Ever wonder what it’s like to live as a honey bee? For me, I imagined it as time spent snacking on homemade honey (even if it means to live in close quarters with a few thousand of my siblings). However, as I have found, being a honey bee means being a busy bee. This common phrase accurately depicts the life cycle of a bee, and how each designated task is essential for the health of a hive. As soon as the egg has been laid, the clock starts ticking on a list of duties for the bee to complete.
There are four distinct life cycle phases for honey bees: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The first three of these phases are collectively called brood, located within the cells of the hive. The time span for each of these phases varies between drones, workers, and queen bees. The Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium provides a great article, The Colony and Its Organization, which details the time frame of each sex and caste of a honeybee.
Brood
Before laying an egg, the queen will examine the size of the cell to determine what type of bee will be born. Large cells signal to the queen bee that an unfertilized egg should be laid to produce a drone. If the cell is slightly smaller, then a fertilized female worker egg will be laid. Once the appropriate egg has been determined and laid, it will remain in this phase for 3 days.
After the 3 days, larvae hatches and they are hungry! At the beginning, royal jelly is fed to all the recently hatched larvae. Once another 3 days have passed, a decision is made by adult bees to either continue to feed a larva royal jelly, or switch to honey. If the larva continues to be fed royal jelly, it will develop into a queen bee. After the larva has been fed for 5 days, the nurse bees will seal the cell with a wax cap, marking the beginning of the pupa phase.
During the 12 days of the pupa phase, the body of the larva begins to grow features that more resemble that of an adult bee. Once this process is complete, the bee can finally leave the safety of the cell and join the work force. National Geographic provided a stunning time lapse video in 2015 displaying the transformation of brood that can be seen here: Bees Hatch Before Your Eyes
Adult
Depending on if the young bee is a worker, a drone, or a queen bee, different roles will be applied. Drones (male bees) are only laid during the late spring and summer seasons and have the purpose of mating with queen bees outside of the hive to expand the genetic pool. Queens live the longest (up to 4 years) and are tasked with reproducing. They can lay about 1,500 eggs per day! Lastly, there is the worker bee, a female bee that hasn’t sexually matured, and who is the nuts and bolts of what keeps the hive thriving.
As soon as the worker bee has left the cell it is time to get to work. Throughout the life span of a worker bee, various tasks are allotted by need and age. These tasks include; housekeeping, undertakers, nurses, queen attendants, collecting nectar, fanning the beehive, beeswax production, hive guard, and foraging. Foraging is the most dangerous task the worker bee does and is performed by older bees nearing the 41st day of their life.
I hope this small glimpse of what it's like to be a honey bee has furthered you're interest of these incredible creatures. For more information about the life cycle of the honey bee, a list of articles that I found helpful are found below.
References