Drones carry only one type of allele at each chromosomal position, because they

are haploid (containing only one set of chromosomes from the mother). During
the development of eggs within a queen, a diploid cell with 32 chromosomes
divides to generate haploid cells called gametes with 16 chromosomes. The
result is a haploid egg, with chromosomes having a new combination of alleles at
the various loci. This process is also called arrhenotokous parthenogenesis or
simply arrhenotoky.

Because the male bee technically has only a mother, and no father, its
genealogical tree is rather interesting. The first generation has one member (the
male). One generation back also has one member (the mother). Two generations
back are two members (the mother and father of the mother). Three generations
back are three members. Four back are five members. That is, the numbers in
each generation going back are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, ... the Fibonacci sequence.[1]

Much debate and controversy exist in the scientific literature about the dynamics
and apparent benefit of the combined forms of reproduction in honey bees and
other social insects, known as the haplodiploid sex-determination system. The
drones have two reproductive functions. They convert and extend the queen's
single unfertilized egg into about 10 million genetically identical male sperm
cells. They also serve as a vehicle to mate with a new queen to fertilize her eggs.
Female worker bees develop from fertilized eggs and are diploid in origin, which
means that the sperm from a father provides a second set of 16 chromosomes
for a total of 32one set from each parent. Since all the sperm cells produced by
a particular drone are genetically identical, full sisters are more closely related
than full sisters of other animals where the sperm is not genetically identical.

A laying worker bee exclusively produces totally unfertilized eggs, which develop
into drones. As an exception to this rule, laying worker bees in some subspecies
of honey bees may also produce diploid (and therefore female) fertile offspring in
a process called thelytoky, in which the second set of chromosomes comes not
from sperm, but from one of the three polar bodies during anaphase II of meiosis.

In honey bees, the genetics of offspring can best be controlled by artificially

inseminating a queen with drones collected from a single hive, where the drones'
mother is known. In the natural mating process, a queen mates with multiple
drones,[citation needed] which may not come from the same hive. Therefore, in
the natural mating process, batches of female offspring have fathers of a
completely different genetic origin.