The process describes how honey bees grow and reproduce from the bee’s eggs.
Overall, the life cycle of honey bees has 4 main stages starting from the bees’ eggs to a fully grown bee. This cycle lasts for 34 to 36 days.
Firstly, the female honey bees lay from 1 to 2 eggs every three days, these eggs will hatch after 9 to 10 days of being laid. Subsequently, the newborn bees will keep growing for the next 9 days when they are called the “nymph”. These nymphs will molt 3 times as they grow older, which is called the metamorphosis phase. However, at this stage, the bees do not have the horizontal stripes on their back yet.
At the following stage, the nymphs continue to increase in size until they reach the size of a “young adult” and stripes start to appear. These young adult honey bees then keep growing to reach their full maturity and become mature individuals. Finally, these bees will enter their reproductive phase and repeat the cycle.