Actually there are usually no drones in the honey bee colony over the winter.
The worker bees push the drones out of the hive in September or early fall and don't allow any of them to return.
Sometimes they even chew off the drone's wings so he can't return to the hive.
The drone is created by the queen laying an infertile egg, so she can make a new drone any time the hive needs one.
Generally drone production begins in the hive in the early part of the year so that when new queens emerge, there is a already a drone population ready to mate with them.
In a colony the drones are not necessary.
In the life of honey bees, drones are necessary to fertilize the queen but that is their only job.
When a virgin queen flies out to mate in the spring or summer, she mates with drones about a mile from her hive so they are not related to her.
This protects the genetic diversity.
She usually mates with 17 - 30 drones at this event and she never mates again.
