The honeybee is a wonder of nature to me. I have been studying them for over 40 years and am still amazed by them. The following pictures of a worker bee hatching out of it's cell. The amazing part is that the queen honeybee only mates one short period early on in her life and retains the sperm in her spermatheca gland for up to five years. When the queen lays an egg she determines whether the fertilize the egg or not. A fertilized egg will be either a worker bee (female with stunted sexual reproductive organs) or a queen (fully developed). What determines this is the food that it is feed. An unfertilized egg will develop into a male bee. The honeybee colony is an amazing dynamic to witness.
Here are a few more pictures of a colony in action. The first is one bee feeding another and the second is a bee standing guard.
These are all original pictures taken by me while inspecting my beehives.
