Research into factors that influence the amount of royal jelly produced by honey bees

The natural instinct of queen rearing in bees is an evolutionarily established mechanism aimed at ensuring the survival and restoration of the bee colony. It is activated in situations when the bee colony loses the queen or when the existing queen becomes old, weak or less productive. When the bees in the nest stop feeling the queen's pheromones – special chemical biologically active substances, they react to her absence. This serves as a trigger for activating the instinct of rearing a new queen. The technological process of obtaining royal jelly is carried out on these principles. However, there are many factors that affect the indicators of obtaining this product. The article provides data on the influence of the nature of honey collection on the intensity of filling the queen cells with royal jelly. It is shown that when acacia nectar is secreted, honey bees quickly obtain a significant amount of carbohydrate resources. Up to 5–7 kg of nectar enters the nest during the day. Under such conditions, bees in the nurse colony give preference to the instinct of accumulating food. At the same time, the number of larvae accepted for queen rearing decreases. In the queen colonies, a 32.5 % lower amount of royal jelly was also found compared to the indicators obtained during the flowering of winter rapeseed. Along with this, the article describes the influence of the age of queen larvae on the indicators of their acceptance for rearing in nurse colonies. The most effective acceptance of larvae in experimental colonies occurs when the age of the transferred larva ranges from 12 to 24 hours. In the group of larvae whose age was 8 hours, the acceptance rate was lower compared to 12-hour ones by 13.5 % (P < 0.001). With an increase in the age of larvae inoculated for queen rearing by more than 24 hours, their acceptance rate also decreases by 26.3 % (P < 0.001). The article analyzes factors that reduce the acceptance rate of older larvae for queen rearing. Some of the reasons are related to the period that characterizes the physiological specialization of larvae. At the age of more than 12 hours, larvae undergo genetically determined selection mechanisms. Evolutionarily determined behavioral reactions of bees lead to the selective acceptance of younger larvae. It should be noted that there is a weakening of chemical signaling. Pheromones of older larvae are less attractive to nurse bees, which reduces their desire to accept such larvae. It is generally accepted that the process of obtaining royal jelly is considered an incomplete technological process of obtaining queen bees. Under such conditions, it should be understood that the family is experiencing an exacerbation of energy efficiency of resources associated with optimal use of feed. Older larvae require more resources, while their quality as future queens is no longer ideal. After 12 hours of development, physiological changes make such larvae less suitable for transformation into quality queens. These reasons may partially explain the decrease in the number of older larvae accepted.