Meet the Baby Queen!
There are also three stages in the development of a Queen Bee. But the cell of the Queen Bee is different from a normal bee. It is larger, and, in domestic bee boxes, the Queen cell hangs down perpendicularly from the entrances of the other honeycomb cells. The outside of the cell is corrugated, like a peanut. The Queen stays in the egg stage for 3 days, like a normal bee. In fact, the egg of a Queen is identical to that of a normal bee. The difference occurs on the third day of the larval stage, when normal bees are weaned off of the Royal Jelly in their diets. The Queen, in contrast is engorged on Royal Jelly for the full 5 1/2 days of her larval stage. Then, her cell is packed with Royal Jelly and sealed for the 7 1/2 days of her pupal stage. After a total of 16 days the adult Queen emerges.