The time it takes for a honeybee to develop from a tiny egg into an adult bee depends on which type of bee they are and the role they will play within the colony; either a female worker bee, a male drone, or a female queen.
The complete growth timelines for the development of each bee, on average, are as follows (variations do occur):
- Queen: 16 days
- Worker: 21 days
- Drones: 24 days
No matter which type of bee they are, they’ll develop in these stages:
- Egg (Laid by the queen in cells of combs in the brood nest)
- Larvae (Cells may be capped or uncapped, depending on timeline and type of bee)
- Pupa (Developing under capped cells)
- Adult (Worker, Drone, or Queen)
The duration that each bee stays in each stage, as well as the size of the cell they develop in, will also depend on their role within the colony. Other bees called “nurse bees” (these are bees who’ve been recently hatched themselves), will feed developing bees “bee bread” to ensure they grow into strong and healthy adults.
The queen’s development involves some additional work from the colony, though. If they need a new queen, they’ll choose to feed a female larvae royal jelly beyond her 3rd day of development and build a longer cell to accommodate her body size.
At the end of a honeybee’s development, they will emerge from the cell able to move around and fly immediately. They’ll first need to chew through their wax cell capping and then will get right to work supporting the colony.
Check out a clip below from Nicole’s bee yard for a closeup look at a worker bee’s emergence!
Read More
Effectively Managing Space in the Brood Nest
Inspecting and Understanding the Brood Pattern *
* Colony Member-Only Content
