Bees start out as eggs that the queen lays in the cells of the honeycomb. It only stays in the egg for three days from which it emerges as white legless larva. While it has hatched it still remains in the cells of a honeycomb for another 9 days where it eats and sheds it skin 5 times. It is fed royal jelly until it cannot eat anymore at which point the cell is covered in wax and pollen to start the process of the larva becoming a pupa. This stage is where the bee transforms into an adult. They do this by covering themselves in a cocoon and the head, thorax and then the wings develop. During this stage the bee is not being fed. This entire process takes 21 days when the bee frees itself from the cocoon and emerges as an adult bee.
I am interested in seeing a newly emerged bee as I thought the cells only contained honey. However I don't understand how the bees are able to go so long in the pupa stage without eating anything as they go through their largest transformation.
From there the worker bees are split up into two categories, house bees and field bees. The house bees feed the old bees and the larva, clean the cells, produce wax and ventilate the hive.
We talked about the male bees, so I was wondering if this process was only in reference to female bees who are not the queen.
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