I've seen dead drones in front of colonies placed on the earliest of the
apple blooms in cold, rainy springs at higher elevations.  The colonies with
dead drones were light - perhaps on the edge of starvation. That's another
of the eleventy-seven reasons why apples are such a pain to work - you are
sometimes forced to feed colonies in apple orchards, as hybrid blossoms are
so stingy with nectar and low-protein in the pollen.

My musing (I'll avoid elevating it to a "theory") was that the workers
realized that there was a food shortage and chose to feed brood and workers,
and let the drones starve, so some of the drones died of
starvation/dehydration.  But this was 100% pure speculation.

But I don't recall seeing anything phallic.
Would a drone suffering dehydration/starvation end up with postmortem
everted endophalluses?  

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