Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
jelly than the queens, and, over the next few days, the number of worker ovarioles
therefore dwindles.
On day 5, the workers and queens differ vastly in ovarioles count. It is then that both
the worker and queen larvae spin cocoons and pupate (they undergo several changes
to emerge as adult bees). The workers continue to reabsorb their ovarioles into their
bodies through pupation. As emerging adults, workers have only about 10 ovarioles,
whereas queens have over 100. With so few egg-producing ovarioles left, the larval
workers largely lose the ability to reproduce.
The effects of royal jelly
Royal jelly creates queens through its effect on 'juvenile hormone'. This amazing
hormone can, for example, keep caterpillars in the larval stage and so prevent them from
developing into adults. It puts them into an 'eternal youth' state and keeps them there.
It seems likely that lots of royal jelly changes the 'juvenile hormone' levels in maturing
larvae so that females develop fully formed egg-producing organs: the workers (who
don't receive enough jelly) fall into an 'eternal youth' state, but the queens (who receive
plenty) don't and therefore mature.
The nurse bees are the royal-jelly producers and feeders as a normal part of all worker
bee development. These nurse bees are young workers, usually around three to six days
old. At this age, the worker bee has well developed glands that produce this brood food.
The hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands, from which the main components of
royal jelly are formed, are located in the worker bees' heads.
Harvesting royal jelly is not difficult and is dealt with in Chapter 12. Some beekeepers
dedicate their production to royal jelly alone, and the demand for the product is huge.
After all, it can make you young again!
Bees produce beeswax by synthesizing the sugars in honey. The worker bee's four wax
glands mature around her second week of life as an adult and are situated on her lower
