The main task of the males (drones) is to fertilize the queen bee during a flight called "fertilization flight" or "nuptial flight".
In the summer months and during the hottest hours of the day, the young virgin queen bee (from the 5th to the 15th day of age) takes flight from the hive and heads towards specific places (usually meadows and open spaces) where hundreds of drones from different hives gather, waiting for a queen to fertilize to pass by.
Mating takes place in flight at a height of 5 to 15 meters above the ground. The fastest drone mates and, due to the shape of its penis (endophallus), which has the appearance of a forked horn, at the moment of ejaculation it is unable to detach itself from the queen without tearing off its genitals and therefore dying.
A queen can mate from 5 to 16 times during the fertilization flights, which she performs in a single period of her life, filling the spermatheca, an organ in which the sperm is collected and stored for her entire existence. Once she returns to the hive, where she is cared for, fed and cleaned of mating residues, the queen will not come out again except during swarming
(family reproduction).
Once the fertilization season of virgin queens is over, the drones are no longer fed by the bees that remove them from the hive, condemning them to certain death, because they are incapable of collecting nectar and pollen and feeding themselves.