Should the old queen run out of sperm, a new queen will be produced through the intervention of the workers. The Specialized Drone Bee Drones are tolerated in the hive only when there is a possibility that they may mate with a queen. Thus a few are tolerated in spring and fall, more in the summer, but none in the winter. The workers keep the drones out of the hive to starve to death in the autumn. Drones, like queens, lack the body parts to effectively harvest nectar or pollen to feed themselves.
Drones also lack a stinger of any kind.
They are designed for mating only. Drone's eyes and antennae are specialized for seeing, following, and mating with a queen and most of the drones' internal organs are designed for flying fast enough to catch the queen or for delivering sperm cells into her oviduct. If the drone succeeds in this, it dies. Thus all surviving drones are virgin. They secrete wax from glands on the abdomen and fashion the honeycomb and broodcomb from it.