The drone bee generated form the infertile eggs of queen through parthenogenesis process. They are haploid (2n), small in size, bigger than worker but smaller than queen bee.
They lengths about 15-17 mm. They have big compound eyes and sharp mandible. They have no organ for caring/collecting pollen. They also have no wax gland, absorbing organ, sting etc.
They generally don’t do anything for the colony. There are about 500-1,000 drone bee in a hive/colony. They are fully dependent to the worker bee for food.
They have no activity in the colony except mating with queen bee. They mate with queen and after mating they die.
They live in a globular chamber of the hive which is located at the lower part of the hive.
They mate once in a year. During mating the drone has to face a competition with other drones.
They mate with queen while flying in the sky. After 2-3 days of mating the drone lose it’s sting and die. Generally a hive consists of 500-1,000 drones(sometimes more).
If the hive/colony suffers by food crisis then the worker bee stop serving food to the drone bee or kill them by biting them with sting.
Do these bees make honey?
No, they don’t. Worker bees in a bee colony do the work of making honey. Good luck!