Life Cycle of a Worker Honeybee
Within a honeybee colony, various castes of bees exist, including drones, queens, and the most numerous of them all, worker bees. In this blog post, we delve into the captivating life cycle of a worker honeybee, from its humble beginnings as an egg to its crucial tasks within the hive.
Stage 1: Egg: The life cycle of a worker honeybee begins when the queen bee lays a tiny, oval-shaped egg. These eggs are carefully placed in hexagonal cells of the hive’s honeycomb, each containing a single egg. On day one, the eggs stand up in the cell. Worker bee eggs are typically the smallest in size compared to queen or drone bee eggs. The colony’s workers determine the number of eggs laid.
Stage 2: Larva: At day 3, the egg hatches into a larva. The worker bee larvae are legless and have voracious appetites. Nurse bees, responsible for taking care of the colony’s young, feed the larvae a protein-rich substance called royal jelly. This nutritious diet enables the larvae to grow rapidly and undergo several molting stages, shedding their exoskeletons to accommodate their increasing size.
Stage 3: Pupa: After approximately six days as larvae or 9 days from the laying of the egg, worker bees spin a silk cocoon around themselves, entering the pupal stage. During this stage, major transformations occur within their bodies. The bee’s organs develop, wings form, and the external features of a mature worker bee take shape. The pupal stage typically lasts for around 12 days.
Stage 4: Emergence: Once the pupal development is complete, the worker bee chews its way out of the wax cell, emerging as an adult at around day 20 or 21. The new worker bee has a soft exoskeleton, and its wings are initially folded and fragile. It takes a few hours for the exoskeleton to harden, and the wings to become fully functional.
A worker honeybee’s lifespan is typically about six weeks. Young bees will start out by cleaning cells and taking care of the queen. As they get older, they will start to forage for food, build comb, and defend the hive.
