Britannica
Sources used in this answer
Why do unfertilized honeybee eggs develop into drones?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Beekeeping
Bees on a honeycomb.
In honeybees, the development of unfertilized eggs into drones is a biological process known as parthenogenesis. This occurs due to a sex-determination system called haplodiploidy.12
In this system, the queen bee controls the sex of her offspring by choosing whether or not to fertilize an egg as it passes down her oviduct. She does this by relaxing or closing a muscular ring around her spermatheca, a reservoir that stores sperm from previous matings.3
- Fertilized eggs: These receive a full set of chromosomes (diploid, 2n) and develop into females (workers or queens).34
- Unfertilized eggs: These contain only the mother's chromosomes (haploid, n) and develop into males, or drones.34
Because drones develop from unfertilized eggs, they possess only half the genetic material of the queen, all of which is derived from her. This mechanism allows the queen to regulate the colony's population based on environmental conditions, such as the availability of nectar and pollen.41