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[–]slushpilot 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Slight correction: bee colonies are >95% female worker bees. Where the queen lays fertilized eggs, only females emerge: usually worker bees, or else a new queen when the hive grows beyond its capacity and is about to swarm (split off and establish a new colony). Where the queen lays haploid (unfertilized) eggs, drone bees emerge. The queen can choose, depending on the size of the cell the workers prepared for her! Drone bees are the males, and their only purpose is to mate with a virgin queen from another colony. Therefore, the hive doesn't spend much of its resources raising very many of them. Before winter, the drones get dragged out of the hive and die. Hence in winter, bee colonies are 100% female.

[–]MarkTwainiac 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thank you. Actually, the correction you made is a major one, not a slight one, coz the error I made was a big one. In any event, I stand corrected.

I've edited my comment to acknowledge the error I made, but not to erase it, and to include your correction. Again, thanks. Just goes to show I should always check every little detail of what I think I know before posting.

[–]slushpilot 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It didn't affect your greater point, so it didn't seem major. :)