In Reply to: Re: james and women posted by Acheick on November 04, 2005 at 01:03:23:
I didn't read OT2's post but worker bees are female.
The drones are the males, their numbers are nothing compared to that of worker bees and they are of no value to the hive other than to breed with the queen on her yearly mating flight. In fact, come winter, the worker bees kick all the drones out and they die! When the queen starts laying in the spring, the worker bees draw out cells that are of a different size than worker bee cells in which to rear new drones in preparation for the BIG FLIGHT.