Lifecycle overview

In just 21 days, a queen's egg develops into a bee. Three days after the egg is laid, a larva hatches, which is then fed by the other bees. About five days later, the cell is sealed with a thin wax cap. Over the next two weeks, the larva develops into a fully grown bee, which then breaks through the wax cap of the cell and hatches.
A queen lives for 4-5 years; she ensures the survival of the colony by laying up to 2000 eggs per day
In each bee colony lives a queen, about 30,000 workers (depending on the season; in winter there are around 10,000, in summer up to 60,000) and 1,000 to 2,000 male drones
The drones grow from an unfertilized egg of the queen They hatch after 24 days and live for 20-50 days. Drones maintain social balance in a bee colony and are solely responsible for inseminating unmated queens.
The bees we see collecting nectar or honeydew are workers. They live only 30-40 days in summer or 6 months in winter.
A worker bee performs various, precisely defined tasks in its short life – first in the hive, then as a forager. When it dies of exhaustion after about a month, it has traveled several thousand kilometers.