A honey bee has around five stages before reaching the adult stage, taking about 16 to 24 days to fully develop. The queen lays a single, small, egg that looks like a rice grain. The honey bee eggs are very small and are around 1 – 1.5 millimeters long. The honey bee egg stands tall on day one, but on day two they’re leaned over and by the time it hits day three, the egg has hatched into a small larva.
Once the egg has hatched into the next stage which is called “larva” they would be fed by the nurse bees. During the larvae stage the larvae will grow rapidly and will shed its skin multiple times. They act as food machines, increasing their weight by 1,500 times a day. On the 6th day the larvae will begin to hatch, so the larvae will be sealed into beeswax to pupate.
The larvae are covered in beeswax (which is also called a cell) by the worker bees. Inside, the larvae form a cocoon and transform into a pupa, which then they start to develop eyes, legs and wings. As the pupa grows they use the silk cocoon around themself, to protect themselves while they grow to the adult stage.
When the pupa has fully developed into the adult stage, it will begin to eat the wax cap to emerge from the cell. The new honey bee would be soft, pale and fluffy and would immediately begin to start working. They would go outdoors of their hive and land on flowers and collect their pollen by using their hairy legs and their long tongues.