What Do Adult Queen Bees Eat?

[The15thMember]

This seems like something I should be able to get an answer to easily, but I'm strangely having trouble finding out.  I'm reading through the first edition of the American Bee Journal, and it claims that queen bees eat only honey, which I'm pretty sure is false, according to the knowledge we have nowadays.  In "The Beekeeper's Handbook" it says that the queens are fed royal jelly, but it doesn't say if they are ONLY fed royal jelly.  And that was weirdly the only reference I could find on the subject in all my books.  I did an internet search, but I couldn't find a reputable source, just bloggers who could be parroting false facts for all I know.  Are queen bees fed only royal jelly their whole lives, or are they fed any pollen and/or honey by their retinue?   

[BeeMaster2]

Queen bees are only fed Royal Jelly from nurse bees. The only exception to this is when they are separated from the bees. Jim Altmiller

[The15thMember]

Thanks, Jim.  So, follow-up question: Are queen bees incapable of feeding themselves? 

[JojoBeeBoy]

Interesting question, for sure. I've heard the same things as you. Since raising queens I can tell you that, to the best of my knowledge, they get packed in with royal jelly until capped. A good graft in a well-populated, healthy cell builder will have an excess of jelly in the tops of the cells. She will sometimes go back up into the cell (if emerged/finished in an incubator) and consume the remainder. In a hive, the workers will clean it up.

I've also heard that the initial jelly first given as the egg hatches into larvae is different from later jelly. I wouldn't swear to it, but I think I heard this from Dr. Jennifer Tsuruda (University of TN Knoxville) while attending a master beek class.

I can tell you from experience that the first thing a virgin queen will do after emerging is stick her head in a cell with nectar/honey and drink up. They are quite famished. I give them honey and water if emerging in an incubator. They can be kept this way for several days with no apparent harm.

I agree with Jim and think what they are consuming while laying their body weight in eggs each day is coming from nurses/attendants and is likely royal jelly. I never see them drinking/feeding themselves after mating and coming back. Doesn't mean they never do it, but they are usually walking around and someone else is passing off the food.

Great question! :D 

disclaimer: I've been messing with bees for many years and they school me frequently, so I could be wrong about pretty much anything.

[The15thMember]

Interesting question, for sure. I've heard the same things as you. Since raising queens I can tell you that, to the best of my knowledge, they get packed in with royal jelly until capped. A good graft in a well-populated, healthy cell builder will have an excess of jelly in the tops of the cells. She will sometimes go back up into the cell (if emerged/finished in an incubator) and consume the remainder. In a hive, the workers will clean it up.

I've also heard that the initial jelly first given as the egg hatches into larvae is different from later jelly. I wouldn't swear to it, but I think I heard this from Dr. Jennifer Tsuruda (University of TN Knoxville) while attending a master beek class.

I can tell you from experience that the first thing a virgin queen will do after emerging is stick her head in a cell with nectar/honey and drink up. They are quite famished. I give them honey and water if emerging in an incubator. They can be kept this way for several days with no apparent harm.

I agree with Jim and think what they are consuming while laying their body weight in eggs each day is coming from nurses/attendants and is likely royal jelly. I never see them drinking/feeding themselves after mating and coming back. Doesn't mean they never do it, but they are usually walking around and someone else is passing off the food.

Great question! :D 

disclaimer: I've been messing with bees for many years and they school me frequently, so I could be wrong about pretty much anything.

Thanks for your reply, Jojo.  All very interesting observations!  I've never heard of virgins feeding themselves like that before.  I'm remembering something about the composition of royal jelly being different at different stages of larval development as well.  I think I heard about that in a podcast or seminar, but I can't remember where. 

[TheHoneyPump]

I can share the same - similar observations.
Newly emerged virgin queens are VERY hungry. They continue to develop and grow in size for a couple days after emerging. I have seen them come out, turn around, and go right back in to finish off the unused jelly in the base of the queen cell cup. I have seen them a day later walking the frames and feeding on open wet-nectar cells. However, once mated and laying I have not seen them feed themselves from cells on a frame in the hive. A mated queen is often seen begging to nearby bees who feed her mouth to mouth. A mated queen in a cage will lick at and eat up smears of honey or water on the screen of the cage.
So it would appear, at least to me, that a queen is perfectly capable of feeding herself. She will feed on nectar/honey as a self reliant virgin and as a caged mated queen for survival. Otherwise she will mainly be fed a jelly-mix via mouth to mouth by nest bees when she is in laying mode.

Hope that helps, in some way.

[Michael Bush]

If I put a laying queen in a queen cage with candy she will usually die in less than a day.  So, no, I don't think she remembers how to feed herself.  If I put a virgin queen in a cage she will feed herself.  If you watch one in a hive, she has no retinue. So the virgin must feed herself or beg food like any other bee.