Drone

Drones are male bees from colonies of social bees. Drones form from unfertilised eggs within colonies of honey bees and bumble bees. The drones leave the colonies and mate with gynes (new queens) from other colonies before dying.

A photograph of a drone honey bee.
Photograph by Waugsberg licensed under Creative Commons.

Related terms

• Aculeate
• Africanised honey bees
• Apiary
• Apoidea
• Bee bread
• Beeswax
• Cerumen
• Colony Collapse Disorder
• Eusocial
• Gaster
• Gyne
• Honey
• Honey bee
• Hymenoptera
• Nuptial flight
• Propolis
• Queen
• Queen cell
• Queen excluder
• Queen substance
• Royal jelly
• Varroa mite
• Worker

Related groups of terms

• Insect life cycles

Related pages on this web site

• Aculeate hymenoptera
• Bees
• Bees and Beekeeping: From simple bee-ginnings
• Bees, Wasps and Ants - Order Hymenoptera

See other words beginning with D