Drones and their role in the bee family. Who is a drone Bees drive out drones in July

These are the male members of the bee family. They do not participate in collecting food - nature has not adapted them for this. Drones cannot even take food from stores, so they are fed by worker bees. They are larger than worker bees, but slightly shorter than the queen bee. Their length is 15-18 mm, weight 220-256 mg. Drones born in a bee cell weigh 160-177 mg. They have a better developed sense of smell and vision than bees. They need this to quickly locate the queens in the air. Drones do not have a stinger, so they cannot defend themselves or kill or offend anyone. Their brains are smaller than those of worker bees or the queen bee. The only purpose of drones is to inseminate the uterus. In addition, by their presence among the bees, they help them regulate the temperature inside the nest. Each bee colony at the end of spring (most often in mid-May, and if the weather is good, at the end of April) begins to breed a pear. This instinct captures the bees so much that they convert foundation and honeycombs with bee cells into drone cells, and also build up all the free areas of the honeycombs in the nest with honeycombs with drone cells. To feed 1 kg of drones, 4800 g of honey and 3600 g of bee bread are required. There are approximately 4000 drones in 1 kg. According to our research, one drone in the nest eats an average of 4 mg of food per hour, and during the flight - 41 mg per hour. Out of 24 hours (day), the drone spends 23 hours in the nest and 1 hour in flight, spending 133 mg. For 1 kg of drones, a family spends 532 g of honey per day, or 15.96 kg per month. Over 3 summer months, 1 kg of drones eats almost 0.5 quintals of feed. It is clear that keeping drones is advisable only in breeding families. Drones reach sexual maturity immediately after birth, but they are not suitable for mating; they need 10-14 days of training flights. The uterine substance (pheromone) is a bait for drones, therefore it should be considered as a sex hormone, and inside the hive and near the ground they do not react to this smell. It begins to affect them only at a height of 3-10 m from the ground. The drones, attracted by the smell of the pheromone, fly after the queen against the wind. Drone collection sites can be close to the apiary, or they can be 7 km or more away from the families.

Our experiments carried out in an apiary in the Kolyvan region showed that drones, flying out of the nest, take a supply of food for 40-67 km. They perfectly remember their hive, so they always return home, but if a drone gets lost, then in the summer it will be received in any apiary, in any family as the most honored guest. In all our experiments, the tagged drones always returned home.

In summer there are 2 - 3 thousand drones in a family. The bee colony can breed even more of them so that the queen spends as little time as possible meeting them. This in turn reduces the risk of collision with enemies (hornet, philanthus, birds). When there are a lot of drones, they fly after the queen like a comet. The first one to catch up with the queen mates with her and dies instantly, and the queen mates with the second, third, and so on. Some of the drones die while chasing the queen: their genitals are thrown out in flight, and the drone dies immediately. When the queen finishes mating, she returns to the nest under the protection of the bees. About half of the young queens do not have time to completely mate with the drones on the first day, so on the second day this flight is repeated. To save feed and combat varroa, it is necessary to use building frames in the apiary. When building up the combs, it is necessary to cover the frames with full sheets of artificial foundation and give the family 6 frames with foundation and 1 store-bought frame with the beginnings. On the store frame, the bees build a drone comb, and the queen lays eggs in the cells. Female Varroa Jacobsoni mites enter these same cells and also lay eggs. After sealing the drone brood, the beekeeper cuts out the comb with drones and places it in a solar wax grinder, and returns the frame to the family. Thus, the bees satisfy the instinct to build drone cells, perfectly building artificial foundation, and the number of mites in the colony decreases. In addition, the family lives without drones, saving food. This technique was used by the famous Siberian beekeeper D.G. Naychukov.

For breeding purposes, breeding families are allowed to build drone combs and breed full-fledged breeding drones. In the autumn, after the end of the bribe, in normal colonies the bees not only stop feeding the drones, but push them away from the open honey to the outermost frames, where the honey is sealed. The drones can't print it, so they have to starve. After this, the bees begin to drive them out of the hive, and those that stubbornly climb into the entrance are killed and thrown away. If a drone enters someone else's hive in the summer, the bees accept it and kill it in the fall. If there is drone brood in the colony, the bees throw it out too.

S.A. Glushkov (Advice to a beekeeper. - M., 1961) and others know that bees breed drones only in spring and summer, during warm weather, when mating with queens is possible. Each family can breed several thousand drones per season, although 6-8 mate with the queen. They live for about two months. Often, drones fly into the hives of other colonies, from which the bees do not kick them out, especially if they are preparing for swarming or breeding young queens.

