What Is Royal Jelly and What Do Bees Use It For?
Every bee plays a role in the hive, but they all begin the same way—as larvae nestled in a cell, surrounded by royal jelly. When the larvae eventually display what sort of role they will serve in the hide—whether as a drone, forager, guard, nurse, fanner, and so on—they move on while sustaining the new queen on royal jelly. So, what is royal jelly, and what do bees use it for? Why is it so important for bees and humans? Discover the ramifications of royal jelly, its production, its role within a hive, and its implications for humans.
Royal Jelly: What Is It?
Royal jelly is not a fancy form of honey. It is a milky secretion worker bees produce that is rich in nutrients and serves as the exclusive food for the queen bee and young larvae. This nutrient-dense substance primarily consists of water, proteins, sugars, fats, vitamins, and amino acids. The specific components that make royal jelly so unique include royalactin, a protein that is crucial in the queen bee’s development. Queen bees are the only bees capable of laying eggs that eventually grow into larvae and other bees. Consider the specifics of royal jelly and the rest of the birth and life process in the hive.
The Role of Royal Jelly in a Beehive
Nurse bees produce royal jelly. They secrete it from glands located in their heads. It is used in several ways:
Feeding Larvae
As mentioned, all bee larvae initially eat royal jelly, but only those destined to become queens continue to consume it throughout their development. The ongoing diet of royal jelly triggers the genetic expression necessary for a larva to develop into a fertile queen rather than a sterile worker bee.
Nourishing the Queen
Ah, the benefits of royalty. The queen bee consumes royal jelly throughout her life. This diet supports her enhanced size, longevity, and fertility compared to worker bees. A steady intake of royal jelly enables the queen to lay up to 2,000 eggs per day, ensuring the colony’s growth and survival.
Repairing and Strengthening Bee Cells
Royal jelly also plays a role in maintaining the structural integrity of beehive cells. The nutrient-dense jelly occasionally serves to repair and fortify the cells that house the larvae, ensuring a safe environment for their development.
Stimulating Colony Activity
The presence of royal jelly in a hive supports colony activity. The larvae’s development accelerates as they feed on the jelly, prompting a more dynamic and active population within the hive, thus maintaining the colony’s overall productivity.
Creating a Reserve of Vital Nutrients
Honeybees produce and immediately feed royal jelly to larvae rather than store it like honey. However, royal jelly acts as a reserve of essential nutrients while it is with the larvae, providing vital nourishment during times of scarcity. Therefore, royal jelly’s role in the hive is critical during periods when external conditions limit foraging opportunities, ensuring that essential nutrients are available for the colony’s survival.
Boosting Larval Growth Rates
Royal jelly determines the larvae’s fate in becoming potential queens and aids in their growth rates. The abundance of essential nutrients in royal jelly ensures larvae develop rapidly and healthily, preparing them to take on their roles within the hive in no time.
Enhancing Colony Immunity
The presence of royal jelly contributes to the hive’s immunity, as it can contain various antimicrobial and antibacterial properties that protect bee larvae from pathogenic infections, ensuring a healthier and more resilient colony.
Supporting Drone Development
While the hive does not generally prioritize drones over other roles, royal jelly’s nutrient-rich composition supports their physical development, ensuring they can withstand their task of mating with the queen. After a time, drones feed on bee bread like other workers. This substance consists of pollen and nectar and is very nutritious for them.
The Queen’s Development
Royal jelly powers a honeybee’s transformation from a regular bee larva to a queen. Research suggests that royalactin, the royal jelly protein, influences gene expression involved in growth and development in bee larvae and future queens. This unique protein causes a queen bee to grow larger and develop ovaries and reproductive abilities, setting her far apart from other bees.
Here’s the nitty gritty on how it works:
The queen’s development is a marvel of genetic and nutritional interplay, underscoring the significance of royal jelly’s unique composition. The complex interaction between royalactin and the larva’s developing cells initiates an impressive wave of genetic activation. This activation alters the larva’s hormonal pathways, resulting in the queen bee’s distinct physical traits, such as her extended abdomen and fully developed reproductive organs.
Recent studies indicate that royalactin may also influence the developing queen’s brain size and sensory organs, ensuring she can manage the hive’s demands. Furthermore, the continuous ingestion of royal jelly throughout her life equips the queen with a hardy immune system and extended longevity unmatched by her worker counterparts who only live for five to seven weeks compared to her two or three years. This precise orchestration of genetics and nutrition highlights how vital royal jelly is as a nutrient source and modulator of bee development and hive “politics,” so to speak.
Human Interest in Royal Jelly
Is royal jelly good for humans? Opinions differ. Royal jelly has long intrigued human beings, with some cultures using it as a dietary supplement, beauty aid, and medicine. Research continues regarding royal jelly’s benefits, though some claims seem overly optimistic, such as enhanced longevity and extended youth in human beings.
That answers the question: What is royal jelly, and what do bees use it for? Though it greatly benefits queen bees and their hive’s health and politics, it does not serve any particular purpose for human beings. However, raw honey provides multiple health and nutritional benefits, such as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antimicrobial, and more. It is also naturally sweet and delicious! Need honey and other bee-related products? We are bulk honey suppliers dedicated to sustainable practices. Contact us for all your wildflower honey needs.