Bees and Drones: here's how to tell them apart

Worker bees, Queen Bee and Fuchi are essential elements for any swarm.

The hives in fact have a precise composition that creates a real family of bees according to some characteristics. Within the family there are tens of thousands of individuals. A large swarm can count as many as 50,000 components. The more numerous a swarm is, the stronger it is.

Within the family, each bee performs a specific task that affects the entire survival mechanism. In particular, the worker bees are the ones that do the most for the sustenance of all the components. The queen, on the other hand, takes care of egg production and the drones ... well, male bees have a marginal role and are essential only for the phase of mating with the queen . Let's find out more about their appearance, and how to distinguish them in a swarm.

Build of bees

You can easily distinguish a drone from a worker bee. The build of bees is generally much more delicate and tapered than that of drones. The male bees in fact have a slightly more imposing build, easily distinguishable from their body size. A drone is in fact a bit larger than other bees. Another characteristic is the shape of the body which unlike the females has a sharper cut, and not a pointed shape.

As we have already highlighted, the existence of the drone revolves around the needs of the queen bee and the hive. In fact, he is not autonomous to feed himself, as the male bee has a very short tongue by anatomy. This feature prevents it from feeding on nectar because it is not able to collect it so it is forced to lick the honey directly from the cells on the permission of the worker bees that tolerate it as it is essential for the fertilization of their queen. Also speaking of anatomy, drones do not possess any stings.

The sting is a feature that belongs only to female bees but has different uses based on the role of the bee. The queen bee uses its sting as a reproduction tool and uses it to lay eggs in cells . The worker bees, on the other hand, have a different sting characterized by small indentations and serrations that make it a real weapon, used exclusively for the defense of themselves and the hive .

Male bees play a marginal role

The drones present in a swarm are kept alive by the worker bees as an essential element for the reproduction of the queen bee. Other than for mating, the drones do not play any role as useful for the survival of the swarm.

Wedding flight with the Queen bee

When a virgin queen is ready for mating, she begins to produce pheromones which attract the attention of all the drones in the vicinity of the hive. The call can also reach drones that are a few kilometers away. In fact, the queen will mate with many drones from many hives and not with just one. This process is called a wedding flight . During this practice the queen begins to take flight and all the drones reach her upwards. The queen bees are equipped with a spermatheca, a particular organ that allows them to store the semen of all the drones and then be able to fertilize the eggs for the rest of their life.

It is precisely for this reason that mating occurs by trying to store as much seed as possible by all the drones. After the nuptial flight, the queen bee is fertile and will be able to begin laying eggs in its cells.

Death of the drones after mating

Unfortunately, the life of the drones does not give them many experiences since they die immediately after mating. This happens because their reproductive organ gets stuck in the queen and at the end of coitus, when the drone comes off, it loses that part of its body and goes against death.

For the drones that are unable to mate and return to the hive, there is no such better end because in this case the workers will stop feeding them and giving them sustenance as they are no longer considered useful for the survival of the hive . As already explained, male bees are unable to get food on their own, for this reason, if they are not cared for by the work of other bees, they die.

Where do male bees come from?

Drones hatch from eggs laid by the queen in cells, just like other bees. The main difference is that the eggs from which the drones are born are unfertilized eggs . The bees therefore know in advance what the sex of the new larvae will be because from the fertilized eggs thanks to the seed stored by the queen, female bees will be born while from the unfertilized eggs, the drones.

The Queen's job is indispensable. It is only in this way that the swarm continues to grow and survive. A queen lays thousands of eggs a day for her entire existence. When her performance drops, the bees replace her with a new ruler.

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