The Life Cycle of the Honey Bee

If you happen to be a beekeeper then knowing the life cycle of your insects is very important. Honey bees really do have an unusual and very interesting life cycle.




Honey bees hatch from an egg to begin their lives. The eggs are produced from the queen bee. She can lay as many as 1500-2000 eggs per day. When she is ready to lay the eggs she does so in a cell of the beehive. This cell is designated for this purpose only. The eggs are attached to the hive with little membranes, similar to an umbilical cord. This keeps the eggs from falling out or getting injured.



Once the eggs have matured they are ready to hatch. The egg will split open and the new baby larvae will appear. During this time of a bees life they will undergo 5 different growth stages. They are fed a substance called "bee bread," which is honey and secretions from the the nurse bees. It is the nursing bees job to feed the young larva, sort of a "nanny" if you will. Once the larva complete the five stages, it will molt its outer shell, this usually happens on the sixth day of it's life. Once the bee has shed it's skin, worker bees will then come in and seal the cell the larva is in creating a cocoon. The larva will stay in this cocoon for up to 10 days, and will come out of the cocoon as a fully formed bee.



Worker bees can live to be 130-50 days old in the winter, and on average live only 30-40 days during the summer. This is because they work so much during the summer. There main job is to gather pollen and bring it back to the beehive to produce honey. If they are a nurse bee then there main job will be taking care of the newly hatched larva. These are the most abundant bees in the hive, with bugger hives having as many as 300,000 worker bees in it. Worker bees are sterile, but can lay eggs. When they lay an egg a drone bee will be produced.



The drone bees have only one purpose, and that is to impregnate the queen bee. Drone bees have a very short life cycle. Once they have mated with the queen they will die. In the chance that a drone bee does not mate with the queen, it is the workers job to starve the drone bees. The queen bee can live up to 1 1/2 to 2 years. Her only job is to produce offspring. An upcoming queen bee will kill her mother and sisters. She does not have to do anything, not even use the bathroom, as it is the workers job to pamper her, feed her, and even remove her excrement. The life of the colony is directly related to the health of the queen, if she where to die, then colony would die off as well.



Nathan has been writing articles for almost 5 years. Come visit his latest website over at Humming Bird Feeder which helps people find the best Hummingbird Feeder Parts.



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