A bee lifespan is difficult for people to comprehend. I know this because of the endless stream of mail I receive asking how to save a bee that appears to be dying. People who care about bees, or pollinators in general, are often empathetic with distraught bugs and sincerely want to help.
However, if a bee appears to be dying, it probably is, and there is nothing you can do about it. Perhaps you can extend its life by hours or a day, but is that the best thing for the bee? Might it not be better to let it go? I can’t answer these questions, but I can explain a few things about bee lifespans.
Beginning with an egg
A bee begins life as an egg. Eggs destined to be females are fertilized and male eggs are not, but it’s logical to begin calculating lifespan just after the egg is laid. In a honey bee colony, the egg goes through the first three stages of metamorphosis—egg, larva, and pupa—very quickly. The whole cycle takes about three weeks, give or take, or about 20 to 21 days. At the end of that period, all of which occurs inside a brood cell, an adult worker bee will emerge. A honey bee queen develops more quickly, about 16 days, and the drones take longer, about 24 days.
Most worker bees—those born in spring, summer, and early fall—will have an adult lifespan of four-to-six weeks on average. Some won’t make it that long and others may go another week or two, but four-to-six weeks is a good average number. Basically, worker bees toil until they drop, so their name is apt.
As with most animals, the bee’s lifespan is predetermined by genetics and influenced by the environment. A good, healthful environment may maximize its lifespan, while a poor environment may shorten it. I say “may” because the world is full of threats and misadventures. A healthy bee may get eaten by a bird, run into by a car, or stepped on by a deer. Pesticides, too, are a problem, as are lawn mowers, bee wolves, and fly swatters. The world is a perilous place.
Honey bees are not unique
As for timing, the adult or active portion of a honey bee lifespan is similar to that of most other bees. Most solitary bees, for example, emerge as adults and have that same four-to-six weeks to build a nest, mate, and produce the next generation.
The primary difference is that many of the solitary bees survive for an entire year. However, the large majority of that time is spent as a larva or a pupa—or sometimes as a hibernating adult—within the confines of the nest. In fact, some species hibernate for two years before emerging. This is a hedge against bad weather, drought, or a lack of forage. If some of the brood emerges after one year, and some emerges after two years, the species as a whole has a better chance of long-term survival.
Queens and winter bees
Some honey bee adults do live longer than the average spring and summer workers. Honey bee queens can survive for upwards of five years, although for reasons we don’t completely understand, long-lived queens seem to be less common than in decades past.
Winter bees, also known as diutinus bees, carry the colony through to spring. They have special physiological features, including increased fat stores, which allow them to live longer and produce brood food into old age. This subset of workers may live eight or nine months if conditions are good and their hive is safe and warm with plenty of food.
Variation is common
The vast number of bee species, about 20,000 worldwide, allows for lots of diversity and plenty of exceptions. For example, some bumble bees, especially queens, live longer than the four-to-six week average, and I’m sure other examples exist.
Bees in general, not just honey bees, work themselves to death. Old bees are easy to spot because they often have little hair, tattered wings, and even missing appendages. They just go and go until their bodies give out. They have no sick leave, no retirement, and no relaxation. Finally, they just up and die.
When their time is up
By calculating the egg-laying rate, colony population growth, and life expectancy, beekeepers have estimated that an average-sized honey bee colony during the nectar season loses about 1000-1200 members per day. We don’t realize how many bees this is because we don’t see them dead in a single pile. They are the missing that got eaten, smashed, mangled, poisoned, or trapped, and those that simply dropped from old age.
Some of those bees were working flowers when the weakness of age took over. The same applies to bumble bees and solitary bees. Some just wink out, some rest until the end comes, some struggle to keep going but can’t. On any given day, I can find dead bees in my pollinator garden, my driveway, or the eaves of my house. In fact, I have a shoebox full of them that kids like to play with.
Of course, some bees, especially those you may see tucked inside a flower on a cold morning, are not dying but only sleeping. This becomes apparent when the sun warms their bodies and they take off, sometimes foraging right where they left off the night before. These bees are seemingly unperturbed by the cold interlude that grounded them for many hours.
Should you help a bee?
Every time someone writes to me and explains how they found a weakened bee and fed it, kept it warm, transferred it to safety, or provided water, I wonder if that’s the best thing. I believe that most of the time these weakened bees are at the end of their lives. They have done what nature intended for as long as they were able. Now is their time to let go, but then we come along and prolong that life.
