Amount of royal jelly in queen cells

[boca]

Bees store a copious amount of royal jelly in the queen cups, so the larva is floating on the jelly. The worker be inspecting the cell should "know" somehow how deep the jelly is.
What could be the regulation mechanism to signal that it is enough?

Perhaps she is touching the bottom with her tongue?

 

[beeno]

Bees store a copious amount of royal jelly in the queen cups, so the larva is floating on the jelly. The worker be inspecting the cell should "know" somehow how deep the jelly is.
What could be the regulation mechanism to signal that it is enough?

Perhaps she is touching the bottom with her tongue?

I have seen both extremes in worker cells from tiny amounts to copious amounts. I would guess it depends on the condition and amount of nurse bees and the forage availability as well as how much brood they have to feed.

 

[boca]

Yes the scarcity of resources sets a maximum. However there must be another check too.
It does not make a difference in the amount of jelly in a cell if I put a single cell or 10 cells in a queenless hive during a nectar flow when there is no scarcity.
Somehow they realise what is enough even if they could produce more.

Don't be afraid of the "experts" of this forum. I am looking for hypotheses to test experimentally.

 

[beeno]

Yes the scarcity of resources sets a maximum. However there must be another check too.
It does not make a difference in the amount of jelly in a cell if I put a single cell or 10 cells in a queenless hive during a nectar flow when there is no scarcity.
Somehow they realise what is enough even if they could produce more.

Don't be afraid of the "experts" of this forum. I am looking for hypotheses to test experimentally.

Absolutely, go for it! Maybe another consideration would be the angle of the head as a measuring implement if you did not want to dunk your hole tongue into the royal jelly? Just a thought.

 

[sipa]

Protein intake of the correct profile can enhance the size of the Hypopharyngeal gland, thus increasing royal jelly production capacity.

A well fed queencell produces queens of superior quality with enhanced egg laying capacity.

We feed our own proprietary mix to achieve this in all of our cellbuilders.

And before anybody asks for a research paper to substantiate my comments here is just one to get you going : http://www.researchgate.net/publica...lands_of_newly_hatched_bees_(Apis_mellifera_L.)