It shouldn’t, because more bees are being born all the time in a healthy colony.
It is true that bees of different ages have different roles, but at any one point in a colony, there are bees at all stages of their lives. So you don’t generally see cycles of building depending on bee age. It is much more dependent on food availability and queen health.
Depends on the bees, the weather and food availability. In the best conditions, they might do it in a couple of days. But as it takes around 7lb of honey to build one 1lb of wax, if they are short of food, they will take a lot longer. I am getting the strong feeling that your bees may be short of food.