How long do drone bees live

Of course, I must start with one of the most well-known insects on the planet! Honey Bees are social insects that live in large colonies. With good health and a bit of luck, a colony can continue for years. However, the individual honey bees inside the hive will not live for years. Months or even weeks of daily work define the life of the honey bee. And as some grow old and die, they are replaced by new members of the colony. During the warm months, the colony must have a constant supply of workers to collect nectar and pollen.

Winter survival depends on this. All honey bees pass through a life cycle consisting of 3 stages of development. These are : egg, larva, pupa and adult. This is called complete metamorphosis. The cycle begins with the queen laying an egg. This egg becomes a larva after 3 days and is fed by young adult nurses. Larva grow quickly inside the cells. At the proper time, the young bee pupates inside a capped cell. A fully developed adult will emerge from her cell when mature.

All members of the colony go through this process — Workers, Queen and Drones. But, each type has a lifespan range related to their different roles. Her majesty the queen bee is the most important individual in the hive.

The primary role of the queen is to lay eggs. The only reproductive female in the colony, she is the mother of all. Given this important job for the colony, how long do you think queens live? A queen bee has the capacity to live for 2 or 3 — 4 years sometimes more.

Yet, she rarely lasts that long in the colony. Why do queen bees live longer than others? But even without hard work in the field, the queen does not last forever. As the she ages, her pheromone production declines and egg laying slows. Once the worker bees sense a failing queen, they will rear a new one and kill the old queen. Most of the members of a colony are worker bees. These non-reproductive females do all the work for the hive.

Unfortunately for these hard-working ladies, all this work takes a toll on their bodies. A honey bee's life cycle consists of three stages: the larval stage, the pupal stage and the adult stage. Collectively, this is known as complete metamorphosis because the form of the bee changes drastically from the larva to the adult.

The larval stage is similar for worker bees and queen bees, which are both female bees that hatch from a fertilized egg. Worker bees, drone bees and queen bees are all fed royal jelly in their first few days as larvae, but after that only the queen bee continues to receive the royal jelly, supplemented with honey toward the end of the larval stage. Worker bee larvae are mass-fed a compound known as "worker jelly" or "brood food," while drone bees, male bees that hatch from unfertilized eggs, are fed a modified version of the worker bees' diet, including increased quantities of pollen and honey, during the larval stage.

During the pupal stage, the bees form wings, legs, internal organs and other adult body parts, using the stores of fat they accumulated during the larval stage.

Small hairs also grow on the bee's body. Typically, the total time it takes to become a fully developed adult bee is around 21 days for workers, around 24 days for drones and around 16 days for queen bees. Queen bees develop faster thanks to their rich diet. The honey bee queen is also the largest of the bees in a colony, measuring around 2 cm — about twice as long as a worker bee. Drones are slightly bigger than workers, but never as big as queens.

A bee colony, an extremely organized, sophisticated society, is made up of three castes categories : A single fertile queen bee, hundreds of male drone bees and thousands of sterile female worker bees.

A bee's caste, as well as the time of year in which it was born, affects its lifespan. Summer workers have the shortest honey bee lifespan, while the queen bee outlives both other castes.

Adult drones have no useful purpose within the bee hive. They don't provide food, feed the young or produce wax. In fact, they waste the colony's resources and only serve one purpose: To mate with the queen bee. Drone bees first leave the hive six days after emerging from the pupal cell, flying to areas known for drone congregation and going back to the hive only when they have failed to mate. They do not have tasks to perform in the hive.

However, young drones can help themselves to nectar stored in cells — older drones beg nurse bees to feed them. Drones are normally produced in the Spring and throughout the Summer. They may live several months — a bit longer than worker bees. Those that successfully mate with virgin queens die shortly after. Any left in the colony in Fall, are usually kicked out of the hive to die.

No, as far as we know, even though mites are attracted to open drone cells — having drone brood in the hive does not attract mites from outside the hive. The drone population may be lessened during time of food shortages. And, they are normally denied the opportunity to over-winter.

However, their continued presence in the colony during the warm months is a sign of a honey bee colony that is taking no chances. Master Beekeeper, Charlotte Anderson shares her love of all things honeybee. She helps others become better beekeepers and teaches new beekeepers how to get started. Her mission is spreading awareness of the importance of honey bees.

She is a former Beekeeper of the Year in South Carolina. Skip to content. In this Post:. Reproductive Role of the Drone Bee Drones are mature and fertile starting at about the age of 10 — 12 days. Are male bees found in the hive all year? Can drone bees feed themselves? How long do drone bees live? Does having drone brood in your hive attract mites? Similar Posts. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.

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We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. But such a long life is nevertheless unlikely, and it appears to be more a result of happenstance than genetic predisposition. Honey bee drones being shown the door. In mild winters here the last couple have been that way here you may see drones in hives 12 months of the year.

The viability of these drones does ie via drone semen viability test vary greatly over the year. Work at the lab suggest drones will drift a lot between hives in a given apiary and one has to wonder if this is not one transmission vector for varroa. I would guess anyone that does II work has to know a lot about drones since this is an essential input for their work. Good point. I should have mentioned I was referring to drones in climates where honey bees cluster for winter.

Year round colonies are totally different. That is great info regarding drones. Lots of new and well sourced information which was perfectly explained. What you noted above makes a lot of sense to me now regarding the drones that I saw lounging on the front porch of their hive yesterday. This is my most robust hive with a huge population! I was back out in the bee yard again today where I was putting together another 5 double deep hives including frames, inner cover, telescoping top, and screened bottom boards.

During my breaks I would go and sit by my hives and check out their activity. There is something relaxing about sitting by the hives and watching them go in and out of the hive entrance. Anyhow, it was warm again today 43 degrees in Santa Fe, New Mexico and this particular hive acted like it was a summer day with all the bee activity. The foragers and drones were out in force again and the guard bees were letting the drones go back in and out of the hive through mouse guard at will. There were even foragers bringing in loads of pollen as well.

I think I will raise some queens from this particular hive, they seem to be extremely acclimated to the cold and this was my biggest honey producing colony.

My other 10 hives were not so active and were clustered with very little activity.