Pollen vs Nectar - Who eats what?

[Rurification]

Spring has sprung here and the maples and pussywillows are blooming.   All of my hives made it through the winter [Yay!] and are bringing in a lot of pollen.   

My question is this:   Who eats what?

Brood eats beebread made from pollen.   Do adults eat pollen?
Do they make beebread with honey as well as pollen?   
What's royal jelly made of?

And in dry years when there are things blooming, but not enough rain to make a lot of nectar, can the bees 'starve' in that season without enough nectar...? or is the problem in those years that they can't make enough honey to store to get them all the way through the winter dearth, when there is neither nectar nor pollen....?

[Michael Bush]

>Brood eats beebread made from pollen.

Not exactly.  The nurse bees eat bee bread.  Some is fed directly to the brood.  Some is digested by the nurse bees and used to secrete royal jelly from their hypopharyngeal gland.

>Do adults eat pollen?

Only to make royal jelly.

>Do they make beebread with honey as well as pollen?   

Yes.

>What's royal jelly made of?

It is secreted from the hypopharyngeal gland from the constituents of digested bee bread. 

[tjc1]

Interesting - so adult bees do not consume any protein, only honey?

[bwallace23350]

What is royal jelly

[Hops Brewster]

Royal jelly is what is fed to all larvae the first 3 days.  Queen cells are given LOTS of royal jelly to trigger queen the morphology.

[AR Beekeeper]

The nurse bees eat the pollen, then they feed larvae and the other adult bees the protein they require.  They adjust the food to the type bee they are feeding, larvae, forager, drone, or the queen.

[Michael Bush]

>Interesting - so adult bees do not consume any protein, only honey?

Only the nurse bees consume protein in order to pass it on to the larvae.  Other adults do not require it.

[Rurification]

Very helpful!

So, in dry summers, where there is pollen, but not a lot of nectar, bees can starve.  Right?

[BeeMaster2]

Robin,
Can and do.
Jim

[Michael Bush]

>So, in dry summers, where there is pollen, but not a lot of nectar, bees can starve.  Right?

Yes.  They can starve when there is no nectar but an abundance of pollen.  They have to have nectar for the adults to continue to live.  They have to have both nectar and pollen to raise brood (or at least honey and bee bread).

[Rurification]

Thank you guys very much!    That helps me understand some things better.   I appreciate it.