Lesson 7: Egg to Adult
The four stages of a honey bee's life, and why the timing matters to you
Young honey bees are called brood. Every bee in your hive went through the same four stages inside a wax cell: egg, larva, pupa, adult. Once you know what each stage looks like and how long it lasts, a frame of brood tells you a story: whether the queen is laying, how long ago she laid, and when new bees will join the colony.
Stage 1: The egg
The queen lays each egg in its own six-sided wax cell. An egg is tiny, 1 to 1.5 mm long, like a small grain of rice, standing on end at the bottom of the cell.
Eggs are hard to see at first, but they're worth learning to find: eggs in the comb mean a laying queen is in the colony.
Fertilized eggs become females (workers or queens); unfertilized eggs become males (drones).
The egg hatches after about 3 days for all three kinds of bee.
Stage 2: The larva
The larva is a small, pearly white grub, curled in a "C" shape at the bottom of the cell. Nurse bees feed it constantly. Each larva gets thousands of feeding visits while it grows. Because the cells are still open at this stage, larvae are called open brood (or uncapped brood).
What a larva is fed decides what it becomes:
- Every larva gets royal jelly for its first 3 days.
- Worker larvae then switch to "worker jelly", a mix of royal jelly, pollen and nectar.
- Queen larvae keep getting royal jelly the whole time, in large amounts.
When a larva is fully grown it stretches out lengthwise in the cell, and adult bees cover the cell with a wax capping.
Stage 3: The pupa
Under the capping, the larva spins a cocoon and becomes a pupa. This is the inactive stage, when the body changes into an adult bee's. Because the cells are sealed, pupae are called capped brood (or sealed brood).
Stage 4: The adult
When she's fully formed, the new adult chews through the wax capping and walks out of the cell. This is called emerging. (Eggs hatch; adults emerge.) A new worker starts work almost at once (lesson 8).
How long each takes
| Days after the egg is laid | Worker | Queen | Drone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egg hatches | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Cell is capped | 8 | 8 (about 9) | 10 |
| Adult emerges | 21 | 16 | 24 |
These are textbook averages. Real colonies can be a little faster or slower. In warm climates, for example, workers often emerge in about 19 days and queens in about 15.
Queens develop fastest; drones take longest.
Why the timing matters to you
- Eggs mean a queen was laying very recently. Eggs hatch in 3 days, so eggs in the comb tell you the colony had a laying queen within the last few days.
- The queen timeline explains emergency queen rearing. Any female larva younger than about 3 days can still be raised as a queen. The youngest larvae make the best queens. This is how a colony that loses its queen makes a new one (lessons 13 and 43).
- A new package or split takes weeks to grow. Workers need 21 days from egg to adult, so a colony doesn't gain new bees for three weeks after the queen starts laying.
- Mites prefer drone brood. Drone brood stays capped longest, which suits varroa mites (lesson 54).
How it looks:
Eggs (small white rods standing in the cells) and young, pearly-white larvae.
Capped brood: pupae developing under brown wax cappings.
Young larvae in open cells, being lifted out by a researcher (USDA).
What to remember
- Four stages: egg → larva → pupa → adult.
- Eggs: grain-of-rice size, standing in the cell; hatch in 3 days. Eggs mean a laying queen.
- Larvae: pearly white, C-shaped, open brood. Diet decides worker or queen.
- Pupae: under wax cappings, capped brood.
- Egg to adult: worker 21 days, queen 16, drone 24.
Quick check
- How many days after the egg is laid does a worker emerge? A queen? A drone?
- What's the difference between open brood and capped brood?
- Why do eggs in the comb tell you something useful?
Show answers
1. Worker 21, queen 16, drone 24 days (averages). 2. Open brood is eggs and larvae in uncapped cells; capped brood is pupae under wax cappings. 3. Eggs hatch in 3 days, so eggs mean a queen was laying in the last few days.
Adapted from: UF/IFAS Extension, European Honey Bee (EENY568/IN1005); Penn State Extension, An Introduction to Queen Honey Bee Development (Anton & Grozinger, updated 2025); UGA Bee Program, Getting Started: Honey Bee Biology; Delaplane, K. S., Honey Bees and Beekeeping (UGA Extension Bulletin 1045, rev. 2017), Table 1.
Photos: eggs and larvae, Waugsberg, CC BY-SA 3.0 · brood nest, Einebillion, CC BY 4.0 (both via Wikimedia Commons) · larvae, Vanessa Corby-Harris, USDA Agricultural Research Service (public domain).
Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.