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

11K views 28 replies 17 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
Hello all,
I found some organic royal jelly at the health food store, and I'm wondering if I can use it for priming queen cell cups before grafting. It is not quite pure, meaning has some other ingredient, but it is still totally organic. Should I, or should I not? Input, anyone? Thanks in advance.
 
#25 ·
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.
 
#16 · (Edited)
when you are working your bees and find Queen cells collect a few and save them i will wrap a wet paper shop towel around them and put them in the freezer for later use.

once i get grafting started i will go to a cell builder with a 3 day graft and take one out and use it, its fresh. Some times i graft and take them to a different mating yard with a cell builder in the yard 20 minutes away it works great.
 
#18 ·
Well, I found out this morning that one of my hives is queenless, and they have 19 active uncapped queen cells now. I went into the hive, found the best looking 5 cells, saved them, and scooped all the royal jelly out of the other 14 cells. Can I use this for priming? If so, how can I store it, fridge/freezer?
Also, I had been using the chinese grafting tool, but the tongue kept and creasing, bending, and folding. Is there a solution to this? This was why I quit using it after the first 10 or so grafts.
 
#20 ·
The only reason I like to prime is I have a hard time getting the larva gently off the Chinese tool. I can scoop them up just fine, but if I get them just on the tip of the tool, there is little royal jelly. A little moisture in the JZBZ cup and larva on the tip of the tool is easier for me. Small paint brush works well too, but won't get much jelly.
I've Been harvesting the jelly in the wild queen cells removed my cell starter with a straw cut on one end like a spoon. Scoop it out and squeeze into a tiny syringe I keep in my pocket. A very small needle and the tiniest drop in the cell cup is all I need to make the job easier.
 
#21 ·
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/beesbetterqueens.htm#Shortcomings of the Grafting Method

"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
 
#22 ·
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.
 
#23 ·
View attachment 4068 Lauri, 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.
 
#26 ·
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?
 
#27 ·
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.
 
#28 ·
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/...ral_liquid)__hypen__9_dot_9fl_oz.html#product
 
#29 ·
> 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.
 
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