Despite the large (approximately 25%) loss of bees during the winter of 2012/13, after transplantation into a new disinfected hive, the family quickly grew stronger. The bees flew well and brought pollen. At the beginning of June, all the frames of the nesting and store buildings were inhabited. There were no drones in sight. By July 1, all store frames were filled from top to bottom with honey, and a week later they were sealed.

By mid-July, their number increased over time. Throughout August and September, at an air temperature of 15...20°C, and until the end of October at a temperature of 12...15°C, they flew out of the hive and returned to it without hindrance. Especially many drones flew out and returned on October 8 at an air temperature of 14°C. It seemed that they had gathered in this hive from all over the area.

September 8 on 12 frames containing about 35 kg of feed. There were a lot of bees - they densely nested in all the frames. The drones remained again into the winter.

As a result of the spring inspection on March 24, at a temperature of 18°C, I found that the colony overwintered satisfactorily, the bees sat in all 12 frames, and 0.5-1 kg of honey remained in each frame. In the central frame, opposite the entrance, there was a sign, which indicated the presence of a fetal uterus. The bees fly confidently and actively, some bring yellow pollen. Therefore, we can conclude that bees sometimes leave drones in the winter if there is a fertile queen in the colony.

A.B.SOKOLOV
magazine "Beekeeping" No. 5, 2014

Drones in bee colonies- are male. Bees breed drones in late spring, when bee colonies are large enough and begin to prepare for swarming. The most interesting thing is that the bees breed them in large numbers, and for each drone they spend as much food as is needed to raise five to six worker bees. Adult drones eat even more honey and pollen. The bees do not prevent them from doing this. It's no secret why drones are needed in a bee colony.

Drones are the males in a bee colony.

Mating of drones with the queen occurs at a height of up to 30 m at a considerable distance from the apiary. Drones can fly to the mating site up to 7 km. Therefore, they have a good sense of smell to detect the queen, keen eyesight to see it, well-developed wings and great physical strength. Nature has endowed them with all the necessary qualities.

If a worker bee has eyes with 4–5 thousand facets, then a drone has 8 thousand. This gives him the opportunity to cover a large space with his eyes and orient himself well in space. The drone has long antennae, which are an organ for detecting smell. If each antenna of a worker bee has 11 segments, then a drone has 12. It can detect the queen at a distance of 50 meters.

Drones don't work.

Drones do not do any work in the hive, since they are not adapted for this. They do not have working organs, unlike worker bees. Drones have a short proboscis. If there is no honey in the hive, and the flowers around them generously secrete nectar, they will die of hunger, since they will not be able to collect the nectar themselves. They eat honey prepared by bees.

Drones do not participate in nest defense. They don't have a sting. Their function is one - to inseminate fertile queens. For the drone, as beekeepers say, every day is a week. To continue the race, nature freed them from all the worries associated with the working life of a bee family. But such generosity of nature comes at a very high cost for them. After mating with the queen, they die. The number of males in a family is not constant. In one family there are several hundred of them, and in another there are several thousand. The largest number of drones occurs in a family predisposed to increased swarming, with a poor nest, as well as in families with old queens.

The lifespan of drones depends on the worker bees.

Drones stay with the family until the breeding season ends. Often their presence in the family ends immediately after the end of the bribe in nature. Immediately after the bribe is over, the worker bees drive the drones out of the hive. The drone is only needed in summer, it is not needed for the winter. Term drone life depends not on physical capabilities, but on the physiological needs of the family. Their death is not associated with natural characteristics, as is the case with worker bees, but with hunger (bees drive them out of honeycombs) and cold (they drive weakened drones out of the hive).

Bees have a completely different attitude towards drones in colonies where the queens did not mate in a timely manner. In such families, drones can remain throughout the winter and spring. Bees can determine not only the inferiority of the queen, but also the need for drones necessary to inseminate the queen.
This feature of the behavior of bees in families is explained by vital expediency. The large mass of bees allows the family to collect a lot of food in a short period of time in the summer, withstand low temperatures in the winter, and protect its nest in the event of an attack. The queen alone manages to maintain the number of bees in the hive. Big number of drones guarantees reliable pairing. It has been observed that the drones disperse unevenly into areas and congregate in areas most likely to mate with the queen. Each bee can be outside the hive only to collect nectar, get to know the area, and queen and drones for mating.

