Happy New Year! Today’s letter L is for Larva. Becoming a larva is the second of four stages in honey bee development: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The first three stages occur in the comb, of course, with adult bees maintaining the hive (mostly the female workers!). A honey bee larva molts 5 times, meaning there are 5 instar stages while a larva. You can find a detailed discussion on honey bee development from Jamie Ellis at the University of Florida.

A useful trick for remembering the length of the major stages is 3-5-8-5-3, which I learned in my first year of beekeeping. Honey bee eggs turn into larva in about 3 days. Larva are capped roughly 5 days later, or 3+5 = 8 days total. How long before they emerge as an adult depends on whether they are a queen, worker, or drone. A queen bee emerges after an additional 8 days, or 3+5+8 = 16 days total. A worker after another 5 days, or 3+5+8+5 = 21 days total. A drone after yet another 3 days, or 3+5+8+5+3 = 24 days total. There can be some variation in these numbers, but this mnemonic is pretty accurate.

The numbers become important for certain beekeeping activities. If you see eggs, for example, then a queen was present within the past three days. If you want to make sure your hive has no queen cells, then check it once a week to beat the 8 days it takes to cap a queen cell; if your hive swarms and you see capped queen cells, then you can expect them to emerge within another week or so (8 days).

These are just some examples. It can be useful to think in bee time when assessing a hive.

May you prosper and find honey.