From a blind, helpless creature no bigger than a grain of sugar to an adult insect with a full set of tools ?? that is the history of the honey bee.
Royal jelly and bee bread
A bee larva is constantly fed with royal jelly (also called queen juice). This is a kind of paste made in the special feed juice glands in the head of the worker bee. About every minute the bee larva is supplied with a new load of royal jelly. Instead of choking on all this food, the larva starts to swell like a balloon. The skin becomes tense like a jacket that is too tight.
Shedding
As soon as the ‘jacket’ has become too tight, it rips open and the bee larva breaks free. The next day another shedding takes place. Finally, the bee larva has grown so large that it fills the entire cell. She has been fed about ten thousand times ?? first with royal jelly for the first two days and then with bee bread (fermented pollen mixed with honey) for the next four. Now the bee larva is more than a thousand times bigger than it was a week ago.
Cocoon
The bee larva begins to make a sticky silk from glands near the mouth. The silk turns into a cocoon of lace through back and forth movements. Then the animal lies still like a mummy in the bandages.
Hundreds of other bee larvae are doing the same thing all over the broodrate. The queen who laid the eggs produced maybe a thousand on the same day ?? one each in its own six-walled cell. Just before the bee larvae start spinning the cocoons, the worker bees seal their cells with wax. Then they start taking care of other larvae.
Transformation
A major transformation takes place within the cocoon: the soft legless bee larva stiffens; legs, wings, eyes and blades begin to appear. The bee larva is no longer a larva, but a pupa that hardens and becomes darker in color. From this a honey bee will emerge.
Honey bee
Twelve days later, a new pair of sharp jaws begins to cut the wax cover off the cell. Now the great miracle is happening. The cell opens and a new, clean honey bee comes out ?? four shiny wings, thinner than paper and her six legs ready to grasp petals she has never seen. Scientists say that turning a bee larva into a bee is just as great a miracle as the following: You put a truck in a garage and close the door. After twelve days a beautiful new plane comes out.