# Opuntia/Prickly Pear fruit juice and queen cells



## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

In late Summer, when there hasn't been enough rain to keep many wildflower blooming, prickly pear fruit ripens and birds break the fruits open, then the bees start harvesting some of the fruit juice, then if I don't begin supplemental feeding -- this can happen ->


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## MichaBees (Sep 26, 2010)

Do you have a theory as to why it happens ?


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Other than the freakishly long one, those look about like my average cells. It makes me feel better (oddly enough) that yours aren't *all *outstanding. Not that these are all that shabby. Where do you get your cell cups? They (Mann lake) always send me all the same color.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I have occasionally seen one like that. It's like they didn't know when to stop...


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

MicaBees,
My theory is that compounds, like glucosides, known to occur in prickly pear fruit (said to help with diabetes in humans), possibly interferes with developing honey bee larvae.

David,
I get my cell cups directly from JZsBZs - I order equal quantities of all the bright colors, I don't care for the dark smokey ones. And the cells that have less royal jelly, when first capped, than enough to completely fill the plastic cups are discards (or used for experimental purposes only).

Michael,
When I saw my first runaway queen cell I thought they'd never stop growing it. I checked it each day and it just kept growing longer and longer. I've not had them finish one like this, yet, they eventually abort them - perhaps they'll finish one like this eventually.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

So would you cull all except the one on the left?


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

I think it is safe to say that there is some level of toxicity to what they are gathering. Queen cells are the equivalent of the canary in the coal mine. If anything at all is amiss it will always show up in queen cells first. Think of the royal jelly as a highly concentrated sample of what is being foraged on in the area. I have seen this in east Texas on an exceptional Yellow Jasmine year. I know of commercial queen producers who have had outbreaks of this and never know the reason but just assume it is probably some chemical and or toxic pollen in the area. Always look at any queen cell that is longer than the norm with suspicion. Typically what is happening is that the larvae becomes detached from the rj and falls to the bottom where the bees in their effort to cap it keep making it longer. Look at a ripe queen cell (10 days after grafting) with suspicion if it has a lot of rj still in the cup (this can occasionally be deceiving) and if it appears to have not been consumed then very gently squeeze on the cell. Healthy cells are firm, unhealthy cells are mushy.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

David LaFerney said:


> So would you cull all except the one on the left?


 It is a bit early to say (I am assuming these are about day 6 or 7) if any of these are bad except the long one. I would be suspicious, though, of the one on the far left that has not consumed any rj yet.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

I did cull all in this batch, except the one on the far left of the pic and the two just to the right of the elongated cell.

I like jim's analogy about, "canary in a coal mine". Right now almost all my strong hives are bringing in lots of prickly pear fruit juice, so that entire frames of open worker brood are bright pink, including the larvae, but it doesn't usually seem to have an obvious harmful effect on them. But if I weren't providing supplemental feed to my queen cell builder colony (as has happened in prior years), their royal jelly turns a bright shade of pink, almost fluorescent, then the queen larvae also turn pink, especially their mid-vein and almost all of those cells will become like the elongated cell in the OP pic. Providing pollen sub with lots of extra sugar and a little syrup when prickly pear fruit is abundant, helps to eliminate this problem.

I think I will try to get a good pic of pink worker brood.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

Here's a pic of pink worker brood -->









and​


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