Life Cycle of Honey Bees

Queen Bee lays an egg in an egg cell. The egg is roughly the size of half a grain of rice.

Larva hatch from the egg in 3 - 4 days. Worker bees will feed the larva up to 1,300 times a day. If the larva will be a potential queen, it is also fed royal jelly. When the larva reaches full size, the worker bees will seal off the cell with wax.

As the bee begins to develop, it will pupate about four days after first emerging from the egg. The larva will spin a cocoon to undergo its transformation into an adult.

Queen bees will go through the entire life cycle in about 18 days, while workers (21 days) and drones (24 days) take longer to reach the adult stage. The bee will chew its way through the wax cap and will take its place within the hive caste system.