The First 21 Days of a Bee’s Life in 60 Seconds

In this amazing time-lapse video, photographer Anand Varma condenses the first 21 days of a bee’s life into 60 seconds. Commissioned by National Geographic, he teamed up with the bee lab at U.C. Davis to capture the beautiful images of a bee egg hatching into a larva and its development towards becoming a bee. Bees are wonderful since these creatures pollinate 1/3 of the world’s food crops. But lately, they’ve been having trouble doing so primarily due to the parasitic mite known as the Varroa destructor. This pest can be seen in the video preying on larvae during the pupation process, as Anand brings this threat to light.