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Around five to seven days after a new queen emerges from the pupal cell she will leave the hive. Drones (males) flying in the area are attracted to her by pheromones she gives off and they will chase her as she flies higher and higher. She will mate on the wing with any drone that catches up with her and she stores the sperm in an organ called the spermetheca. When mating has finished, as the drone pulls away his genitalia are broken off and the drone dies. The queen then removes the drone's genitalia ready for the next drone.

The queen will mate with between five and 20 drones until her spermetheca is full. She then returns to the hive ready to begin egg laying. This store of sperm is for the rest of her life. She will never mate again.

As the queen lays an egg in a cell she will usually release one or two sperm with the egg, fertilizing it. A fertilized egg will result in a female (all worker bees are female), but if she chooses not to fertilize the egg it will develop into a male.

Because of this mechanism, all females (workers and new queens) are diploid (genes from both parents), and have 32 chromosomes (16 pairs) but males (drones) are haploid (genes from the mother only) with only 16 chromosmes.

Food for thought: male bees don't have a father, but they do have a grandfather...

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16y ago

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