Can I use royal jelly from the health food store for priming cell cups?

**Michael Bush** · 06-16-2012, 09:20 AM

I tried priming with royal jelly but I could not see any difference between the results and when I used the Chinese grafting tool, which, as Michael Palmer pointed out, picks up some of the royal jelly. Jay Smith who, being a student of G.M. Doolittle, started out priming ended up deciding that it did not help at all.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbetterq...fting%20Method

"We used to prime our cells with bee milk but, after careful examination, believe it was a detriment, for the first thing the bees do is to remove all the milk we had put in. Grafting in bare cells is better-or rather not so bad."-Jay Smith, Better Queens

**Lauri** · 06-16-2012, 02:46 PM

Ya, just my inexperience that needs priming help. I'll get the hang of it soon and will get the buggers off the tool without squashing them. Problem is I have a really good magnified light and I can get larva that have JUST hatched and have almost no royal jelly. I try to get them and that is that is the problem. Can't get them off the tool well.

**virginiawolf** · 01-21-2013, 09:52 PM

Attachment 4068Lauri, I had trouble getting the larvae off the tool last year as well. When you primed the cells did you get a better percentage of cells started? I am considering trying it this spring. I'm sure with experience I may not need the priming. I've never used it before and I've had ok success but I think it would help. I want to try it this year since I havent tried it yet. I would think it would work better if the cells were primed with royal jelly from another queencell because it will keep the larvae moist and also give the bees a jumpstart on feeding the larve, maybe not. I will practice with the chinese grafting tool as well this year too. I preferred the stainless grafting needle but maybe it needs to be smashed flatter so I can pick up more royal jelly.

**Michael Palmer** · 01-22-2013, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by virginiawolf

I will practice with the chinese grafting tool as well this year too.

Try it, you'll like it.

**Daniel Y** · 01-22-2013, 05:43 AM

Originally Posted by AmericasBeekeeper

Glorybee has royal jelly fit for bee consumption. It is a bit high on shipping because it has to go express. There are actually two types of royal jelly based on the glands in the head of the nurse bee used. Queen royal jelly is yellower than worker royal jelly

This is the first time I have heard anyone mention there is actually a difference in the jelly fed to queens and that fed to workers.

In looking for the Queen Clips I am ordering I have also looked at a lot of other products that can be gotten. A royal Jelly Pen is one of them. Due to the time factor I have not considered getting them but was wondering if anyone has heard of them or used them.

Westernbee I have seen suggestions for using distilled water to keep cells moist as well.

Keeping cells moist may be a big problem for me as well. I am thinking of making a chamber to keep the frame and queen cells in that will be more humid than our bone dry air.

**odfrank** · 01-22-2013, 05:52 AM

Is commercial Royal Jelly real? I see it sold by the kilo for around $56 and can't believe even Chinese could make money producing it. It would take thousands of cells and hundreds of hours to collect that much. A supplier just mistakenly shipped me a few kilos of it and doesn't want it back because it is perishable. What should I do with it? What is it made of?

**Daniel Y** · 01-22-2013, 06:05 AM

Doing just a bit of homework. I came up with this.
Some producers will add honey or beeswax to the jelly to act as a preservative. I didn't see anything that indicates actually diluting the jelly is a practice.

More importantly I found this.

Royalactin
The component of royal jelly that causes a bee to develop into a queen appears to be a single protein that has been called royalactin. Jelly which had been rendered inactive by prolonged storage had a fresh addition of each of the components subject to decay and was fed to bees; only jelly laced with royalactin caused the larvae to become queens.[5] Royalactin also induces similar phenotypical change in the fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster), marked by increased body size and ovary development.

In other words the queen making "Stuff" in royal jelly is subject to decay. And had to be refreshed in order to produce queen bees from old jelly.

**virginiawolf** · 01-22-2013, 10:52 PM

I will try that Chinese grafting tool.

I felt like I had better control with the stainless grafting needle but I am probably over thinking it. I saw a video once where someone was using the Chinese grafting tool and she was doing it extremely fast. I need to work on the technique.

Od I was wondering where all that Royal Jelly comes from too. I have seen it for sale as a beekeeping supply but I would be worried it would go bad or something or infect my bees or something like that. My wife got me Royal Jelly tubes of liquid that was a candy. You stick a little straw in an drink it.
I don't know if this contains real royal jelly from bees or not.

http://www.efooddepot.com/products/s...z.html#product

**Michael Bush** · 01-23-2013, 07:23 AM

> I can get larva that have JUST hatched and have almost no royal jelly. I try to get them and that is that is the problem. Can't get them off the tool well.

I try for the "just hatched" ones as well. But if there is a flow there is plenty of jelly. The nice thing about the chinese tool is it gets the jelly. If there is not a lot of jelly in the cell, it may be a dearth is the real problem and getting good queens when the larvae are underfed is unlikely.