A bee egg is about the size of the dot of an "i." A bee starts to develop as soon as the queen lays the egg. After three days, a tiny wormlike larva crawls out of the egg. The workers place larval food, called royal jelly, in the bottom of each cell. Royal jelly is a creamy substance, rich in vitamins and proteins, formed by glands in the heads of young worker bees. When the larva is three days old, the workers begin feeding it a mixture of honey and pollen called beebread. Five days after the lava hatches, the workers build a wax cap over the cell. The wormlike larve subsequently becomes a pupa, which in turn develops into an adult. The adult worker bee leaves the cell 21 days after the egg is laid. Drones take 24 days to develop fully.

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This page was last updated on June 19, 2018.