Drones: The Male Bees Who Get Kicked Out Every Fall

If you watch a hive entrance closely in the fall, you may see something that looks a little harsh: worker bees dragging bigger, clumsier bees out of the hive and refusing to let them back in. Those evicted bees are drones, the males of the colony. Here's who they are and why fall is such a rough season for them.

Meet the drone

A honey bee colony has three kinds of bees: one queen, thousands of female worker bees, and, during the warm months, a few hundred to a few thousand male drones. Drones are easy to spot once you know what to look for:

• They're bigger and bulkier than workers, with a blunt, rounded rear end.
• Their huge eyes wrap around and meet at the top of the head. They need them to spot queens in flight.
• They make a deeper, louder buzz.

What drones don't do

Drones have no stinger. The stinger is a modified egg-laying organ, so only females have one. Drones also don't forage for nectar, make wax, build comb, feed babies, clean, or guard the hive. They can't even gather their own food efficiently and are mostly fed by their sisters.

What drones do

A drone has one job: mating. On warm afternoons, drones fly out to "drone congregation areas," invisible gathering spots in the sky where drones from many colonies meet. When a young queen flies through on her mating flights, drones chase her. The few who succeed die right after mating. It's a strange, dramatic life, but it's how honey bees keep their gene pool diverse, since a queen mates with many drones from many different colonies.

Why they get kicked out in fall

Once the nectar flow slows and queens stop taking mating flights, drones become expensive houseguests. Every drone eats stored honey but contributes nothing to getting the colony through winter. So as the days shorten, the workers stop feeding them, push them toward the entrance, and drag them out. Without the colony, a drone can't survive long.

It sounds cruel, but it's a big part of why colonies survive winter. Every mouthful of honey saved goes to the winter bees and the queen, who will need it in the cold months ahead. (Here's how we help our colonies get ready, too: Fall Hive Prep in the Bay Area.)

What it tells a beekeeper

Drone eviction is one of the signals we watch for each fall. It tells us the colony knows the season is changing. On the other hand, a colony that keeps its drones deep into winter can sometimes be a sign that something is off, such as a failing or missing queen. Little behaviors like this are part of how beekeepers read what's happening inside the box. (It's also one of those things that can alarm new beekeepers. See 10 Beginner Beekeeping Mistakes.)

Where do drones come from?

Here's the fun part: drones come from unfertilized eggs. The queen chooses whether to fertilize each egg as she lays it. Fertilized eggs become females (workers or queens), and unfertilized eggs become drones. That means a drone has a mother but no father, one of the stranger facts in the insect world.

Want to know how the rest of the colony spends its time? Read Why Bees Make Honey to see what all that hard work is really for. And if you'd like to help our colonies through the winter ahead, a hive adoption supports their care all year long.