The question was raised, “How long does it take house bees to graduate into Nursing?” The answer is : I don’t know. According to one source, the first 3 weeks are spent doing household chores. The last 3 weeks are spent in the field force foraging for pollen, nectar, and water. I made a statement that the last tour of duty was undertaker. I still hold to that but, there are some beekeepers who think that when the wings are shredded, the bees simply crawl away to die. If any of you out there know the truth of this, please commet and let us all know.

Now, back to my narrative. The cooks of the hive would be the bees that actually prepare the bee bread out of pollen. they take the pollen from the foraging bee and mix in honey and water, stir the mixture and pack into cells real close to the brood nest. They also mix water with the nectar that the nectar forager places in a cell. Then they start fanning the mixed nectar until the nectar mix has changed to honey. Sort of like, mixing cake mix, eggs, milk, etc. and placing in an oven to bake a cake. When the honey is ripe (about 16% viscosity), the cooks and helpers (more young bees) will cap the honey cell. That is when the honey is ready to eat (humans). At this point, I would guess that the bees are about 2 weeks old. Ready to upgrade to climate control and hive guards.