7/24/2019 Honey Bee Life Cycle

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Honey bee (Apis mellifera)life cycle

The three types of bee

Queen Drone Worker

The queenis a fertile female. There is only one queen in a hive and only she can lay eggs.

Dronesare males. There may be several hundred in a hive. Their function is to fertilise the queen

Workersare sterile females. There may be 20,000 to 80,000 in a hive. They do all the ork ofbuilding the combs, collecting and storing nectar and !ollen, feeding the larvae and cleaning thehive.

The orkers build three ty!es of a" cell, differing in si#eor sha!e. The queen lays eggs in each of the cells andthe eggs hatch into larvae. The orkers feed the larvaeuntil they are ready to !u!ate and then they !ut a a"ca!!ing over the cell. $fter %0&%% days the ca!!ing isbitten off and the adult bee emerges

orkers !lacefood in cell

larva

orkercells

drone cells

'ider( queen cell'larger and on its on(

The eggs laid in the drone cells areunfertilised and develo! into males.The eggs laid in the orker cells and queencells are fertilised but the queen larvae arefed a different diet from that of the larvae inthe orker cells.The difference in diet causes the orkers to

be sterile and the queen to be fertile.adult bee almost readyto emerge

a" cell

ca!!ing

D.G. Mackean