Bees are one of those insects that are not able to exist alone. They live in families consisting of adults, larvae, and a queen. The female is considered to be the main mother in the family. Each family is independent, which causes constant battles between different families. Drones may appear in the hive, acting as a protective barrier during cold weather, and also participating in the process of mating with the queen.

The queen is the head of the bee family

According to biological characteristics, there are:

• many drones;
• maternal individual - uterus;
• bees.

The maternal individual plays a decisive role in the process of family organization. She appears along with the larvae, then the bees feed her. It differs from other individuals in that it grows and develops very quickly. She has an elongated body. With the help of drones, the mother is fertilized during flight. The drones die immediately. The queen then returns to the hive to begin laying eggs.

She is capable of laying about two thousand oblong-shaped eggs per day. You can expect the appearance of drones when the eggs are not fertilized. Worker bees emerge from fertilized eggs.

The appearance of a drone in a family

Tinder bees can appear if the mother begins to get sick or dies. The presence of drones in a bee family can lead to the extinction of all individuals. In this situation, it is necessary to replace the old uterus. More details about.

Drones are male. They are large, strong, move quickly, and adapt to their environment. However, they do not function as worker bees. In addition, they cannot become a good and effective rear guard, since they do not have a sting or poison.

Drones do not have the ability to feed themselves, so they eat what the worker bees bring. The bees drive out the drones because they lose all the honey they collected after flying around. Males are quite lazy, calm, their role in the family is that they inseminate the uterus and die. For this reason, many bees expel them on their own. Insects try to get rid of drones with all their might. Males are an integral part of the bee family. Most often, they live during the summer period and are then driven out of the hives by insects.

Although males cannot perform many of the functions of bees, they should not be completely eliminated. Otherwise, the bee colony may become low-energy, passive and lethargic. However, many beekeepers expel drones completely, since drone brood is susceptible to varroa.

The role of worker bees in the family

All roles are distributed in the family, so each individual is responsible for performing certain functions and actions.

Bees perform the following roles:

1. Scout. This role is assigned to the most active and mobile individuals, whose task is to find nectar. They follow color, hum and floral scent. Having found the desired source, the bees receive nectar, and then go with it to the hive and inform the rest of the family about the find.
2. The picker. Having waited for the scouts, such insects gather in a huge group to go for nectar.
3. Receptionist. When foragers bring nectar, other insects join in to put it into cells. After this, nectar processing begins.
4. Watchman These individuals are responsible for preserving the hive and its contents, as they are able to distinguish their own from strangers. To prevent theft of honey products, it is stored in the back as well as the top of the bee nest. In the autumn, the entrance is covered with propolis.
5. Cleaners. Such insects keep order and cleanliness. They carry all the garbage twenty meters from their homes.
6. Cleaners. These bees are responsible for the mother, ensuring that she can lay her eggs correctly. This ensures successful egg production. Strong families without any problems form many cells intended for queen eggs. Similar results are absent in weak bee colonies, because they do not contain cleaners.

Each insect in the family is responsible for performing certain functions. Since drones are needed only for mating, insects try to get rid of them by any means.

Drones appear in a bee colony in spring and summer. These are the male members of the bee family. The drone can be easily distinguished from the worker bee by its significantly larger size and weight - about 0.2 g, which is twice the weight of the worker bee. They do not participate in food collection and the drones cannot even take food from the reserves themselves, so they are fed by worker bees. In the family, drones do not perform any work, since their purpose is to mate with the queen in order to fertilize the eggs she lays.

Typically, several thousand drones can be born in a family over the spring and summer, although on average only 6-8 drones mate with the queen. The abundance of the latter in the family creates a greater saturation of the air space with them within the flight radius of the queens and guarantees a quick meeting of the queen with the drones. In this case, not only the meeting itself is important, but also, probably, some competition between the drones, which ensures selective mating of the queen, that is, mating with the most developed, strong males, from whom full-fledged offspring can be obtained. Drones live for about two months. In the fall, the bees expel them from the hive, and by winter there are usually no drones left in the hive. And only in families with barren queens do the bees not expel the drones, and they can remain in the winter.

Drones are larger than worker bees, but slightly shorter than the queen bee. Their length is 15-18 mm, weight 220-256 mg. Drones born in a bee cell weigh 160-177 mg. They have a better developed sense of smell and vision than bees. They need this to quickly locate the queens in the air.

