Drones exist purely to mate: they leave the hive, gather at a congregation area with drones from other colonies, and a successful mating is also a drone's last act.
P(mate) ~ congregation_density * flight_endurance
drones die immediately after successful mating
- Drone population — male bees the colony has raised specifically for mating flights.
- Hive cells — brood cells the colony must maintain regardless of drone survival odds.
- Congregation success rate — probability a drone actually finds and reaches the aerial mating congregation.
- Flight endurance — how long a drone can search before running out of energy.
A colony invests enormous energy raising thousands of drones knowing only a tiny fraction will ever mate — this is one of the starkest reproductive-investment trade-offs in entomology.