Why are drones ejected from the hive in the fall?

Drones are ejected from the hive in the fall primarily to conserve resources for winter. As the colder months approach, honeybees shift their focus to survival mechanisms that allow them to sustain the colony with limited resources. Drones, which are male bees whose primary function is mating and do not participate in foraging or hive maintenance, do not contribute to these essential activities during the winter months. Removing drones helps ensure that the hive can allocate its food stores, primarily honey, more efficiently towards the worker bees, the queen, and the brood that will help sustain the colony through the winter.

The hive needs to maximize its efficiency and minimize waste, especially as resources become scarcer. This strategy prevents drones, which require food and energy but provide no direct benefit during the winter, from draining the colony’s resources. As a result, the survival of the worker bees and the queen takes precedence, allowing the colony to endure until spring when conditions improve and the drones can be part of the reproductive cycle once again.