Drones do not have a stinger, so they cannot defend themselves or kill or offend anyone. Their brains are smaller than those of worker bees or the queen bee. The only purpose of drones is to inseminate the uterus. In addition, their presence among the bees helps them regulate the temperature inside the nest. Each bee colony at the end of spring (most often in mid-May, and if the weather is good, at the end of April) begins to hatch pears. This instinct captivates the bees so much that they convert foundation and honeycombs with bee cells into drone cells, and also build up all the free areas of the honeycombs in the nest with honeycombs with drone cells. To feed 1 kg of drones, 4800 g of honey and 3600 g of bee bread are required. There are approximately 4000 drones in 1 kg. According to our research, one drone in the nest eats an average of 4 mg of food per hour, and during the flight - 41 mg per hour. Out of 24 hours (day), the drone spends 23 hours in the nest and 1 hour in flight, spending 133 mg. For 1 kg of drones, a family spends 532 g of honey per day, or 15.96 kg per month. Over 3 summer months, 1 kg of drones eats almost 0.5 quintals of feed. It is clear that keeping drones is advisable only in breeding families.

Drones reach sexual maturity immediately after birth, but they are not suitable for mating; they need 10-14 days of training flights. The uterine substance (pheromone) is a bait for drones, therefore it should be considered as a sex hormone, and inside the hive and near the ground they do not react to this smell. It begins to act on them only at a height of 3-10 m from the ground. The drones, attracted by the smell of the pheromone, fly after the queen against the wind. Drone collection sites can be close to the apiary, or they can be 7 km or more away from the families.

Our experiments carried out in an apiary in the Kolyvan region showed that drones, flying out of the nest, take a supply of food for 40-67 km. They understand their hive perfectly, so they always return home, but if a drone gets lost, then in the summer it will be received in any apiary, in any family as the most honored guest.

In all our experiments, the tagged drones always returned home. In summer there are 2 - 3 thousand drones in a family. The bee colony can breed even more of them so that the queen spends as little time as possible meeting them. This in turn reduces the risk of collision with enemies (hornet, philanthus, birds). When there are a lot of drones, they fly after the queen like a comet. The first one to catch up with the queen mates with her and dies instantly, and the queen mates with the second, third, and so on. Some of the drones die while chasing the queen: their genitals are thrown out in flight, and the drone dies immediately. When the queen finishes mating, she returns to the nest under the protection of the bees. About half of the young queens do not have time to completely mate with the drones on the first day, so on the second day this flight is repeated.

To save feed and combat varroa, it is necessary to use building frames in the apiary. When building up the combs, it is necessary to cover the frames with full sheets of artificial foundation and give the family 6 frames with foundation and 1 store-bought frame with the beginnings. On the store frame, the bees build a drone comb, and the queen lays eggs in the cells. Female Varroa Jacobsoni mites enter these same cells and also lay eggs. After sealing the drone brood, the beekeeper cuts out the comb with drones and places it in a solar wax grinder, and returns the frame to the family. Thus, the bees satisfy the instinct to build drone cells, perfectly building artificial foundation, and the number of mites in the colony decreases. In addition, the family lives without drones, saving food. This technique was used by the famous Siberian beekeeper D. G. Naichukov. For breeding purposes, breeding families are allowed to build drone combs and breed full-fledged breeding drones.

In the autumn, after the end of the bribe, in normal colonies the bees not only stop feeding the drones, but push them away from the open honey to the outermost frames, where the honey is sealed. The drones can't print it, so they have to starve. After this, the bees begin to drive them out of the hive, and those that stubbornly climb into the entrance are killed and thrown away. If a drone enters someone else's hive in the summer, the bees accept it and kill it in the fall. If there is drone brood in the colony, the bees throw it out too.

If the bees drive out the drones, it means that the honey harvest has ended and there is a fertile queen in the hive. In many families, the drones sit in a group on the landing board - the bees do not allow them further; in other families, the bees leave the entrance on drones astride. Bee colonies that do not have fertile queens, or are queenless, as well as colonies with drone bees or queen drones not only do not expel drones, but even accept those expelled from other hives. Very rarely, bee colonies with a fertile queen leave the drones until late autumn. There were cases (in 1967), for example, when in normal colonies the bees did not have time to destroy the drones in time and killed them already in the winter hut in the very first week.