Question

In honeybee colony, the drones are produced by
1. fertilized egges
2. unfertilized egges
3. larvae ted upon leaves
4. fasting larvae

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 2 : unfertilized egges

Concept-

• Every honey bee colony comprises a single queen, a few hundred drones, and several thousand worker castes of honey bees.
• A queen bee is the only female bee in the hive that gets to reproduce.
• Worker bees are all female and are all offspring of the queen​. 
• Queen is a fertile, functional female, the worker is a sterile female and the drone is a male insect.
• Queen and worker develop from the fertilized egg while drone develops from an unfertilized egg.
• Further differentiation of queen and worker depends on the quality and quantity of food that is fed to the queen or worker larvae.

Explanation-

• ​The drones are male bees with no sting.
• They are much larger and stouter than either the queen or the workers.
• Their only function is to impregnate the young queen a task which they are unable to perform until they are about 10 days of age.
• They also help in the maintenance of hive temperature. 
• The drones are produced by unfertilized eggs of the queen, or by those workers which take up the reproductive function due to the absence of a queen in a colony.
• The normal life-span of a drone is 57 days. 

Thereby In the honeybee colony, the drones are produced by unfertilized egges.

• The queen
  • ​There is only one queen in a colony and considerably larger than the members of other castes.
  • Swarming is the natural method that honeybee colonies use for multiplying their colonies.
  • The old queen is killed as soon as the new queen is fertilized.
  • The phenomenon of raising a queen in the off-season is called supersedure.
  • The normal life-span of a queen is 3 years.
• ​​The worker
  • ​Smallest inhabitants of the beehive.
  • They are imperfect females incapable of laying eggs.
  • Worker bee's primary duties are cleaning, feeding developing larva once hypopharyngeal glands develop, ripening of honey, secreting/molding of wax into combs.
  • The life-span of a worker is about 4 weeks during the active season and 8 to 10 weeks during the less active season.
  • On certain occasions when the colony is in need of a queen, some of the workers start laying eggs from which only drones are produced.
  • These workers called laying workers.