The impact of pollen trapping on royal jelly production in honeybee Apis mellifera L., colonies

Abstract

Royal jelly (RJ) is a yellowish-white acidic glandular secretion produced by worker honeybees. RJ is fed to worker and drone bees in the first three days of their larval stage, but for five days in queen larvae and after development as adult. Globally, RJ is mightily demanded and utilized commercially in supplementary medicines and cosmetics. The present work was conducted to study the impact of pollen trapping of queen less-honeybee, Apies mellifera, colonies on acceptance rate of grafted queen cups, RJ production, i.e., amount per cup, and total colony production. Obtained results showed that non-trapped colonies averaged 54.186% acceptance rate of cell cups /colony, 0.124 mg RJ/ cup, and 3.012 g RJ/ colony, while those deprived of pollens were severely affected, averaged 23.799%, 0.099mg, and 1.073g for the same parameters, respectively. Significant differences between values of trapped and non-trapped colonies were found.