The pupal stage usually lasts around seven days.ĭrones are the last adults to emerge, even though their organisms aren’t much different from that of a worker bee. During this stage, he won’t feed and will remain here until he’s fully matured. The first two days he’ll receive a power food called royal jelly, after that he’ll eat pollen and honey.Īfter the larval stage comes to an end, the drone becomes a pupa. He will then remain in the larval stage for about six days. The drone egg usually takes three days to hatch. This means that a drone can have a mother other than the queen. You see, it’s been proven that worker bees can and do sometimes lay unfertilized eggs. They only have genes from their mother (the queen) and their grandfather, since the queen came from a fertilized egg. That means, they only have half the chromosomes of the female workers, 16 compared to 32. Drones Have Half the Chromosomes of Femalesĭrones are the product of unfertilized eggs. The stingers are actually used as egg-laying tools, which of course, a drone doesn’t need.
The stinger on a female bee isn’t only there to give us a painful pinch. Drones can’t sting, so you don’t need to fear them as much. One significant thing worker bees have that drones don’t have is a stinger. Despite their voluminous size, they’re still able to fly alongside a queen in order to mate. In species like the honeybees, the drones will look more stout than the females. In some species, the drones will be visibly larger, compared to the workers.
They are larger because they need to have good vision in order to spot queens, ready for mating. A drone’s eyes tend to be much bigger compared to those of a female worker bee. There are two main ways to identify a drone bee: by their eyes and their size. However, there are a few subtle differences. They usually look very similar to the other bees in the colony, the workers.
What Do Drone Bees Look Like?ĭrone bees differ in appearance, from species to species. They are actually quite an important component for a colony to grow and remain healthy. They can’t sting, lay eggs, collect pollen or make honey, so what do they do? These male bees may seem of little value to the colony. Male bees of a colony are generally referred to as drones.