Above is a rare picture of a Queen on freshly drawn honeycomb with just 3 attendants. Normally she would be covered with bees and hence very difficult to spot.

So as a start, here are some basic facts on the Developmental Period of a colony of Bees. But go to ‘Articles’ for more useful information for beginners or to ‘Web Watch’ for some of the best bee related information on the web.

Egg development periods:

Queen 16 days,
Worker 21 days
Drone 24 days
Queen Fertility 23+ days
Drone Fertility 38+ days

A Worker Bee:

In summer lives only 6 to 8 weeks from the time she hatches as an adult bee.

In late autumn the queen lays eggs that develop into workers that live for 4/6 months to survive the winter.

Typical Colony:

50/70,000 bees in mid summer
There will be 1 queen, 250 drones, 20,000 female foragers,
30,000 female house-bees,
5,000 to 7,000 eggs, 7,000-11,000 larvae being fed,
16,000 to 24,000 larvae developing into adults in sealed cells.
24,000 larvae developing into adults in sealed cells.