Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
by comparison, are larva for six days and pupa for twelve days. Queens are larva for
five-and-a-half days and pupa for only seven-and-a-half-days. A colony invests a lot of
food and energy in raising drones.
A drone larva sheds its skin as it grows (as do worker and queen larva). When the
process is complete, the workers cap the cell with a mix of old and new wax. Because
of the drone's large size, these cappings are not nearly flat, like a worker's, but domed
to provide additional room, and are often referred to as bullet-shaped caps.
An adult drone can be identified by its large size, and fuzzy, blunt-tipped, stocky abdo-
men. Note the large eyes, extending all the way to the top of the head. The wings are
about as long as the abdomen, unlike the queen's wings, which are only half as long as
the abdomen.
After twenty-four days (depending on the broodnest temperature, this time frame
may vary by a day or two), an adult drone emerges. They are vastly different in appear-
ance and function from their worker half-sisters. Drones have no sting apparatus. (A
sting is part of a worker's underdeveloped reproductive system.) They are larger than
workers, have comparatively huge eyes that reach to the tops of their heads, and have a
stout, blunt abdomen.
For the first two days or so, they are fed by workers; then, while they learn to feed
themselves, they beg enriched food from workers and begin to eat stored honey. After
a week of this, they start orientation flights near the colony, learning landmarks and de-
veloping flight muscles. When weather permits, they begin mating flights. Drones do
not mate with queens from their own hive. They fly to drone congregation areas (DCAs)
in open fields, open spots in woody areas, or at the edges of large woody areas. Undis-
turbed areas serve as DCAs year after year for future generations. Drones tend to be
fairly indiscriminate when looking for queens in the drone congregation area (DCA).
They will chase nearly anything in the air above of the mating area, such as a stone
thrown into the air.
Because drones cannot produce wax, cannot forage, cannot clean house or guard the
hive entrance, they are expensive for a colony to support. That investment continues to
be borne by a colony to ensure that the genes of the drones' mother—the queen—are
carried on in the general population of honey bees.
There comes a time, however, when that price is too high for the hive to pay. If, dur-
ing the season, a dearth occurs and food income is limited or nonexistent, the colony
