Sunday, May 2, 2010

Bee Development


Bee development stages as seen in fig 4-9 of Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping by Dewey M. Caron. I think that we saw larvae between the 4th and 5th instar. The were curled almost in a complete "C" and were beginning to fill the entire cell. After this stage the larval cells are provisioned with food and capped with wax, and the larva go through their pupal stage (mummy-like one above). It only takes the worker bee 21 days to change from a tiny egg to a full grown bee. During this process they increase their size 1500 times! We did see some capped cells so maybe we have some baby bees on the way.
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