The workers get born

The next couple of days, Rebecca starts by feeding her larvae. Then she and Webby go to her room to lay some more eggs. The drones meanwhile work towards building new rooms so the workers would have beds to sleep in once they are born. And occasionally, the drones visit Webby so she can help them ‘discharge’ some liquid nutrients.

More eggs hatched and the larvae grew quick. After a while, the first larva to hatch spun a cocoon for herself and it would not take long until she was fully mature. Rebecca was in the hatchery every day, taking care of her larvae. She is determined to be a better mother to them than she was to her drones in Pollensville.

Benjamin is in the hatchery too, helping with the feeding so Rebecca can check up on the pupae and make some more honey from time to time. Tobias worked on building new rooms, and Webby created silk which Billy then crafted into clothes for his maturing daughters. Though every 3 days, one of the drones has to let Webby tie them up so she can take a tribute from his balls.

Eventually, the day has come. Rebecca has been waiting in the room bordering the hatchery. It is where the cocooned larvae have been gathered. They have been placed onto beds so they are comfortable as they develop. Rebecca is certain that today the first one will break out of her cocoon. She just knows it. Webby is there too, curious to see the moment a new bee joins their home. It takes some hours, but finally, the larva that first came out of her egg is now also poking at her cocoon from the inside. Rebecca and Webby can see the imprints of her hands as she presses against the cocoon. They wait patiently as the first worker pierces through the cocoon. She grabs the material encasing her and pulls at it, ripping a greater hole into the cocoon. Once her head was free, she looked around and saw her mother for the first time.

Rebecca knelt in front of her first daughter and held her head in a hug. “Bella.” Rebecca said. “Your name shall be Bella.”

Rebecca and Webby both helped the newly born worker out of her cocoon. Bella’s body is fully formed, but she has never used her muscles yet. She sat on the ground waiting for her body to get used to being out of the cocoon. While studying Bella’s body, Rebecca noticed that the worker’s skin was not light like her own. Not dark like her father’s either, but a shade that is in between. Bella tried to spread her wings, but Rebecca told her to wait and let them dry. In the meantime, Rebecca explained Bella about her home. That she is the first of a series of worker bees. Rebecca is the queen who birthed her and Webby is midwife who helped her. After that, they gave Bella her first clothes and introduced her to the drones.

The next day, Bella had several more worker sisters running around. All of them helping Tobias building more rooms. But with so many bees now, the hive’s honey storage was quickly being used up. It won’t be long until they need to help with gathering nectar. But they are still unaware of the world outside. Especially the many dangers out there. That made Rebecca worry about sending her daughters out there. What if some of them end up never coming back again. She will have to make sure they are educated. Fortunately, Billy is very knowledgeable about other insect species. He will make for a good teacher.

Still during morning, Rebecca gathered all her daughters in the kitchen and had them watch her turning the nectar into honey. They were all very excited and paid a lot of attention to their mother. After that, she had her daughters try it. First was Bella, who made honey that wasn’t as tasty as the one Rebecca made, but it was honey none the less. She will improve in time. Then she let another one of her daughters try it out. One by one, she taught them how to do it. Each of her daughters quickly learned how to make honey and soon the nectar the drones had gathered started dwindling, but at least the honey reserves were replenished.

Once her daughters knew the process of turning nectar into honey, she brought in Billy so he could teach them where the nectar came from. He showed them images of flowers, more specifically the flowers nearest to their hive. He also showed them an image of the carnivorous plant that almost ate Rebecca. Once the girls knew how to collect nectar, Benjamin and Tobias brought in containers to carry the nectar in and handed them out to Rebecca’s daughters.