Bee brood timeline calculator

How it works

Every honey bee goes through the same stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The castes take different times. Counted from the day the egg is laid, University of Georgia Extension (Bulletin 1045, Table 1) gives: eggs hatch on day 3 for all three; cells are capped on day 8 for workers and queens and day 10 for drones; bees emerge on day 21 (worker), 16 (queen) and 24 (drone).

You rarely know the day an egg was laid. An egg is 0 to 3 days old, so from eggs the tool gives a window of about three days for each stage.

A capped cell can hold a bee anywhere from the day it was capped to the day before it emerges. From capped cells the tool counts from tomorrow to the latest possible day: 13 days for workers, 8 for queens and 14 for drones.

Eggs seen on day D: emerges between D + (E − 3) and D + E. Capped cells seen on day D: emerges between D + 1 and D + (E − C). E and C are the emerge and capping days: worker 21 and 8, queen 16 and 8, drone 24 and 10.

Good to know

• These are typical times. Cold weather, a weak colony or poor food can make development a little slower.
• The tool reads dates, not frames: check the brood yourself before you decide to combine, split or requeen.