On summer afternoons scores of male bees (called drones) gather together in specific areas of the sky and wait for virgin queens to join them. When a queen does approach a spectacular chase begins which ends up in the queen being mated several times, and the successful drones instantly dying! (See Performance Anxiety) Most beekeepers would be very excited to see one of these ‘drone congregation areas’.

The cartoon was inspired by Harry, one of our local beekeepers, who has been keeping bees for 70 years.

Last year he got himself a quadcopter (also known as a ‘drone’) and took to the skies in search of drone congregation areas. Problem is I’m not sure which sort!