Bee math cheat sheet — pin this to the inside of your hive tool box

Every June I answer the same timing questions at our local club, so here's the table I make every beginner copy out by hand. 18 years in Tyrol and I still count on my fingers with these numbers. Development, egg to emergence: Worker — 21 days. Queen — 16 days. Drone — 24 days. Breakdown: every caste spends 3 days as an egg. A worker is then an open (uncapped) larva for about 6 days, capped on day 9, and spends the remaining 12 days sealed. A queen is capped around day 8 and emerges on day 16. A drone is capped around day 10 and emerges on day 24. Why it matters: see a capped worker cell today, a bee walks out within 12 days. No eggs but open larvae means the queen was laying within the last 9 days. Do a walk-away split and you shouldn't even look for eggs until roughly a month later. What did I forget? Add your own numbers and memory tricks below.