Drones of a bee family
In addition to the uterus and worker bees, drones live in the bee family – its male part. These are large insects with large, almost full head, complex eyes, powerful wings, developed muscles. They are stronger than females, fly with great speed, quickly navigate in space. No drones perform any work in the nest or in the field. They do not collect nectar, do not build honeycombs, do not feed brood, do not ventilate the nest. They do not have for this either wax glands, or organs secreting milk. The proboscis is shortened in drones. If suddenly there is no honey in the nest, and around the flowers will be abundantly allocated nectar, drones will die from hunger – they can not themselves get food. Therefore, they are fed with honey and pollen, which are prepared by the worker bees. It’s not for nothing that they say: “A trout is fat, it’s a bad thing.”
In contrast to other insects living communities, drones, this male and seemingly strong part of the family, do not participate in protecting the nest, protecting stocks, fighting enemies. True, it is unfair to blame them for it: they have nothing to defend themselves. They do not have a sting and poison. Even for themselves can not stand up. Therefore, to protect the nest belongs to the female sex, so to say the soldiers of the bee family are worker bees.
Most of the time drones spend in the nest on the honeycomb, near the honey, or on the side, along the edges of the nest, where it is cooler, in laziness, tranquility, idleness. That’s why a lazy, labor-loving person, living at the expense of others, is compared to a drones.
The only purpose of drones is to inseminate the queens. In the name of the prolongation of the genus, nature has freed them from all the worries of the family, endowed them with great strength, vigilance (the complex eyes of the drones consist of 15-16 thousand faceted eyes)
During this period drones are transformed. Where does their liveliness and energy come from?
The complete freedom and idleness of drones cost them in the end very expensive. After the marriage union with the uterus, they immediately die. And the rest after the breeding period is mercilessly expelled from the nest by workers bees. Deprived drones are dying from hunger.
Each family, obedient to the mighty instinct of reproduction, grows a drones.
Usually they are taken out several hundreds, sometimes up to two thousand, that is much more than is necessary for insemination of the uterus. However, a large number of males helps to quickly identify young queens in the air, often several kilometers from the apiary, and ensures mating. In addition, as it has now become known, not one, but several (6 to 8) drones take part in insemination of the uterus. That’s why the family displays so many males without sparing food for them. All this nature guarantees the reliability of reproduction and conservation of this species of Hymenoptera on Earth.
An excessively large number of drones occurs in families where the uterus is old, infertile, and also where the nests are bad, with a large number of drone cells. The abundance of drones is an indicator of the poor quality of the family. In such a family there are few nectar collectors, the working capacity of worker bees is low and the productivity of the queens is low. It should replace the old uterus, update the nest.
A lot of drones are grown by families with unpaired, shaggy uterus. This happens when during the breeding of bees there is inclement weather and the uterus can not fly out of the nest or with a lack of drones in the area of marital flights of queens. From the drones of tinder drones small, dwarfish are born. As producers, they are inferior. Look into the nest of the tutoring family. There you will see strongly convex closed cells, the so-called humpback brood.
The unfertilized eggs, from which the drones are just developing, are placed by the uterus in the close-fitting beehive cells. Bees have to be built in order to accommodate large drones of larvae. From this cell and get hunched.
Drones, like the uterus, pass on their qualities to the offspring. Since they are born from unfertilized eggs, in other words, without a father, they bear hereditary deposits only of their mother. If their mother is prolific, the family in which they were raised is strong, the bees are efficient, collect a lot of nectar and winter well, which means that the offspring of drones will inherit these valuable qualities. From drones of unproductive families, whose uterus is not able to produce bees to the beginning of the main honey crop, it is impossible to get good offspring. It is very important, therefore, to have on the apiary manufacturers from the very best families.
That is why in bad families it is recommended to replace the queens more often, to remove honeycombs with drone cells, systematically, every 2 weeks to cut out the tartar brood. Also used turtles. These attachments are attached to the tap for 2 to 3 hours in the middle of the day, during the mass departure of males. Traps reduce the number of bad drones in the apiary.
However, it is noted that families in which there are drones, on honey collectors work more actively than those that were left without them. Unreasonable, total destruction of drones leads to family fatigue, a drop in the energy of bees. Apparently, a family without drones during the period of reproduction is acutely aware of its inferiority. Thus, the law of conservation of species is manifested. Hence, the drone is just as important and necessary a member of the family as the uterus or working bee. Not for nothing they say: “A trot is a fool, and without it – not a family”.
Drones do not live long, only 2-3 months. The bees bring them out in the spring, in May, and at the end of the summer, as soon as the breeding season is over, more often immediately after the main honey collection, they are expelled from the nest. Do not soon need drones, and why feed excess mouths. First, the bees starve them with their hunger, not allowing them to go to the honey, and then they get exhausted and exhausted from the hives. In the morning, after a cool night, at the entrance to the hive, you can see huddled, wretched, droning drunkards. The hosts no longer let them into the dwelling, they fall into the grass or, escaping, rise into the air and never again return home. “In the summer, a drone is needed, and in winter – cold.” Not a single drone drone is left for the winter. Such is their stern law. Does not fulfill it only that family, whose uterus has remained barren, there drones live till the spring.
To the observant beekeeper, drones can tell a lot. They appeared in the spring, which means that the breeding season began. They drove them from the hives – the bees will not swarm now. Small drones – in the family of the uterus-processing, too many of them – the uterus is old. Drones in the winter – the uterus is barren. Therefore, it is necessary to take necessary measures to this family.
By the appearance of drones, you can determine the breed of bees. They are dark in the forest of Central Russia, and in the case of the Italian ones, they are yellow.
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