Bees, like all insects, do not give birth to live young; they are oviparous, meaning they reproduce by laying eggs. The bee life cycle involves complete metamorphosis, a process of transformation from a simple egg to a fully formed adult insect. This strategy allows for the rapid production of thousands of individuals necessary for a functioning colony. The queen bee manages this biological cycle, controlling the start of every new life in the hive.
The Bee Life Cycle: From Egg to Adult
The developmental timeline of a bee is divided into four distinct stages: egg, larva, pupa, and finally, the adult insect. The queen bee lays a tiny, rice-shaped egg into a hexagonal cell constructed by worker bees. After approximately three days, the egg hatches into a soft, white, worm-like larva.
The larval stage is marked by tremendous growth and a voracious appetite. Nurse bees feed this larva around the clock, and it may increase its body mass by over a thousand times in just five days. Once the larva reaches its maximum size, worker bees cap the cell with beeswax, and the larva spins a thin cocoon, beginning the pupal stage.
Inside the capped cell, the pupa undergoes a reorganization, developing adult features like legs, wings, and eyes. This transformation is hidden from view until the adult bee chews its way out of the cell. The total development time from egg to adult varies by caste: a worker bee takes about 21 days, a queen takes 16 days, and a drone takes 24 days.
The Queen’s Reproductive Authority
The queen bee is the only fully reproductive female in the colony. Her role begins with a single mating period early in her life, known as a nuptial flight, where she mates with a dozen or more male drones. She collects and stores millions of sperm from these males in a specialized internal organ called the spermatheca.
The queen uses this stored sperm to fertilize eggs for the remainder of her life, which can span several years. As she deposits an egg into a cell, she consciously controls whether to release sperm from her spermatheca. This ability to control fertilization gives the queen authority over the colony’s composition by determining the sex of the offspring.
How Bee Caste is Determined
The sex of a bee is determined by a unique genetic system called haplodiploidy. If the queen fertilizes an egg with stored sperm, the resulting individual is diploid, possessing two sets of chromosomes, and develops into a female bee. If the queen lays an unfertilized egg, the individual is haploid, possessing only one set of chromosomes, and develops into a male drone.
For female offspring, their ultimate social role as either a worker or a queen is determined by diet, not genetics. All female larvae receive a rich glandular secretion called royal jelly for the first three days of their lives. Larvae destined to become sterile worker bees are then switched to a diet of beebread and honey, while those destined to become a fertile queen are fed royal jelly exclusively throughout their development.