When do drones die?
Drones do not gather honey. They do not gather pollen. They do not clean, or care, or do anything other than hang out in the local “Drone Congregation Area.” No matter how many hives you have in an area, the drones select a particular area, and gather loosely there to watch for queens on mating flights. It is unknown how it is that drones from one season to the next choose the same congregation area, since none normally survive. Nor is it known how the queen, on her second flight from the hive, knows where the congregation area is. In the fall, the workers will drag the hapless drones from the hive, and refuse to allow them to return. During the summer though, the drone waits all day for a queen. His sole purpose in life is to procreate, but nature has played a cruel trick upon him. The same mechanism that forms a worker’s stinger is adapted to provide the drone’s sexual organs. Bees die after stinging. Drones die after mating, his genitals left with the queen.
