I Heart Bees!

Honey Bee Development Cycle
Day	Queen	Worker	Drone
1	Egg The queen spends her life laying eggs. Depending on the size of the cell, she will either lay a fertile egg (a worker-sized cell) or an non-fertilized egg (drone-sized cell). The egg is tiny - 1.7 millimeters long!		Egg
2
3
4	Round Larva Initially, as the larva develops from the egg, it will be laying flat and curled up ("rounded") on the bottom of the cell. The little grub will grow quickly; within 5 days they are 1,570 times larger than their initial size!		Round Larva
5
6
7
8	Stretched Larva This is last stage of the larva; the grub is now stretched the length of the cell. Cell is capped off with wax.
9
10			Stretched Larva
11	Pre-pupa		Stretched Larva
12	Pupa Once cell is capped, the larva spins a cocoon around its body. Now the pupa develops into the bee we know and love; eyes, legs and wings are formed. Lastly, the fine hair that covers a young bee's body grows and after 12 days in the capped cell, a worker bee emerges! (13 for a drone, 7 for a queen)		Pre-pupa
13
14
15			Pupa
16	Adult queen emerges
17
18
19
20
21		Adult worker emerges
22
23
24			Adult drone emerges
	Adult Queen Honey Bee	Adult Worker Honey Bee	Adult Drone Honey Bee

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