Topic Six - Life Stages of the Honeybee

- To learn the 4 life stages of insects
- To learn the length of time each kind of bee spends at each life stage
- To identify and name the 4 life stages in a bee hive
- To identify and name the 3 kinds of capped brood (queen, drone, worker)
Key Words:
Brood – Young honey bees in a hive that are not yet adults (eggs, larvae, pupae). The first 3 life stages
Hatch – When the egg opens and a small white worm (the larva) comes out
Cocoon – The sack or bag that the larva makes for itself before it changes into a pupa. You cannot see this cocoon because it is under a wax cap. (one pupa, many pupae)
Emerge – When the pupa inside the capped cell has changed into an adult and chews its way out of the capped cell
Open Brood - when the brood is in the egg or larva stage and you can see it when you look into the cells. (Not capped)
Capped Brood - brood that is covered by beeswax. Worker bees cap, or cover the cells with beeswax when the larva is ready to become a pupa. Pupae are capped brood.
Bee Bread - food made from honey and pollen that worker bees make and feed to the open worker and drone larvae
Royal Jelly – special food that worker bees make to feed the worker and drone larvae for the first 2days. The drone, and worker larvae are only fed a little bit of Royal Jelly, and then they are fed bee bread. The queen larvae are fed only royal jelly.
Fertilized Egg – An egg from the queen that has been joined with the sperm from a drone.
Unfertilised Egg – An egg that has not joined with a sperm.

What is the difference between the food fed to a queen larva and the food fed to a worker or drone larva?


How many days old is the larva when the nurse bees cap or cover it?

How many days does it take to raise a new queen?