Do bees feel pain? I don’t know. Do bees realize they’re dying? I don’t know. What do they want? I don’t know that either. But I can tell you that my inclination is to let them go, to let them die naturally without a lot of interference.
I don’t always walk away. If I see a bee struggling after its head is severed, for example, I mash it immediately. If I see a bee writhing as if poisoned, I dispatch it. Does my decision-making process make any sense? Probably not.
I can’t explain why I kill a bee that appears to be in pain and walk away from one that looks to be dying peaceably. This is why, in the end, I try to answer the questions people ask without giving advice or passing judgment. We each do what we feel is right, but where that decision comes from is anybody’s guess.
As I explained in an earlier post, we can’t save individual bees. If we want to “save the bees” the best we can do is save their environment and protect their habitat. In a healthy environment, species can thrive, but without it, they are doomed. For those of you trying to save individual bees, I say do what you must, but never forget the bigger picture.
Rusty
Honey Bee Suite


Hi Rusty
Another great post! The subject of insect lifespan is fascinating, and as you say — the range is wide. Some insects live only days, long enough to mate. In fact, some flies have no mouthparts and can’t eat. On the other hand, some insects live a very long time:
Information on lifespan was found for 54 ant species and 10 termite species. The most striking pattern emerging from these is the very long lifespan of queens, with values higher than 20 years in some species. Most data come from queens reared in the laboratory, typically with only a few colonies studied. Hence, these lifespan estimates should be regarded as approximate and only reflect lifespan under laboratory conditions. — Keller, L. (1998). Queen lifespan and colony characteristics in ants and termites. Insectes Sociaux, 45(3), 235-246.
Thanks, Pete!
My late great-grandmother taught me to fish bees out of swimming pools, and I did. She taught me to wait there patiently and watch them dry off and simply fly away to freedom. She said that bees were very important, and they are. They help keep our crops going and such and will always be needed. So, that said, I have never been stung by a bee and I am never afraid of one nor panic and want to swish it away if it comes flying at me and I think bees and I have some sort of secret agreement that since I saved so many bees out of pools over my life that they, in turn, will not ever harm me. I don’t know if it’s extrasensory perception or telepathy going on but it seems to be working so far. I saved SO many of them so they, in turn, don’t harm me. (Now as for killer bees I’ve NO idea how they would react – I’m only hoping they’d sense I’m a bee saver, not a bee killer, and react accordingly).
I LOVE that great gramma taught you this and that you continue to save them. I have been the same way since I was a child and an a gramma myself now. I bet it’s a special feeling you get when your little bee seems to come back to life right before your eyes. You are an angel ?
I found a bee (queen) on my floor dining area. I thought it was dead but her legs were still moving (barely). Now my habit is to put them outside on a plant (any insect for that matter) but this one I put it on a leaf of one of my indoor plants so she could go to bee heaven in comfort. That was 3 days ago. Does anyone have any feedback on this?
Rusty, nice post. I have a lot of people chat with me (the beeyards are by walking trails) and often tell me they put out honey to help the bees. Ack! Store bought honey is often contaminated with AFB spores, which can cause a serious disease of bees. It is for human consumption only. To help the bees, plant flowers and if you must feed them, use white sugar dissolved in an equal amount of water. It seem counter-intuitive, but do not feed bees honey!
Humans struggle with death, regardless of what we understand. Maybe it is that inclination to go toward life no matter what. The ethical leap from honey bee to dog to human spans light-years. Plants barely make it into consideration. I have been in this fight more than I ever wanted, but in the end, I guess we must try and see it from the other being’s perspective. Which is more important? Life or quality of life? This will never be easy on its own and it gets muddied with money, politics, and religion faster than you can say Jack Sprat. I would hope that the arc would always bend toward life while understanding that sometimes death is pure kindness. Hard question with no obvious answer if there is one at all.
A friend and I doing an inspection lifted out a honey-filled comb which fell off the bar. Honey poured out and bees were drowning. We scooped the honey and the bees and spent at least an hour picking struggling bees out of the honey. Would this be an exception to leaving them be? Or were we just assuaging our guilty feelings about going ahead with an inspection when it was too hot?
Kathy,
Those kinds of accidents can be so upsetting. If a honey-soaked bee can clean herself up, she’ll be fine. So I think yes, it’s an exception.
