Honey bee life cycle Honey bee life cycle The honey bee life cycle, here referring exclusively to the domesticated Western honey bee, depends greatly on their social structure. Unlike a bumble bee colony or a paper wasp colony, the life of a honey bee colony is perennial. The three types of honey bees in a hive are: queens (egg-producers), workers (non-reproducing females), and drones (males whose main duty is to find and mate with a queen). Honey bees hatch from eggs in three to four days. They are then fed by worker bees and develop through several stages in the cells. Cells are capped
Honey bee and starves emerging bees. Destruction of honeycombs also result in honey leaking and being wasted. Both "G. mellonella" adults and larvae are possible vectors for pathogens that can infect bees, including the Israeli acute paralysis virus and the black queen cell virus. Temperature treatments are possible, but also distorts wax of the honeycombs. Chemical fumigants, particularly CO, are also used. The only domesticated species of honey bee are "A. mellifera" and "A. cerana", and they are often maintained, fed, and transported by beekeepers. In Japan, where "mellifera" is vulnerable to local hornets and disease, the Japanese honey bee "a. cerana