Ephraim's bees

This is a picture of Ephraim's bees. You can see all the larvae growing in the top layer of open cells. That's how Ephraim knows that the queen is still okay. There's a really good view of a larvae curled up in the cell in the second layer. The cells that are closed are "capped". The worker bees cap them when the larvae is big enough and doesn't need to be fed anymore. You can see a couple bees sticking their heads in to the cells. They are either nurse bees feeding the larvae or they could be worker bees cleaning the cell.

Here is a more detailed explanation copied from the internet:

"The queen lays an egg in the bottom of each cell within the brood chamber. When first laid, the egg appears like a piece of rice, only much, much smaller. The egg stands up in the bottom of the cell immedately after it is laid, and will hatch, lie on the bottom of the cell after 3 days. From day 4 to day 9 it is known as a larvae and feeds upon royal jelly. Around day 10 the top of the cell is capped off and between day 10- 20, the larvae spins a cocoon in the cell and begins to transform into a bee, finally emerging from the cell on day 21."

We got our first bee sting from our docile Italian bees. Zuriel "took one for the team" as Leon says. She was watching while Ephraim removed the top of the hive to check for the queen etc. One bee flew to her face and when she brushed at it, it stung her just below the eye. I heard her shriek and subsequent wailing as Papa walked her in and said, "she got stung!". I then asked with much concern, "by a bee??!"