Both bottom boxes are full to the max, I have added a new super about six weeks ago and nothing. No cells, no honey, nothing. I check for the queen actively and saw some eggs but they were scattered around. There were many cells with multiple eggs. No shortage of bees. Yes, I’m new at this!
Bill,
Are you sure you have a queen? Scattered eggs and multiple eggs are indicators of laying workers.
“Winter bees, also known as diutinus bees, are those individuals that are raised to carry the colony through to spring. They have special physiological features, including increased fat stores, which allow them to live longer and produce brood food into old age.” This part of “winter workers” was something I did not know at all. Being new to bees, one more thing I get to stash away, thanks. And now the question: Is it known what triggers workers [I assume workers] to know it is time to raise them, rather than just plain ol workers?
Gary,
I’ve got a post on winter bees that might help. Also, what triggers the production of winter bees is still being argued, but some people think it’s a dearth of pollen coming into the hive, others think it’s related to decreasing hours of sunlight.
Gary,
It’s also interesting that some biologists consider winter bees a separate caste because they are so structurally different from regular workers.
Rusty,
I absolutely love your writing style! You have a unique way of conveying your written thoughts in a way that makes the reader feel like they are engaged in conversation rather than reading a scientific passage. Your writing style strikes a chord with me and I wanted to take pause and say thank you for your outstanding work.
Dr. Joe,
Thank you so much!
I’ve witnessed worker bees that emerge from the hive (just completed a delivery), fall down, hop … hop … hop, wings in tatters – she obviously just made her last trip. However, not turning around licking her wounds looking for the comfort of the hive, but continuing on to that last great forage spot she has been working until now … never to be able to reach it again, or return from it – but not from lack of trying. Inspiring …
Thanks Rusty, I’ve come to many of the same conclusions as a new beek. I squish those injured and try to let others take a natural course. I first experimented quite a bit when temperatures widely fluctuate and some seem chilled. I have found if they respond to warm temps within a minute or less, they may have misjudged their time outside the hive as they warm and march right back in, but others I have “revived” probably shouldn’t have been revived. I get super attached to all creatures and I very much appreciate your wisdom.
Hi Rusty, thanks for the post. Maybe you can say more about the “work themselves to death” situation. I remember reading in some reputable source, but can’t recall where, that honey bees spend some time of their day, maybe 10%, just loafing. Have you any info on that? Also, as you must know, bumbles and other wild bees will start work much earlier and end later than honeybees. I find HB’s a little lazy in comparison, not to mention their preference for only the sweetest nectar. Industrious, yes, but I’ve heard plenty of folks in the “bees are magic” camp extol their “selfless sacrifice” and I look at my bees and see a more judicious approach to time and effort.
Poignant and short—like the life of a bee. Wonderful photos also. I’m not a beekeeper, but a gardener. I see more bees asleep, than dead. “Taking time to smell the flowers” means noticing the bees and feeling sadness at the brevity of their valuable lives. Take care!
THANKS for the winter bee link. Fascinating is an understatement.
Rusty,
Great writing as always, I file your observations under “Learning”.
Our one “Overwintered” hive is doing ok. The other 3 are producing more. Time will tell which if any will survive the coming winter (seems a long way away, with yesterday’s dewpoint in the ’80s.
Thanks again.
Fred
Hi! I’m a bit distressed cause I just found a dead bee in my garden. I have been trying to stop the slugs from coming to the veggies and I put some coffee around some. Also, I had used soapy water for other infestation but none on flowers. The plants it was next to had only the coffee. I’m wondering if I have made a mistake with my infestation solution choices. Do bees come to leaves on other plants without flowers? It makes me sad it might happen again.
Ana,
The coffee won’t hurt the bees, and soap will only hurt them if you spray the bees with it. A soap film on the leaves won’t matter.
Hi Rusty:
My husband and I recently bought 5 acres of old farmland in Huron County, Ontario. We let most of the acreage revert to meadow and now want to add some more pollinator flowers that are native to this area. I understand that many varieties of bees nest in the ground over winter and we don’t want to disturb them if we mow (not till) some of the fields in order to plant seeds. As many perennial seeds do best if planted in the fall, what month is best to mow? If we plant in the spring how will we know when the bee hibernation ends?
After only one year of letting the meadows naturalize, we have noticed an explosion of new life, from bees and many other insects, to new varieties of birds and animals. Our next project is to create a vernal pond to entice migrating ducks and increase the dragonfly population among others. Any advice regarding mowing time would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Marilyn
Marilyn,
Some wild bee species emerge as soon as February and some as late as September. Each species has its own couple of months of activity, but that activity is spread across many months. The important thing is to mow when the least number of bees are active, which is probably the evening.
