# Royal Jelly



## muskratcreekhoney (Mar 30, 2010)

Yes, it would be nice to have a trustworthy source.


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## Ben Franklin (May 3, 2011)

How do you collect the Royal Jelly???


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

I am interested. I have only found one source that knows the difference between worker and queen royal jelly.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Ben, we raise queen cells, remove the larvae and harvest the jelly on day 3 and 4.


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## Grizbee (Sep 23, 2009)

Yes, what would be the quantity and the cost ?


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Small and high. 

Lol. At this point we haven't settled on pricing... the syringes range from .5oz to 3oz.


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## Riverratbees (Feb 10, 2010)

For the folks out there who raise queens I think it would be a great idea.


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## Jackobeeo (Jan 11, 2010)

Yes, very interested.

What shelf life for the royal jelly. I have just ordered some frozen, but have a similar question for that product after defrosting. I guess the thing to do is order just what can be used in 'what' period.

Jack


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Jack. It really just depends on the use. If used for grafting its good for years just refrigerated. Take it out before grafting to let it warm to room temp and refrigerate again after use. For consumption, keep it refrigerated at all times and discard unused portions every 90 days or so.

What we are thinking of selling is 100% pure, collected within 15 days of distribution, and packed in plastic syringes for easy application to cell cups... 

We refrigerate until shipping and will be shipping USPS Express next day to retain freshness.

Hope this helps.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Jack,

To defrost yours, just place it in your refrigerator door and allow it to sit until its unfrozen.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

What is the advantage of using it?


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

David, it helps when grafts take when it is windy or hot. The jelly helps to keep the keep your larvae from drying out. Some people use yogurt, watered down honey, etc, but the main concern for raising cells is nutrition, so using pure royal jelly gives the grafted larvae something proper to feed on while the nurses get to each cell and remove the old jelly and replace it with fresh... keeping your grafts fed more consistently with a natural and quality diet during the whole process.


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## SERGE (Sep 14, 2010)

Dr. Russell, I see that you are selling this on your website now. How many ounce syringe do you cell in?
Thanks



rrussell6870 said:


> the syringes range from .5oz to 3oz.


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## SERGE (Sep 14, 2010)

rrussell6870 said:


> Ben, we raise queen cells, remove the larvae and harvest the jelly on day 3 and 4.


Is that 3-4 days after grafting?
Thanks


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

.5 oz is the syringe size that we have decided to use... the larger syringes tend to get in the way of seeing the cell floor while priming, and the .5 oz primes many cells, so it seems to be the best size to standardize with...

Yes, 3-4 days after grafting. 

Thanks.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

A question on your plastic syringe "needles": I couldn't tell if I was supposed to pull it off, or cut the tip off (I cut, because pulling didn't get me anywhere, lol). I used it once, and refrigerated it for about a week or so. Second time I used it, the tip was full of dried RJ. Does this affect the quality of the product, to the point where I should discard it? What method should I use to re-seal it? I've been wrapping it in a paper towel so far, but it does little to help.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

The tip that you cut is a cap. Lol. It keeps the thin plastic needle air tight... using a spoon or a finger nail to remove the cap may help... they are sealed to create a vacuum inside, so the first time may be a little tough... I am going to mail you a new cap in a regular envelope so you can discard the old cap.. once it arrives, squeeze out the dried jelly from the tip and put the new cap on... that will keep it airtight so it will maintain its freshness...


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## SERGE (Sep 14, 2010)

rrussell6870 said:


> .5 oz is the syringe size that we have decided to use... the larger syringes tend to get in the way of seeing the cell floor while priming, and the .5 oz primes many cells, so it seems to be the best size to standardize with...
> 
> Yes, 3-4 days after grafting.
> 
> Thanks.


Thank you for the feedback. Do you use a graftless system in your operation for this or does it work better to graft?


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Grafting definitely. We do not use any graftless systems, but I don't think it would be possible to prime those cells.. for us, grafting is best and we prime to counter the effects of the weather or lack of incoming forages whenever it is necessary.


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## sevenmmm (Mar 5, 2011)

Try the royal jelly by eating the cell wall as well. I did this the last one I ate and the taste lingered in the wax for a time. Soon I might do the larvae too, if I can get over the heebee geebees connected with eating a bug.. 

I just love the stuff and would be interested in buying some when my bees are hibernating.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

When I studied under Dr. Tarpy he encouraged us to taste the royal jelly. I can't say I got hooked on the stuff though, lol.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Lol. My grandmother used to make us eat it every season... I prefer pollen (may have something to do with my sinus issues. Lol)...

