Royal Jelly
Lexikon
The brood food from the head glands of the nurse bees, also called queen jelly.
The brood food from the head glands of the nurse bees, also called queen jelly. All larvae are fed with it in the first days of life.
The decisive difference comes afterward: worker and drone larvae are switched to a mash of honey and pollen, while the queen larva receives the nurse bees' brood food for her entire larval period, and in generous amounts. This turns the same fertilized egg into a queen instead of a worker.
It is precisely this switch that makes raising an emergency queen possible. The time window is narrow, though: a queenless colony can still raise a queen only from a larva in its first days of larval life; after that, its development is fixed.
Quellen (4)
- Die Honigmacher: Die Larve (Fütterung mit Futtersaft, Ausnahme Königinnenlarve)
- Die Honigmacher: Verlust der Königin (in den ersten drei Tagen kann aus einer Larve eine Königin werden)
- Die Honigmacher: Ammenbienen (Brei aus Honig und Pollen für Arbeiterinnen- und Drohnenlarven)
- Bienen und mehr: Vom Ei zur Biene (Futtersaft in den ersten Tagen, danach Honig und Pollen)