Bee Life Cycle: How Long From Egg to Adult Bee?

From egg to adult, a honey bee takes about 16 days if it becomes a queen, 21 days as a worker and 24 days as a drone. Every bee goes through the same four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The difference is how long each stage lasts and what the larva is fed.

Development time by type of bee

Bee	Egg	Larva (open cell)	Capped (pupa)	Total
Queen	3 days	About 5 days	About 8 days	About 16 days
Worker	3 days	About 6 days	About 12 days	About 21 days
Drone	3 days	About 7 days	About 14 days	About 24 days

Times vary by a day or so with temperature. The colony keeps the brood area around 93 to 95°F to keep development on schedule.

The four stages

1. Egg (3 days)

The queen lays a single egg at the bottom of a wax cell. Fertilized eggs become females (workers or queens); unfertilized eggs become males (drones).

2. Larva

After three days the egg hatches into a small white larva. Nurse bees feed every larva royal jelly at first. Worker and drone larvae then switch to a diet that includes honey and pollen, while a larva being raised as a queen is fed royal jelly the whole time. That diet is what turns a female larva into a queen instead of a worker. See what royal jelly is.

3. Pupa (capped cell)

When the larva is fully grown, workers cap the cell with wax. Inside, the larva spins a cocoon and transforms into an adult: legs, wings, eyes and body form during this stage.

4. Adult

The new bee chews through the wax cap and emerges. A young worker starts with jobs inside the hive, like cleaning cells and feeding larvae, and only begins foraging outside after about three weeks. See what worker bees do.

Why this matters if bees move into your house

Because a new worker emerges about three weeks after an egg is laid, a colony that moves into a wall can grow fast. Within a month, the first generation of new bees is hatching from comb inside your wall. Removing the colony early means less comb, fewer bees and an easier repair. Call or text (626) 487-6052 for a live hive removal.