What Happens to Male Bees When They Mate?

“Do male bees die after mating?” is a question to which lots of people try to find the answer. Yes! Male bees, like honey bees, wasps, and orb weavers, die immediately after mating. The death is usually due to being physically incapacitated rather than due to sexual cannibalism in these species. In this blog, let’s learn more about what happens to male bees when they mate. 

Before we dive into the main topic of discussion, you must know a few things about bees. Let’s begin right now!

The Members of a Beehive

The queen bee is the only fertile female in a colony of bees. The male bees, also known as “drones,” place an egg less than three days old in a vertically hanging cell inside the beehive. This larva is fed royal jelly throughout the larval period, and it grows to become the next queen bee. 

While fertilized eggs become female worker bees, the remaining unfertilized eggs become male drone bees. The females gather nectar, whereas the only purpose of a drone bee is to impregnate the queen.

How Many Times Do Bees Mate?

A virgin queen has the habit of mating quite early in her life. She generally participates in only one mating flight. Usually, drones die after a mating flight, and even if they survive, they are ejected from their hive/nest. Since the primary goal of a drone, which is to mate with the queen, is fulfilled, it gets forcefully eliminated from the hive.

Drone Congregation Areas

A drone congregation area is a location where the virgin queen and the drone bees meet for mating. It is usually 50-100 feet above the ground and approximately 300 feet in diameter. The margins of the drone congregation areas are so strictly defined that the mating does not occur even slightly outside the boundaries.

Generally, these areas are open spaces that can remain in the same location for nearly 200 years! On any given day, around 12,000 drones visit a congregation area. These are truly some of the most unbelievable facts about insects.

Are you interested in knowing how exactly the mating process takes place? Then, the upcoming section is for you!

How Do Male Bees Mate With the Queen?

The following is a step-by-step mating process between the queen bee and the drones. Read them one by one!

1. First, the queen reaches (by flight) the drone congregation area, where thousands of drones wait.
2. The virgin queen secretes something called ” pheromones” to attract and let the drones know that she is available for mating.
3. A drone comes close to the queen and mounts on her.
4. The drone inserts his endophallus into the queen bee. This process results in the ejaculation of semen (from the drone) inside the queen, which gets fertilized.
5. While mating, the endophallus is turned inside out inside the queen’s body.
6. The drone attempts to pull away from the fertilized queen. However, his endophallus is cut from his body and remains inside the queen’s body.
7. Since the male is decapacitated, it dies after some time. We know that it sounds like one of the weirdest animal oddities and behaviors!
8. When the next drone mates with the queen, he removes the first one’s endophallus and inserts his own endophallus into the queen.
9. Of course, the second drone also loses his endo phallus and eventually dies.

Why Do Male Drones Die After Mating?

By now, you would have understood the mating process. So you know the reason behind a male drone’s death. However, we shall look at this process, too, in detail.

1. We have seen that during mating, the ejaculation of semen from the drone to the queen occurs.
2. The ejaculation process is extremely powerful in that its aftermath involves the rupture of the drone’s endophallus.
3. This may look like the drone bee’s testicles have exploded, causing its death. But actually, the endophallus stuck inside the queen causes the male bee’s abdomen to rip open.
4. Sadly, the drone dies shortly after it detaches from the queen.

Did Bumblebee Die?

So far, we have discussed honey bees in general. Now, let’s look at some fun facts about the bumblebee. 

In a bumblebee colony, the males don’t work. They leave their nests in search of the queen for mating. After the mating process, the fertlized queen also leaves the nest to prepare itself for hibernation in winter. The male bumblebees might die after mating with the queen.

However, in some cases, male bumblebees can mate about ten times under laboratory conditions!

What Happens to the Sperms After the Male Bees Mate?

After mating with many drone bees in a mating flight, the queen stores approximately 100 million sperm (maximum) in her oviducts. But just 5 or 6 million sperms enter the queen’s spermatheca – an organ that receives and releases the sperms to fertilize the eggs.

However, the queen utilizes just a few of the sperms in its spermatheca at any given time. She keeps using these sperms for egg fertilization throughout her life!

Nature’s Way of Handling Things

Although we have got the answer to the query, “Do male bees die after mating?” we still don’t know the reason behind it. 

• Why should the male drones die?
• Why is nature being so cruel to them?
• Do male honeybees know they will die after mating?

Like the above, there are endless questions for which we don’t have the answers. We can only accept that it’s nature’s way of handling things. And however we try, we cannot possibly understand many of nature’s ways!

Must Read: Bee Venom Therapy

List of Male Animals That Die After Mating

Here’s a list of more animals/insects where the males die after mating.

• Australian Redback Spiders
• Sockeye Salmon
• Marsupials like Kalutas
• Black Dragon Fish
• Furcifer Labordi Chameleons

We hope you liked reading this blog on mating among bees, especially the states of the male drone bees after mating. Now, recollect the facts we have discussed by answering the Quiz on this page.