Honey bee life cycle

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. The three castes of honey bees are: queens (egg-producers), workers (nonreproducing females), and drones (males whose main duty is to find and mate with a queen). 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, 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 (in the Northern Hemisphere) or north or north-east (in the Southern Hemisphere).

Development

Stages of development of the drone pupae

Development from egg to emerging bee varies among queens, workers, and drones. Queens emerge from their cells in 15-16 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[1] 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 the winter; and workers may live for a few weeks in the summer and several months in areas with an extended winter.

Type Egg Larva Cell fat Pupa Average developmental period

(Days until emergence)

 Start of fertility Body length Hatching weight
Queen up to day 3 up to day 8½ day 7½ day 8 until emergence 16 days day 23 and up 18–22 mm nearly 200 mg
Worker up to day 3 up to day 9 day 9 day 10 until emergence (day 11 or 12 last moult) 21 days

(range: 18–22 days)

 N/A 12–15 mm nearly 100 mg
Drone up to day 3 up to day 9½ day 10 day 10 until emergence 24 days about 38 days 15–17 mm nearly 200 mg

The weight progression of the worker egg, larva:

Worker bee emerging from cell
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)

[2]

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ http://members.aol.com/queenb95/genetics.html#anchor1561346
  2. ↑ Stone, David M. Overview of Bee Biology University of Illinois Laboratory Highschool; web accessed Oct. 2006

External links

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