As a little boy, we had thousands of drawer type pollen traps that my father would Exchange almost daily as each one would collect a little over a pound per day... he would slide out the filled drawer, and slide in an empty one... then we would put the filled ones in a huge stack system that use open air, sunlight, and convection airflow to dry the pollen while it was still in the drawers... then we would collect the pollen by dumping each drawer into huge bags that went to pharmaceutical companies and Revlon and Avon cosmetics...(ever wonder what the secret ingredient in the "age defying" cream was? Lol)... while he was dumping the drawers into the sacks each night, I was always a few drawers ahead of him getting a belly full... he used to love to tell people about those three little finger drags in every drawer as he went along the lower rows.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

WAY off topic, sorry, but did you guys make those pollen traps yourself, or order them?

I've been looking high and low for plans to make my own pollen traps, but I'm coming up empty handed. I'm too cheap to shell out the $60 or so dollars for a store bought one (although I dont have a problem spending several times that on your site Russell, lol).


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Lol. We made them... or I should say HE made them, as I was to young at the time to do anything other than observe... we had about 12,000 of them at one point when he ran them on about half of the operation... he sold them all though when he decided it was too much work to keep up with in the heat of summer... I can't remember who ended up with them... either Richard Adee or Roy Koehnen I would imagine.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

Darn, lol. I figured if anyone knew of plans to make a good pollen trap it would be you . . . even though you arn't in that line of work . . . 

I might just need to stop being cheap and buy the dang thing. I'm probably spending more in pollen sub. mixture than I would in the trap over time.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

I use a few sundance traps every now and then as well as a few of the cheap plastic ones that hang on the entrance... honestly, I only use about 50 gallons of pollen per year, mostly for beetle juice... so the cheap ones that hang on the front are enough for me and don't give shb a hiding place or break my back lifting boxes to add or remove the better ones... but I do have plans somewhere for several different types... I will see if I can dig them up...


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

I was hoping to use about 90% of the pollen to feed back to the bees, and about 10% for various "projects." I heard that the ones that hang on the front don't provide a very clean product, which isn't a problem for the 90% that I feed back, but makes things very difficult for the other 10%.


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## Lost Bee (Oct 9, 2011)

Just wondering, what does fresh royal jelly taste like?
Is it sweet like honey?

Found this information on royal jelly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_jelly

Seems a protein called royalactin in royal jelly causes the bees to become queens. 
Here's pdf on the subject.

http://www.cbmeg.unicamp.br/bg581/BG581/avisos/avisos_files/nature10093.pdf


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

It tastes very bitter.


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## Lost Bee (Oct 9, 2011)

Ok, should have known it was too good to be true.
Maybe, it needs honey to sweeten up the pot. 
If sugar tasted bad, there would be no diabetics.

Then again most healthy things taste bad anyway.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

For me the taste isn't "bitter", but rather quite sour/tart. The flavor, for me, is reminiscent of plain yogurt, but with more of an acidic bite.


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## Lost Bee (Oct 9, 2011)

I have an off-the wall question again. 

I was wondering what the effect of feeding a tiny amount of let's say 2-3 grams of *Royal Jelly* 
in a watering feeder with sugar water would do the honey bee hive? Maybe, just before closing up for 
winter and once in the spring. 

1. Has anyone ever feed honey bees this way?

2. Would this be a total waste of time?

3. Would this make the honey bees more active, healthier, etc. than before?

4. I'll let you fill in this question? 

Since *Royal Jelly* is supposed to be full of Baby Foodfor honey bees.
I was wondering if it could help out in anyway later on in life. Kind of like the way
adults still drink milk because it's good for them

Hopefully, it doesn't make the female workers start laying eggs. 
So if anyone ever tries this please go easy. I don't want to be 
blamed for hostile queen fighting.


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## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

Not trying to show my age (advanced!) but the first beekeeper I worked for had a large RJ business. We would graft and harvest the cells after 4 days and remove the larva. The cell was then closed up by folding it similar to the crimp on a shotgun shell. We then dropped 12 cells in a small jar of honey which the clients bought. They used one cell per day by just chewing up the whole cell and discarding the wax. I have eaten not only the RJ but also, at the urging of the boss, larva along with the RJ. Strangely enough, the larva tastes just like RJ. Why wouldn't it? There are only 2 things that go into that cell, an egg and Royal Jelly!


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