On her bridal flight, a young queen will mate with 10 or 12 drones, storing their sperm inside her body for the duration of her life, and later fertilizing her own eggs. In the summer, worker bees only live for about 40 days. When a bee is born, its first job is to clean out the cell in which she was born. She then spends one to two days cleaning the cells with her saliva and keeping the brood warm. When she is three to five days old, she begins to feed the older larvae.
Pollen is mixed with water to form a type of bread fed to the growing larvae.
By the age of 12-17 days, the worker bee's body is mature enough to produce wax, build comb, carry food, and remove dead bees and unwanted matter from the hive. At the ripe old age of 18-21 days, she guards the hive entrance, brushing her antennae over whatever enters, attacking and stinging meddlesome beings. At 22 days old, her foraging begins. She will visit between 50 and 1,000 flowers per day, sometimes pollinating several thousand, collecting pollen, nectar and water for the products which she and other workers will make for the growth and strength of the hive. These products of the hive have been used for human health and healing for centuries by many cultures.