Talk:Drone (bee)

Using the article "he" does not seem that scientific

Drone bees are technically all male but bees don't have gender the same way humans do so referring to them as "he" makes the article sound nonsci — Preceding unsigned comment added by Reputationbiohazard (talk • contribs) 13:44, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

The process is sometimes audible to the human ear, akin to a "popping" sound.

Please substantiate this claim. This claim is encountered in other online content, buthdjkd not substantiated, either by citation or by personal attestation. I am not an expert, but nonetheless skeptical. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Subcientifico (talk • contribs) 00:53, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

Who drifts? drones or virgin-queens? Needs clarification

Sentence below is slightly ambigious : I *think* this means the drones 'drift from hive to hive', but the sentence could be read as 'virgin queens drift[...]'

I don't know enough about bees to go ahead and make the clarification though; in case I mess up the meaning.

// The drones' main function is to be ready to fertilize a receptive queen. Drones in a hive do not usually mate with a virgin queen of the same hive because they drift from hive to hive. //

Bees have fingers? huh?

// [a drone will] sometimes try to frighten the disturber by swinging its tail towards the fingers // — Preceding unsigned comment added by Monowiki (talk • contribs) 21:25, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

Odd/possibly superflous phrase '[drone crongregation areas] do exist' ?

// Mating generally takes place in or near drone congregation areas. It is poorly understood how these areas are selected, but they do exist. //

Is that true, are the drinking bees on the picture drones?

I think this are typical workers. First argument: The eyes are to small. Second: Drones are not collecting food (and water). They will be always feeded from their sisters. --MikePhobos 18:02, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Diploid males

According to this article:

"When a drone mates with its sister, the resultant queen will have a spotty brood pattern (numerous empty cells on a brood frame); again it is not clearly understood whether this is from higher mortality of the larvae, or by removal of these larvae by nurse bees."

According to Dr. Marion Ellis, Entymoligist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln:

"When unfertilized eggs are laid (hemizygotes) normal males are produced. When queens mate with closely related drones, some of the fertilized eggs will receive the same allele from both parents (homozygotes). This union results in some of the fertilized eggs having two copies of the same gene. If hand fed by a scientist, they can be reared to adult drones. These larvae are cannibalized by the workers as soon as they hatch."

http://entomology.unl.edu/beekpg/tidings/btid1997/btidsp97.htm#Item2

Chosing to fertilize an egg

According to this article: "It is not clearly understood what prompts a honey bee queen to lay an unfertilized egg versus a fertilized egg."

According to Pongthep Akratanakul:

"The fertilized eggs are deposited in small worker cells, while the unfertilized eggs are laid in the larger drone cells: the queen can determine cell size and cleanliness by passing her head into the cell and using her front legs to measure its internal width."

http://www.fao.org/docrep/X0083E/X0083E03.htm

According to Brian P. Dennis: "The mated queen can lay an egg, which becomes a drone, or add sperm to the egg to produce a worker - if the fertilised egg is reared in a queen cell and fed copiously, a queen is produced. The queen determines the type of cell by measuring with her front legs - worker cells are smaller than drone cells."

http://www.bbka.org.uk/articles/life_cycle_apis_mellifera.php

Michael Bush (talk) 19:41, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The opening just may need some rewording

"Drones carry 100,987,543 type of allele because they are ha ..." Huh? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.127.183.87 (talk) 14:15, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Drones mate with virgin queen or non-virgin queen?

In the section Roles it is written that several drones mate with non-virgin queen whereas on other sources it appear that drones mate with virgin queen on her mating flight. If someone is able to add some explanation it might be helpful. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Umair amin (talk • contribs) 06:49, 5 May 2012 (UTC)

Not clear what this may have been for

The "general" citation Loper, G. M.; Wolf, W. W.; Taylor, O. R. (1992). "Honey bee drone flyways and congregation areas, radar observations". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. 65: 223–230. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |last-author-amp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help) could possibly have been relevant but without an inline reference it's not clear why it was in the article. Here it is, just in case. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:51, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Drone bee develop from

Soprano 196.249.98.57 (talk) 18:34, 25 March 2022 (UTC)

Fibonacci

The reference to the Fibonacci serie was done first by Basin . Here the reference: https://www.fq.math.ca/Books/Primer/primer.pdf on p6 that refers to the article in FQ 1:1 Feb 1963. Someone with more experience than me to add correctly that reference? Txs 2A02:A03F:6AF4:4200:108E:EEE5:44EC:46F (talk) 18:27, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

Drones are not only male honey bees

Many Bombus colonies produce drones that operate in a similar manner (however they often leave the colony earlier (probably) because they are proportionally much harder for the smaller Bombus colony to support).

The intro sentence seems unintentionally exclusive and may give the impression that *only* honey bees have drones. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RJ Bertramus (talk • contribs) 15:08, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

As someone who works on many other types of bees, including bumblebees, entomologists don't generally use the word "drone" except for honeybees. Other male bees are just "males". It's much the same problem as the word "bug". It has a much narrower and more precise definition to an entomologist. if there's a problem with this article that needs fixing, it's the title, which would be more appropriate (and resolve the problem you mention) if it was changed to "Drone (honeybee)". Dyanega (talk) 21:21, 4 October 2024 (UTC)