A Word on Bees

Bees are amazing creatures. They grow from eggs (which look like rice grains but are only an eighth of the size) to lively foragers traversing many miles. Today we will be looking more into the life of a bee.

A bee begins life as an egg. Laid by the queen, it is put in the bottom of a brood cell (one of the hexagons in honeycomb) where adult bees then surround it with food. After about 3 days, the egg hatches into a young larva. Bee larvae looks like any other larvae - a white, c-shaped, somewhat gross looking grub. It is at this point (since there still is no cap on top of the hex) that parasites such as the varroa mite are most likely to infect the bee, or brood (as developing bees are called by beekeepers). Parasites or no parasites, after about six days the larva transforms into a pupa. A pupa looks almost like a bee, and at this point, adult bees seal off the top of the cell. This is when the eyes, legs, and wings fully manifest into existence, which is why bees infected with parasites at the larval stage often have malformed and dysfunctional eyes, legs, and wings. Once the pupa is strong enough to break through the cap of the cell, is is an adult bee.

This bee will take on many jobs over its lifetime, and progress to the role of forager in its final stage. The amazing lifetime of bees will be the subject of a coming blog!