The honey bee life cycle, here referring exclusively to the domesticated Western honey bee, depends greatly on their social structure.
Colony life
Unlike a bumble bee colony or a paper wasp colony, the life of a honey bee colony is perennial. There are three castes of honey bees: queens, which produce eggs; drones or males, which mate with new queens and have no stinger; and workers, which are all non-reproducing females. The queen lays eggs singly in cells of the comb. Larvae hatch from eggs in three to four days. They are then fed by worker bees and develop through several stages in the cells. Cells are capped by worker bees when the larva pupates. Queens and drones are larger than workers and so require larger cells to develop. A colony may typically consist of tens of thousands of individuals.
While some colonies live in hives provided by humans, so-called “wild” colonies (although all honey bees remain wild, even when cultivated and managed by humans) typically prefer a nest site that is clean, dry, protected from the weather, about 20 liters in volume with a 4 to 6 cm² entrance about 3 m above the ground, and preferably facing south or south-east.
Development
Development from egg to emerging bee varies among queens, workers and drones. Queens emerge from their cells in 16 days, workers in 21 days and drones in 24 days. Only one queen is usually present in a hive. New virgin queens develop in enlarged cells through differential feeding of royal jelly by workers. When the existing queen ages or dies or the colony becomes very large a new queen is raised by the worker bees. The virgin queen takes one or several nuptial flights and once she is established starts laying eggs in the hive.
A fertile queen is able to lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs. Each unfertilized egg contains a unique combination of 50% of the queen’s genes and develops into a haploid drone. The fertilized eggs develop into either workers or virgin queens.
The average lifespan of a queen is three to four years; drones usually die upon mating or are expelled from the hive before hibernation; and workers may live for a few weeks in the summer and several months in areas with an extended winter.
| Type | Egg | Larva | Cell capped | Pupa | Average Developmental Period | Start of Fertility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen | up to Day 3 | up to Day 8½ | Day 7½ | Day 8 until emergence | 16 days | Day 23 and up |
| Worker | up to Day 3 | up to Day 9 | Day 9 | Day 10 until emergence (Day 11 or 12 last molt) | 21 days (range: 18-22 days) | N/A |
| Drone | up to Day 3 | up to Day 9½ | Day 10 | Day 10 until emergence | 24 days | approx. 38 days |
The weight progression of the worker egg, larvae.
| Days | Developmental state | Weight | Length | Food source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | egg | 0.132 mg | 1.2mm | yolk |
| 2 | egg | not listed | yolk | |
| 3 | egg | 0.09 mg | yolk | |
| 4 | larva | not listed | Royal jelly | |
| 5 | larva | 3.4 mg | Royal jelly | |
| 6 | larva | 33.3 mg | Royal jelly/honey and pollen (bee bread) | |
| 7 | larva | 100.1 mg | honey and pollen (bee bread) | |
| 8 | larva | 134.5 mg | honey and pollen (bee bread) | |
| 9 | larva | 155.2 mg | honey and pollen (bee bread) |
Source: Stone, David M. Overview of Bee Biology University of Illinois Laboratory High school; web accessed Oct. 2006
Sources
- Development of honeybees bee-info.com, accessed Oct 2005
- Stanley E. Flanders (1960). “Caste in the honey bee“. Insectes Sociaux 7 (1): 9–16.
- H. Rembold (1964). “Die Kastenentstehung bei der Honigbiene, Apis mellifica L“. Naturwissenschaften 51 (3): 49.
- Temporal Polyethism in Bees
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