Primary Science: Honeybee Life Cycle
Honeybees are flying insects. Honeybees live in
colonies that have a single queen that starts the
life cycle.
A queen needs to be impregnated in order for it
to lay eggs. A queen is capable of laying up to
around 2,000 eggs a day. There are basic
stages in the honeybee life cycle, the egg, the
larva, the pupa, and the adult.
An egg can grow into either a worker, drone
(male) or a queen bee. Queens take the
shortest time to grow while a worker bee is the
longest.
Primary Science: Honeybee Life Cycle
The honeybee life cycle begins with the queen
being impregnated by the drone bees. The
mating of bees happens outside of the nest
during flight.
After mating, the queen will return to its colony.
Eggs are laid in hexagonal egg cells that are
covered in wax. Eggs will develop into larvae
after 3 days.
A larva has no defining features and is legless. It
never leaves the wax cell and grows at a rapid
speed with the help of the worker bees who
bring food to the larva.
Primary Science: Honeybee Life Cycle
The pupa stage is when the cell of the larva is
fully grown, the larva changes. The cell the larva
is in is sealed with a wax capping when the
larva is engorged on extra food. To enclose itself,
it spins a thin silk cocoon within each cell. The
pupa does not move at all.
Once the pupa has developed wings, legs,
eyes, and other ports, it will start chewing its way
out of the wax capping, becoming a young
adult bee. The young adult bee will then collect
pollen and nectar as food the entire colony.
Primary Science: Honeybee Life Cycle
Answer the questions.
How does the life cycle start?
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Where does the queen lay her eggs?
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How many eggs can the queen lay?
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Primary Science: Honeybee Life Cycle
Answer the questions.
What are the four stages of the life cycle?
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2. _________________________________
3. _________________________________
4. _________________________________
What are the three types of bees?
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2. __________________________________________
3. __________________________________________
Primary Science: Honeybee Life Cycle
Answer the questions.
Explain the larva stage.
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How does a pupa become a young adult bee?
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