Royal jelly source

[Ray Bayless]

I plan to raise my own queens next year using the Doolittle and Cloake method. I am looking for a good source of fresh royal jelly to prime the cups. I found that Glory Bee sells the stuff. Is this product suitable for this use? Is there another source that I can purchase some from?

[deknow]

Most folks I talk to are using the chinese grafting tool, jzbz cups, and no cell priming (so no royal jelly is used).  Regardless, for the amount you will need, you can collect your own from a queen cell or two.  Either wait until you find one, or you can graft a few...or let the bees start some emergency cells....harvest the jelly right after the cells are capped.

deknow

[tefer2]

I'm with deknow on collecting your own. I would just make up a queenless 5 frame nuc and collect it from the cells they make. No sense in paying for it. I dry graft into JZBZ cups with good success now without anything.

[BjornBee]

Ray,

See this page: http://www.bjornapiaries.com/researchatbjorns.html

scan down to the section entitled "Commercial Pollen Tested".

Insert "Royal Jelly: any place it says "Pollen" And the same story could very well be true.

Ask any reseller where they get their products. If they are not producing it themselves, they are probably buying in bulk from China. And as was the same question with pollen, you can read how that worked out. The pollen was tainted with pesticides and DDT.

Royal jelly is easy to produce. You don't need much to prime a cup. I "paint" the bottom with a fine paint brush. If the bees smell that royal jelly is already in the cup, they take it from there.