What do laying workers produce in the hive?

Laying workers are sterile female bees that develop in the absence of a queen. When a queen is lost from the hive, some worker bees may start laying eggs in an attempt to maintain the hive's population. However, laying workers can only produce drones since they do not have the capability to fertilize eggs. In a queenless colony, the unfertilized eggs produced by laying workers develop into drones, which are the male bees. This biological limitation is why the correct answer indicates that laying workers specifically produce only drones, rather than worker bees or queens. The other potential options involve the production of different types of bees that cannot occur under these circumstances when laying workers are exclusively present.