A Drone Got The Boot From The Workers

"Who among us isn't enchanted to see you sipping
nectar from among the petals of a flower? It's a very
reassuring  sight,  nature  at  its  best, the follies of 
our fellow human beings set in perspective, the
miraculous web of life reaffirmed."
- Stephen Buchmann,
Letters From The Hive

To witness the kind of event in nature that most of us only get to read about in science books, is one of life's more fascinating experiences for me. To capture the sight on camera makes it especially meaningful. 

Today, I watched a drone at the entrance to the bee hive, my second drone spotting since my guardianship began, and what transpired is told through the photos below. 

The drone is the big, dark bee in the center facing down.

Drones are males bees in a honey bee colony. They're noticeably larger than the female worker bees. Their single purpose in life is to mate with the queen. When the queen is finished with a drone, a union that lasts only seconds in midair, the drone dies after his male genitalia is ripped from his body. 

Drones don't take on any role within the hive while they're waiting around to make it with the queen. They don't help gather pollen. They don't feed the babies. They don't guard the entrance, or clean up or help in making honey. They take up valuable space and resources and usually toward autumn, they will be unceremoniously kicked out of the hive, leaving them hungry, cold and soon to die. 

Today, I watched this beautiful drone weakly walking back and forth near the entrance and trying to go inside only to be pushed back out. I followed him with my lens back and forth as some of the worker bees kept an eye on him. 

He crawled under the shallow entrance and I thought he'd made it, but then he appeared again, looking even more fatigued. 

He began to dive down to get through the entrance.

He was rolling right under the narrow entrance and was almost in.

He was pushed back outside.

At different angles in the sun, he shined with gold stripes. In other shots, the gold was absent and he looked more black.  His eyes looked nearly three times the size of his sister's and his wide body was at least a  third larger.

The drone is still trying to get inside the hive....

He's being blocked from the entrance, which is the dark shadow in the background.

He's quite fatigued at this point.

He fell off the edge of the hive and I picked him up. He was getting very weak by then.

It wasn't long before he just stopped all movement and took his last breath.

Two bees were exploring him with their tongues. 
The bee in front tongued him for a minute or so. I 
have no idea why she was doing it. 

For a very short while, some of the worker bees 
bumped into him and others climbed over him on their way to the entrance. 

It wasn't long before some bees took an interest in doing something about his body.

This bee began to pull and tug at him.

The movement by the other bees rolled the drone onto his back.

And then he was pushed to his side again.

The bee on the left began taking charge and really muscled 
him around to get him toward the edge of the hive.

More tugging and pulling ....

She has to get him over this small ledge and then
 it's all downhill from there, but it's not easy.

The worker bee takes flight as she grips hold of
 the drone and begins to lift him just a bit off the box.

She goes down with him to the weeds below the hive.

This is where he was put to rest until the ants find him.

It's the cycle of life, but it was sad to see a life end.