Like all insects, honey bees grow through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, adult.
Egg: A queen will lay one egg per cell throughout the brood nest, which is located in the center of the hive. They are very small and look like grains of rice. Worker eggs are laid in smaller cells and drone eggs are laid in larger cells.
Larva: After 3 days, an egg will hatch into a larva. Worker bees will feed and tend to the larvae as they grow. Once the larva is big enough, the worker bees will cover their cell with a wax capping.
Pupa: once the cell is capped, the larva will spin a cocoon around itself and develop into a pupa (similar to how a butterfly spins a chrysalis). At this stage, the baby bee develops its eyes, legs, wings and other familiar body parts.
Adult: Finally, once the pupa is done growing it becomes an adult honey bee. When it is ready, the bee will begin to chew through the cocoon and wax capping of its cell and emerge into the hive.
