Hey everyone, I have been an active bee-keeper for around 2 years and on and off many years ago. I have never seen this. Drones are not foragers, they get fed in the hive by the worker bees, so when I saw this interesting anomaly I was flabbergasted!
This drone (male bee) as well as two baby worker bees on this Carrot Flower, I am can only assume that what happened here is after all the rain these bees either absconded or were lost from their hive and are seeking 'refuge' on this Carrot Flower, all bees in this pic really should not be here, so I can only predict and assume this is what is happening?
As per wikipedia.org: Drones carry only one type of allele at each chromosomal position, because they are haploid (containing only one set of chromosomes from the mother). During the development of eggs within a queen, a diploid cell with 32 chromosomes divides to generate haploid cells called gametes with 16 chromosomes. The result is a haploid egg, with chromosomes having a new combination of alleles at the various loci. This process is called arrhenotokous parthenogenesis or simply arrhenotoky.
Because the male bee technically has only a mother, and no father, its genealogical tree is unusual. The first generation has one member (the male). One generation back also has one member (the mother). Two generations back are two members (the mother and father of the mother). Three generations back are three members. Four back are five members. That is, the numbers in each generation going back are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, ... – the Fibonacci sequence.[1] do check out the full article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_(bee)
Before I knew it off he flew and left the little ones to fend for themselves!
Nature the incredible.
I trust you have a super cool Tuesday.
Cheer$;)