There are three distinct types of cells within a colony of bees.  By the way,  honey bees build a nest from wax secreted by their wax glands.  This nest is build vertical to the ground and in nature built in cavities of trees and between walls of houses, barns or sheds.  They do not build their nest in the ground.

              Egg                 Larva         Pupa   Emerges

Queen     3 days         4-5 days       8 days    16 days

Worker    3 days         5-6 days   12-13 days  21 days

Drone      3 days         6-7 days       14 days   24 days 

The above diagram comes from the book Bees, Wasps & Ants by Rev. Charles A. Hall.

Although not the best of pictures that could be shown, this picture does contain a number of details which show queen cells, drone cells, worker cells , cells with eggs and larva in them and queen cells with the queen emerging.   For better pictures, check with a current text or one of the recommended text.

A queen can lay between 1000 to 2,500 eggs a day and a colony may have as many as 60,000 to 80,000 bees in it.

Prepared by Dana T. Stahlman