By day four, their supply is cut off and they are not fed as often.īy day nine, the larvae spin cocoons and begin their pupal phase-when most of their adult bodies (wings, abdomen, legs, and organs) take form. In the first half of that time, they’re fed royal jelly. Worker bees hatch from fertilized eggs, after which they spend six days as larvae. They achieve a lot in their short time on earth, and their life cycle is basically a testament to “live fast, die young.” This is because the latter stays huddled around the queen bee to keep her warm throughout the cold months.Īlthough they don’t live as long as some other castes, workers are busy indeed. If they’re born in the fall or winter, they get to spend a little more time with us-up to six months. If they’re born in summer or in spring, they typically only live for about six or seven weeks. Worker bees are females, and their lifespan is largely determined by when they were born. Queens, drones, and workers all lead very different lives and therefore have varying life expectancies. The average lifespan of a western honeybee is determined by which type of bee it is. So, I’ll stick to the most common one: the western honeybee. Since there are as many as 20,000 different kinds of bees, it would be quite tedious to go through all of them. Bumblebees, and Africanized honeybee workers could live as long as a month.
Female miner bees can live for up to six weeks, but the drones will only live for as little as two weeks. The lifespan of a bee will, of course, depend on its species. I wonder though, have you ever thought about how long bees live when humans are not a catalyst in their demise? Let’s step away from the doom and gloom for a minute and explore the natural lifespan of our little friends.
It’s so severe that human interference has almost doubled the mortality rate of bees. So much so that beekeepers have reported losing more than 30 percent of their hives in recent years. Climate change, industrialism, and other environmental factors have affected how long bees live, causing a rapid and dramatic decline in bee populations.