you wait for the parasite to lay eggs and then remove the comb, you can reduce the pest population in the hive. But in order not to deplete the bee family, in autumn and spring it is necessary to use other methods of combating the mite.
Life cycle of drones
From the point of view of sex, the drone bee is a non-female with a haploid set of chromosomes. Drone bees emerge from unfertilized eggs laid by the queen in a cell larger than normal. This phenomenon occurs due to an interesting mechanism of fertilization of eggs in bees.
On the flyby, the uterus gains a full seminal receptacle, which is enough for her until the end of her life. But this does not mean that all eggs automatically become fertilized.
The uterus has a special fertilization mechanism that works only when an egg is laid in a small (5,3-5,4 mm) cell. These are sensitive hairs that, when compressed, transmit a signal to the muscles of the seminal pump. When laying, the abdomen cannot expand normally, the hairs are irritated and spermatozoa come from the seed receptacle, fertilizing the egg.
When laying an egg in a drone cell, such squeezing does not occur, since the size of the “cradle” for the future male is 7-8 mm. As a result, the egg enters the cell unfertilized, and the future male has only the genetic material of the uterus.
After 3 days, larvae emerge from the eggs. Worker bees feed them milk for 6 days. After the “nanny”, the cells are sealed with convex caps. In clogged combs, the larvae turn into pupae, from which drone bees emerge after 15 days. Thus, the full development cycle of the drone takes 24 days.
Further opinions differ. Someone believes that drone bees live no more than a couple of months, others – that an individual lives longer. Only one thing is certain: the bee family breeds drones from May to the end of summer.
The drone bee reaches puberty at the 11-12th. After that, he is able to fly out of the hive and visit other people’s families.
The value of drones in the bee family
Bees, which are called drones, have become synonymous with the lazy slacker who doesn’t even want to lift a finger. But real bee drones not only work to the best of their ability, but also sacrifice themselves to save the colony.
Drone bees don’t sit idle in hives. They fly out and curl around the apiary. They can visit other people’s families, where they will be welcome. The more drone bees flying near the apiary, the less likely the workers are to become prey for bee-eating birds or hornets.
Similarly, drone bees protect their queen on a flyby. Predators cannot break through the “armor” of males, but they do not need to. They don’t care what bees they eat. The drones that survived after the flight return to their native hives and help the workers maintain a stable microclimate in the hive.
An attentive beekeeper, observing the drone bees, can determine the state of the bee colony:
- breeding drones in spring – the colony is preparing for reproduction;
- the appearance of dead drones in the notch – the bees have finished harvesting stocks and you can pump out honey;
- drones in winter – the bee family has problems with the queen and it is necessary to take measures to save the swarm.
Sometimes it happens that of all the families in the apiary, one works very sluggishly and stores little honey. If you look closely, this bee community will have very few drones. How males stimulate workers for active work has not been established. But without drones, worker bees do not work well. It turns out that the value of drone bees is much higher than was commonly thought.
One of these breeds is the Carpathian.
Drone bees: questions and answers
When breeding bees, beginner beekeepers often have questions about what to do with drones. After all, only 2000 males are able to eat 25 kg of honey per season. It’s a pity to waste a valuable product. But as noted above, males have a higher social role than it might seem at first glance. And you don’t have to feel sorry for honey. Restoring a colony that was left without males in the summer, or even buying a new one, will be more expensive.
How long does a drone live
The age of the male bee is short. It is needed for the fertilization of the uterus, but consumes too much food. At the end of summer, the number of flowers with nectar is reduced, the bees are preparing for wintering and they do not need extra eaters. The bee family begins to get rid of individuals that are useless for successful wintering. The drone itself is unable to eat, and the worker bees stop feeding them. Slowly, the bees push the drones to the walls and the notch. If the male managed to be pushed out, he is no longer allowed back. Sooner or later, the drone dies of hunger or cold.
What to do if there are a lot of drones in the hive
The good side of this is that you can cut out the drone brood combs and get rid of some of the varroa mites.
In fact, the number of drones in a hive depends on the size of the colony and the age of the queen. It cannot be said that “drones should be several hundred or several thousand.” The colony itself regulates the number of male bees it needs. Usually this is 15% of the total number of individuals in a bee colony.
It is noted that with a young queen, the colony grows few drones. If the number of males exceeded the average, you need to pay attention to the uterus. She is either old or sick and cannot sow the honeycombs with eggs. In this case, the queen needs to be replaced, and the bees will handle the excess number of drones themselves.
How to distinguish a drone
It is not difficult to distinguish an adult drone from a worker bee or queen. It’s bigger and rougher. In the video, the bees get rid of the drones and in comparison it is clearly seen how much the male is larger than the working female.
For an inexperienced beekeeper, it is more difficult to figure out where the drone combs are, where the brood is, and where the bees grow their replacements.
Drone brood can be distinguished not only by the size of the cells, but also by the shape of the lids. Since males are much larger than normal females, the drone cells are sealed with bulging caps to give more space to the future male. Sometimes the uterus lays unfertilized eggs in normal cells. Drones from such combs will be smaller and more difficult to find among other members of the colony.
Worst of all, if “humped brood” appears in mass quantities in the hive. This means that the colony has lost its queen and is now being replaced by a tinder bee. The tinder lays eggs incorrectly. Often it occupies ordinary cells. Working individuals also seal such honeycombs with convex caps. But when a tinder appears, the swarm needs to plant a full-fledged female or completely disperse this colony.
Is it possible to determine the breed of bees by the appearance of a drone
It is often difficult to determine the breed even by the appearance of a working female. It happens that the breed is visible only by the nature of the bee colony: apathetic, aggressive or calm.
Drones of any breed look about the same. By their appearance it is difficult to determine what breed they belong to. Yes, it doesn’t really matter.
If all bee families of the same breed and a sufficient number of males are in the apiary, chances are high that the queen will not fly far and will mate with a male of her own breed, but from someone else’s hive. In the absence of a sufficient number of drones or the departure of the uterus for several kilometers from the house, there is no possibility to control its mating. She can generally meet drones from a wild family.
Conclusion
The drone is much more important to the bee colony than was commonly thought. It is impossible to interfere in the life of a bee colony and “improve” its composition by destroying males, this reduces the productivity of the colony.