Apiology: The Study of Bees - Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - page 29

worker bees do everything else, from feeding and grooming the queen to gathering pol-
len and nectar and raising brood. They also guard and clean the hive and, most import-
ant, make the honey.
A worker bee begins her life as a fertilized egg, which hatches into a larva. As the
larva grows it spins a cocoon, and through the process of metamorphosis turns itself in-
toapupa.Throughoutthismaturationprocess,thelarvaiscompletely dependentonthe
care of adult worker bees.
Workers are fully developed and emerge from their cells in twenty days, which is
four days less than it takes for a drone to fully develop.
BIRTH CYCLE OF A WORKER BEE
The average worker bee lives approximately four to six weeks in the spring or sum-
meranduptosixmonthsduringthewinter.Eachworkerspecializesinonespecifictask
at each stage of her brief life. The first few days after she emerges from her cell she
serves the hive as a house bee and a cell cleaner. She inspects, cleans, and polishes the
cells in which the queen lays her eggs. She then begins her duty of feeding older larvae
with pollen and nectar brought into the hive by more mature worker bees, as well as
with a substance called bee bread , which is a mixture of fermented pollen and honey.
Attentosixteendays,herglandsdevelop,andshebeginstosecreteandfeedroyaljelly
to the younger larvae. As her wax glands develop in her abdomen, she also secretes
beeswaxanduseshermandibletoformitintocomb,aseriesofbeeswaxcellsthatmake
up the brood nest and in which pollen and honey will be stored. This beeswax is also
used to cap the cells that are filled with larvae or honey. At this stage a worker bee also
helps to repair damaged comb. In between these activities she takes time out to flap her