Life Cycle of the Honeybee Apis mellifera
Written by Brian P. Dennis as lecture notes for beginners.
A colony of honeybees at the height of the summer contains <50,000 bees. There is one queen (female) capable of laying <2,000 eggs per day, several hundred drones (males), and workers (sterile females).
Both the workers and the queen develop from fertilised eggs (egg + sperm) and have 32 chromosomes. The queen is reared in a queen cell and receives a richer and more plentiful diet (royal jelly or brood food). The workers are all potential queens - it is the feeding that makes the difference (workers have rudimentary ovaries and may become laying workers producing drones).
The drones develop from unfertilised eggs and have 16 chromosomes. A drone has a mother but does not have a father - but he does have a grandmother & a grandfather!
Stages in Life Cycle
Worker Queen Drone
Open Cell:
Egg 3 days 3 days 3 days
Larva (4 moults) 5 days 5 days 7 days
Sealed Cell:
Larva/Pro-pupa (1 moult) 3 days 2 days 4 days
Pupa (1 moult) 10 days 6 days 10 days
From egg to emergence:
21 days 16 days 24 days
After emergence:
Summer bee 6 weeks c. 3 years c. 4 months*
Winter bee c. 6 months ditto --------------*
*Drones that mate die - drones are killed by the workers in the autumn.
Day 1. Queen measures size of cell to determine whether it is a drone or a worker cell. Egg vertical, parallel to cell walls.
Day 2. Egg at 45 deg.
Day 3. Egg horizontal, laying on the bottom of the cell - hatches.
Day 4 - 8. Larva fed by workers, grows, moults every 24 hours, eventually fills cell - cell sealed.
Day 8 - 21. Excretes. Stretches head outwards and spins a cocoon - pupa develops after 5th moult (3 days after sealing) - colour slowly changes from white. 6th moult occurs just before emergence.
Functions of the worker
Day 1 - 3. Cell cleaning & brood incubation.
Day 4 - 6. Feeding older larvae (honey + pollen).
Day 7 - 12. Feeding young larvae (brood food).
Day 13 - 18. Processing nectar into honey (water evaporation), wax making, pollen packing.
Day 19 - 21. Guarding and orientation flights.
Day 21 - 6th week. Foraging for nectar, pollen, water & propolis.
Bees often do nothing! Duties depend on the maturity of the brood glands, wax glands (day 12) & sting gland (day 18) - bees can revert to earlier duties if required. Other duties included ventilation, humidity and temperature control.
PH
