Editing Honey bee (section)

===Drones===
{{Main|Drone (bee)}}
[[File:Haplodiploid Sex Determination in Honey Bees.svg|thumb|upright=2.0|Honey bees have a [[haplodiploid]] system of sex determination.]]
Drones are typically [[haploid]], having only one set of [[chromosome]]s, and primarily exist for [[reproduction]].<ref name="University of Georgia-2017"/> They are produced by the queen if she chooses not to fertilize an egg or by an unfertilized laying worker. There are rare instances of diploid drone larvae. This phenomenon usually arises when there are more than two generations of brother-sister mating.<ref>Woyka, J.; Pszczelnictwa, Zaklad; [http://jerzy_woyke.users.sggw.pl/1963_dipldrlarvae.pdf Drone Larvae from Fertilized Eggs of the Honey Bee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022232521/http://jerzy_woyke.users.sggw.pl/1963_dipldrlarvae.pdf |date=2014-10-22 }} Journal of Apiculture Research, (1963), pages 19–24</ref> Sex determination in honey bees is initially due to a single locus, called the complementary sex determiner (''csd'') gene. In developing bees, if the conditions are that the individual is heterozygous for the ''csd'' gene, they will develop into females. If the conditions are so that the individual is [[zygosity|hemizygous]] or homozygous for the ''csd'' gene, they will develop into males. The instances where the individual is homozygous at this gene are the instances of diploid males.<ref>Weinstock, George M.; Robinson, Gene E., & the Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7114/full/nature05260.htm Insights into social insects from the genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera] ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', volume "'443'" (2006), pages 931–949</ref> Drones take 24 days to develop and may be produced from summer through to autumn, numbering as many as 500 per hive.<ref name="University of Georgia-2017"/> They are expelled from the hive during the winter months when the hive's primary focus is warmth and food conservation.<ref name="University of Georgia-2017"/> Drones have large eyes used to locate queens during mating flights. They do not defend the hive or kill intruders and do not have a [[stinger]].<ref name="PerfectBee-2017"/>