In a managed honey-bee colony, an adult male honey bee is called a drone.
Drones have one main reproductive role: mating with a virgin queen during her nuptial flight. Unlike worker bees, drones do not gather nectar, produce wax, or usually defend the colony. They are recognizable by their larger, rounder bodies and especially large eyes, which help them detect queens in flight.
A drone develops from an unfertilized egg through parthenogenesis, so it has a mother but no biological father. This makes drones haploid, carrying one set of chromosomes, while queens and workers develop from fertilized eggs and are diploid.
The word “drone” applies to males of several social bee species, but in beekeeping it most commonly refers to the male western honey bee, Apis mellifera. Drones generally die after mating, and colonies often expel surviving drones before winter when food becomes scarce.