A few days after birth, the princess honeybee makes its nuptial flight, when it copulates with several drones. After that, it returns to the hive and may fly a few times more, although this is not usual. Queens of stingless bees, in turn, make only one nuptial flight and mate with only one male.
The semen introduced in the Queens is stored for the rest of their reproductive life in an organ called spermatheca. At the time of laying, the egg that goes down the oviduct is fertilized by a sperm from the spermatheca. The egg fertilized by a sperm will give rise to a female (worker or queen) and those unfertilized result in males.
