The Lifespan and Development of Bees

Eggs

• Within the bee colony, the queen lays cylindrical eggs. These take four days to hatch into larvae, standing first into a vertical position before bending and eventually lying horizontally by day three. The egg hatches on the fourth day. The queen bee tends to lay multiple batches of eggs in quick succession, so that as the first lot of bees are emerging from their eggs as larvae, a second lot of eggs has just been laid. According to research by A. D. Brian reported on the Bumblebee.org website, only an average of 71 percent of bee eggs will actually hatch.

Larva to Pupa

• Maggot-like and white in color, bee larvae consist only of a head alongside abdominal and thoracic sections. At this stage of development, the larvae spend much of their time eating, and thus growing larger over the course of around nine days. Its food changes over time; after hatching, the larva is fed a milky fluid containing plenty of protein by the colony's nurse bees, before being moved on to a combination of honey and pollen administrated by worker bees after three days. After shedding its skin five times, the larva becomes a pupa and creates itself a cocoon. The bee's adult body develops within this cocoon, with the wings the last feature to appear.

Adult Roles

• On emerging from the cocoon, an adult bee still needs to wait a day or so for its wings to harden and its color to change from silver to yellow so that it can begin to forage. Even when ready, a young bee may stay mainly with its nest for around 21 days, only emerging from the nest to explore its immediate surroundings and thus memorize the nest's location for later life. The adult then heads out into the wild to forage, taking pollen from flowers. Some bees have weaker wings than the rest, however, and these adults do not forage, instead staying in the nest, providing wax for the building of cells intended for pollen storage.

Lifespan

• How long an adult worker bee lives depends on how active it is. Because bees tend to be more active during the spring and summer seasons, their average lifespan during this time is between four and six weeks. Winter is a quieter time and thus bees born in this season can live for more than five months.