A beekeeper, whether a casual
hobbyist or a large commercial producer, can not be
successful unless they fully understand the life cycle
of the honey bee.
The honey bees life cycle is a unique and fascinating
process.
It all starts with the egg. The hives queen bee lays an
egg in one of the cells constructed for the soul purpose
of laying eggs. Once queen has laid the egg and moved on
to lay another (during the spring months the queen can
lay an average of 1900 eggs daily) the egg is attached
to the cell with a mucus strand.
When the egg hatches a larvae emerges. Nurse bees are in
charge of caring for the young larvae. They feed the
eggs bee bread. Bee bread is a strange mixture of gland
secretions and honey. The larvae will go through five
distinct growth stages. After each of these stages the
larvae sheds its outer skin. When the larvae is six days
old, a worker bee comes along and caps the larvae,
caccooning the larvae in its cell. The larvae stays the
in the cocoon for for eight to ten days, when it emerges
from the cocoon it is a fully formed young bee.
The average length of life average honey bee depends on
what purpose the bee fulfills in the hive. A queen bee
can live for two years providing that she was able to
get herself inseminated with enough sperm during her
nuptial flight. A good strong queen bee can lay as many
as 2000 eggs a day. She is in charge of killing her
sisters and mothers. The queen bee doesn't have to worry
about taking care of herself, she is always surrounded
by an entourage of worker bees who feed her and remove
her waste. It is not uncommon for the elderly queen bee
to leave the nest in the springtime when the rest of the
hive is getting ready to swarm. Experts believe that the
queen produces some sort of pheromone that prevents the
hives workers bees from becoming interested in sex. A
queen bee who has not made her nuptial flight is called
a virgin queen. Drone bees are male bees that live only
to impregnate queen bees during the queens nuptial
flight.
After mating with a queen the drone dies. During the
winter months, a worker bee can live up to one hundred
and forty days old. During the summer months the worker
bee is lucky to live for forty days, the short summer
life span is because the worker bees are literally
worked to death. The worker bee's duties are wide and
varied. Worker bees called nurse bees are in charge of
caring for the young larvae, other workers are sent out
to gather pollen to be made into honey. Some workers
spend their time capping off honey combs, other workers
are responsible for taking care of the queen. Worker
bees are in charge of starving the unwanted drone bees
and cleaning the hive. There can be any were from twenty
thousand to two hundred thousand worker bees in a single
hive. Worker bees are always sterile. If a worker bee
lays an egg it becomes a drone bee. Workers bees are the
bees that people see defending the hive.
The survival of the bee hive depends on the hive having
a healthy queen that is laying eggs. If something
happens to the queen the hive will die.