Hi,
I do not “keep bees” but have a garden planned to provide them with food and would never kill a bee as a “pest”.
I do, however, have about a hundred bonsai, and one of them, which lives in shallow earthenware pot – sort of an elongated saucer in shape – has recently become THE watering place for one of the hives which use my garden. At any given point in time, there are usually three or four bees around the edges of the pot, heads down, and drinking like crazy before they get replaced with two or three others. They just discovered the pot recently and are obviously still giving instructions to the rest of their friends as every so often a lone bee will turn up, check out the pots two or three down the row – not landing, just looking – before they figure out where they are supposed to be going.
I am having a ball watching them all!
Another beautifully written article, packed with accurate, science-based information (like diutinus bees, thanks for that!). I admire how you state your viewpoint without judgment and leave lots of room for others to do it their own way. You are very much a role model for us beekeepers as we work alongside our bees and alongside other beekeepers. Thank you for all you give to us through your writing. -Theresa Martin
Thanks, Theresa!
Hello!
I love your articles and posts. They are so informative and I learn so much.
I made a big mistake today and I’m trying to figure out why the bees did what they did.
After I extracted my honey, I put the super back on for the bees to clean it out. In a very short time, they started filling the comb back up. I got some advice on a Facebook page to put the box back on top of the inner cover and then the lid so the bees would move the honey back into the hive. That didn’t work.
So today I just took the box off and set it next to the hive so the bees could rob it out and just crawl back into the hive. There were only five frames that had bees on them and I didn’t feel like they were that many bees in the box.
I reduced the entrance in case other robbers came, my hive would be well defended.
I went out later today and there were hundreds of bees crawling on the ground and on the wall by my hive.
I figured these were bees that for some reason couldn’t find their way back into the hive. When I put a couple of them up by the entrance they were viciously attacked.
I’m pretty sure these are bees from my box, I just don’t understand why they weren’t allowed back into the hive. Did they wait too long to go back into the hive and then they weren’t recognized?
I don’t know why I didn’t just shake the bees off. Next time I’ll just do that. For some reason, I just was trying to avoid making them mad. But now I feel like I just killed a bunch of bees for no reason. I learned a lesson, but I’m curious as to why they weren’t allowed back in.
Regards,
Stacy
Stacy,
They weren’t bees from your hive, they were bees from elsewhere, which is why they were being attacked. It’s never good practice to put freshly extracted frames anywhere near a hive because they will attract marauders from all over. The only way to put them back on a hive is to put them inside, and even then you may need to reduce entrances.
New beekeeper with a question. Can my bees die from lack of water in winter? If so what can I do to prevent it? Where would bees get water if a beekeeper doesn’t provide it?
James,
I can’t answer because I don’t know where you live or what kind of climate you have.
In places like North America, winter moisture is recycled from the bees’ breath (respiration) and from the digestion of honey. The warm, moist air leaves the cluster and condenses on surfaces where the bees and can lick it up. Desert or extremely dry places are different, and in those places, bees will likely require a water source.
Thank you!
I live in NE Arkansas where we get some cold winters but not much snow. I keep hearing about how beekeepers should keep moisture out of the hives in winter because it can kill the bees. Then I read your post about how the bees use that moisture to drink in the winter. I’m just trying to figure out what I should do to help the bees survive winter. I have even read stuff from University bee programs and yet there seems to be no consistency in what is being taught. The bee world has very few standards and I sometimes think just leaving the bees alone would be the best thing to do, but that doesn’t feel right either.
James,
The hardest thing to remember is that beekeeping strategy is very dependent on local conditions. For example, in humid places winter moisture can be a huge problem. In dry places, it just isn’t. That’s why you read so many different recommendations. It’s not that they are absolutely right or wrong, but they may be right or wrong in a given place. There are no uniform standards because that wouldn’t work across mountains and deserts and rainforests and plains and urban rooftops. By experimenting, you can soon figure out what works in your area.
Hello Rusty,
I spend quite a bit of time watching my hive throughout the day and have never seen this behavior:
Location: Gulf Coast of Florida, south-central. Single hive on a stand with small shell-covered ground. Occurring now, October. I use binoculars to observe the hive opening.
