Amount of royal jelly in a queen layed cell.

[Michael Bush]

I went to pull some queen cells out of a hive I knew had not started them, but I didn't have time to pull them out and find a frame to replace them so I left it. Two weeks later I pulled them out to use them and the queen had layed in them and they bees had started about four of those and they looked like about one day old larvae. I was grafting larvae the same size. Being transparent plastic, I could see the level of royal jelly in the cups and the larvae the same age as I was grafting had 1/8" of royal jelly filling the bottom of the cells. The contrast was amazing.

[peggjam]

I went to pull some queen cells out of a hive I knew had not started them, but I didn't have time to pull them out and find a frame to replace them so I left it. Two weeks later I pulled them out to use them and the queen had layed in them and they bees had started about four of those and they looked like about one day old larvae. I was grafting larvae the same size. Being transparent plastic, I could see the level of royal jelly in the cups and the larvae the same age as I was grafting had 1/8" of royal jelly filling the bottom of the cells. The contrast was amazing.

The clear plastic cells had 1/8" of royal jelly? I find the larva I graft have maybe one very small drop of rj. I wonder if the girls start filling the cells with rj just before the egg hatches(knowing that it is to become a queen)and that is the differance we are seeing?

[Michael Bush]

>I find the larva I graft have maybe one very small drop of rj.

Exactly