Content
The drone is one of the important members of the bee society. Contrary to the established reputation of slackers and parasites. As paradoxical as it may sound, without males the bee colony dies. There is not a single unnecessary representative in the bee community. Everyone has their own strictly defined role, and if even one link falls out, the bee colony suffers.
Who are drones among bees?
A drone is a male bee that emerges from unfertilized eggs. The way of life of a bee family is such that the young queen needs to fly once in her life for a “flight”, that is, to meet with the males for fertilization. At first glance, this seems counterintuitive. 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 tangle of “native” males immediately rushes after her. This is not an attempt to mate. At this point, drones are the bee equivalent of royal escorts and bodyguards.If a greedy beekeeper removes the “extra” drone combs so that the emerging males do not eat the valuable product, the queen is doomed.
Birds feeding on bees are always on duty near the apiaries. When the queen flies out with an escort, the birds attack and catch the bees. Since the same golden bee-eater doesn’t care who it is: a worker bee, a queen bee or a drone, it catches males. The queen flies unharmed several kilometers to the mating site.
Having met foreign males, the queen mates with them until the spermatic receptacle is filled. The fertilized female must still return home safely. On the way back, she is again accompanied by an escort of “suitors” 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 incubation period and catch 100% while feeding the chicks. Without a retinue, the “flying around” queen will inevitably die.
If male brood was unwisely destroyed, and the retinue is small, the bee-eaters will catch the queen on the fly. In this case, the bee colony will die if the beekeeper does not place a new fertilized female in time.
What does a drone look like?
Drones are easy to spot among bees. They stand out for their 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 wide and fluffy. Long wings are attached to it. Large, oval abdomen with a rounded posterior end. There is no sting. It is replaced by the reproductive apparatus.
Male bees have very developed sense organs. The worker bee's eyes are relatively small; the male's eyes 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 male's proboscis is short, and he cannot feed himself.It is fed by workers. The male also does not have a device for collecting pollen.
What do drones do?
There are two opinions regarding the male role in bee colonies:
- drones in a bee colony are parasites, 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 helping to increase 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, the drone brood is mercilessly destroyed, replacing the drone honeycombs with the so-called “dry” - artificial honeycombs 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 ventilate the hive. And ventilation is necessary for honey production. Without maintaining the required temperature and humidity, honey will not dry out, but will turn sour.
Also, the presence of males mobilizes bees to collect honey. Bee colonies where the drone brood has been completely destroyed perform worse during the high season.
Due to the lack of a sufficient number of drones in the colony, bees experience anxiety on an instinctive level. Instead of calmly collecting honey and feeding the working young, they begin to clean the hive and build drone combs again. Beekeepers destroying drone brood cut out such combs 2-3 times during the 24 days during which males develop in the combs without human intervention.
Beekeepers who adhere to the point of view “don’t mess with nature’s delicate regulation” observe the construction of drone honeycombs 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 colony with drone bees works quietly and stores honey. Also, she does not degenerate into a tinder family, which can easily happen in the hive where the males were destroyed.
First of all, the mite attacks drone cells. By waiting until the parasite lays eggs and then removing the comb, you can reduce the pest population in the hive. But in order not to deplete the bee colony, it is necessary to use other methods of mite control in the fall and spring.
Life cycle of drones
From the point of view of gender, the drone bee is a sub-female with a haploid set of chromosomes. Drone bees hatch from unfertilized eggs laid by the queen in a cell larger than usual. This phenomenon occurs due to an interesting mechanism of egg fertilization in bees.
During the flight, the uterus collects a full sperm receptacle, which lasts for the rest of its life. But this does not mean that all eggs automatically became fertilized.
The uterus has a special fertilization mechanism that is triggered 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 laid, the abdomen cannot expand normally, the hairs become irritated and sperm come from the spermatic receptacle to fertilize the egg.
When an egg is laid in a drone cell, such compression 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 lids. In clogged honeycombs, the larvae turn into pupae, from which drone bees emerge after 15 days. Thus, the complete development cycle of a drone takes 24 days.
Further opinions differ. Some people believe that drone bees live no more than a couple of months, others believe that an individual lives longer. Only one thing is certain: the bee colony produces drones from May to the end of summer.