For the first time I noticed a bee spending an enormous amount of energy to move a dead bee that was already on the ground (in front of the hive) this bee worked so hard to compact the dead bee into a crevasse between shells, she did this over and over, at one time even managing to flip a small shell over a body.
I have never seen (or noticed) this behavior prior to this. These bees did have mummified look to them.
I placed black landscape cloth in front of the hive to see if she would do the same, she does, she drags them off the cloth over to the shell and does her best to cover them or press them in the shell. I just noticed her doing this to a normal non-mummified-looking dead bee.
This is an entirely new behavior I am observing and am wondering if the experts can help me understand why this level of effort to dispose of the dead? Before they would just be dropped out and eaten by lizards or just become part of nature.
There is not an inordinate number of dead bees so I don’t suspect a hive issue and it was recently inspected.
Any thoughts are welcome. Thank You
Maureen,
Are you saying a honey bee is doing this, or some other kind of bee?
It is the honey bees from the colony doing it. I have tried to film it but it is difficult as they stop and fly away, they come back to finish it when I back off.
The dead bees are out on the ground in front of the hive. A bee flies low to the ground scouting for these bodies, she finds one and starts pulling and tugging until she finally gets it “placed”, either in a shell, under a shell, or most often between them in a crevasse. It is still going on. It seems as if the inside undertakers dump the body and she is assigned to bury them. I don’t pretend to have years of experience but I have spent many hours observing the hive and have never seen it. I did get one small video but it is not very good and only shows her finishing up and flying away.
I have seen teams of bees removing these carcasses, flying them out. Some of the bees appear to be still weak but Ali e, but they are mostly dead bees where this is happening.
Thank you
Maureen,
I don’t know. Undertaker bees do fly the dead away from the hive and drop them, but I’ve never seen bees pick one off the ground and move it. Maybe someone else here has an idea, but I’m clueless.
Rusty/Maureen- any possibility these are just ‘small’ yellow jackets hauling off the dead? I’ve seen that happen a lot and the YJs aren’t any bigger than the bee in most cases.
No, the bees doing the hauling and burying are definitely from my hive. The undertakers remove and drop them and this “body” scout pulls and tugs them away from the hive and then places them in between shells.
I placed a large piece of black landscape fabric in front of the hive in order to get a better look at what was happening, and yes she is flying down and pulling and tugging them off the fabric and into the surrounding shell.
My best guess is that it is hygiene behaviour, I believe these are drones/drone brood being evicted and for some reason, the colony does not want them near the hive.
One less likely theory is that I do see the geckos eating dead bees as well as trying to capture live ones and possibly they want to remove them away from the hive front so as to not draw predators, but that is out there.
If anyone has any further insight please share it.
So here we are in Middle TN under a lovely blanket of 5 inches of fresh snow, about 30 degrees. Why on earth would we find a bee on top of the snow 30 yards from the hive? She was motionless. I picked her up, breathed warm, humid life back into her. First her antennae twitched. Soon she was wandering around my gloved hand. I quickly popped a lid and let her march back into a cluster. Totally unnecessary, but fun to watch.
Dave,
I can think of three reasons you found a bee out there. The first is simply that she traveled too far on a cleansing flight and couldn’t get back, but I doubt that’s what happened.
Most likely, it was an altruistic suicide. Bees know when they are sick or about to die. To prevent healthy bees from getting sick, to keep the hive free of dead bodies, and to prevent healthy bees from needing to do undertaker duty in the cold, the bee will fly outside to die. Bees with all kinds of ailments do this. Whether they are old, disease-ridden, or infected with parasites, they know their time has come and fly out for the good of the colony.
Another possibility is the bee was sick or aging and forced out by the other bees, or even carried off and dumped. I think this is less likely than altruistic suicide, but it’s a possibility nevertheless.
Although none of us like to see this, it’s best not to interfere. If the bee is diseased, you might not be able to tell by looking, so it’s in the best interest of the colony to let her go. The bees know what they are doing, and although we like to help, in cases like these, they know what is best.
Thank you so much for the article. For the past 24 hours I have been trying to save a bumble bee that is walking around my backyard. She seems active and unhurt and I’ve seen her move her legs and stretch her wings but she will not fly. I have fed her, kept her warm overnight and still she won’t fly. I was stressing-out, wondering what more I could do to help. Your article has made me realise that I have done more than enough and should leave her alone, much as it hurts me.
Flowers produce life – Bees transport life – People consume life.
Musical message. “Survival Tune for a Crazy World”. On YouTube.