The genes that make worker bees more receptive to the queen’s pheromone and retinue behavior can be passed down from either female or male parent.

The bee is one of nature’s most prolific pollinators. There are over 20,000 bee species, most of which spread pollen between flowers. Bees can be divided into groups based on their social behavior.

Male bees, otherwise known as drones, are on the sidelines here with their only job being to reproduce with the female queen bee. Queen bees and worker bees, on the other hand, are the star ...

When a colony of honeybees grows to about 4,000 members, it triggers an important first stage in its reproductive cycle: the building of a special type of comb used for rearing male reproductive ...

UBC researchers, led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Alison McAfee, investigated drones, male bees whose only role is to mate with a queen. We already know that drones can’t handle heat stress as well as ...

A queen bee, or perfect female, although she differs from a worker bee in size, shape, function, and a whole set of instincts, is hatched from the same sort of egg as the worker.

Other larvae develop into female workers or male drones. Although queen and worker bees share almost identical genes, their destinies could be more different.

Queen bees, after a mating flight, lay eggs that turn into mostly workers, and a few lucky eggs get to be candidates for the next queen. They’re all female. Where do the males come in? Male bees ...