The drone bee reaches sexual maturity at 11-12 years of age. After this, he is able to fly out of the hive and visit other people's families.
The importance of drones in a bee colony
Bees, called drones, have become synonymous with the lazy slacker who doesn't want to lift a finger. But real bee drones not only work as hard as they can, but also sacrifice themselves to preserve the colony.
Drone bees do not sit around in their 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 that fly near an apiary, the less likely the worker bees are to become prey to bee-eating birds or hornets.
In the same way, drone bees protect their queen during a flyby. Predators cannot break through the “armor” of males, but they don’t need to. They don't care what kind of bees they eat. The drones that survive after the flight return to their native hives and help the workers maintain a stable microclimate in the hive.
An attentive beekeeper, observing drone bees, can determine the state of the bee colony:
- breeding drones in spring – the colony is preparing to reproduce;
- appearance of dead drones at the entrance – the bees have finished stocking up and the honey can be pumped out;
- drones in winter – the bee colony has problems with the queen and it is necessary to take measures to save the swarm.
Sometimes it happens that out of all the families in the apiary, one works very sluggishly and stores little honey. If you look closely, this bee community has very few drones. How males stimulate workers to actively work has not been established. But without drones, worker bees do not work well. It turns out that the importance of drone bees is much higher than was commonly thought.
One of these breeds is Carpathian.
Drone bees: questions and answers
When breeding bees, novice beekeepers often have questions about what to do with drones. After all, only 2000 males are capable of eating 25 kg of honey per season. It’s a shame to waste a valuable product. But as stated above, males have a higher social role than may seem at first glance. And there is no need to spare honey. Restoring a colony left without males in the summer, or even buying a new one, will be more expensive.
How long does a drone live?
A male bee's life span is short. It is needed for fertilization of the uterus, but consumes too much food. At the end of summer, the number of flowers with nectar decreases, the bees are preparing for winter and they do not need extra eaters. The bee colony begins to get rid of individuals that are useless for a successful winter. The drone itself is unable to feed, and the worker bees stop feeding them.Slowly the bees push the drones towards the walls and entrance. If the male manages to be pushed out, he is no longer allowed back. Sooner or later the drone dies from hunger or cold.
What to do if there are a lot of drones in the hive
There is a good side to this: you can cut out the honeycombs with drone brood and get rid of some of the varroa mites.
In fact, the number of drone bees in a hive depends on the size of the bee colony and the age of the queen. It cannot be said that “there should be several hundred or several thousand drones.” The colony itself regulates the number of male bees it needs. Typically this is 15% of the total number of individuals in a bee colony.
It has been noticed that with a young queen, the colony raises few drones. If the number of males exceeds the average, you need to pay attention to the queen. She is either old or sick and cannot sow the honeycomb with eggs. In this case, the queen must be replaced, and the bees will deal with the excess drones themselves.
How to distinguish a drone
It is easy to distinguish an adult drone from a worker bee or queen. He's bigger and rougher. In the video, bees get rid of drones and in comparison it is clearly visible how much larger the male is than the working female.
For an inexperienced beekeeper, it is more difficult to figure out where the drone combs are, where the royal brood is, and where the bees are raising 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 ordinary females, the drone cells are sealed with convex caps to give more space to the future male. Sometimes the queen lays unfertilized eggs in normal cells. Drones from such honeycombs will be smaller and more difficult to find among other members of the colony.
The worst thing is if “humpback brood” appears in the hive in large quantities. 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 polypore appears, the swarm needs to add 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 approximately the same. It is difficult to determine what breed they belong to by their appearance. Yes, it doesn't really matter.
If all the bee colonies in the apiary are of the same breed and there are a sufficient number of male representatives, there is a high chance that the queen will not fly far and mate with a male of her own breed, but from someone else’s hive. If there are not enough drones or the queen flies several kilometers from home, there is no opportunity to control her mating. She may even meet drones from the wild family.
Conclusion
The drone is much more important for the bee colony than was commonly thought. It is impossible to interfere with the life of a bee colony and “improve” its composition by destroying males; this reduces the productivity of the colony.
