For many years, scientist had the conclusion that royal jelly was the substance that made honey bee larva develop to a queen. This substance, the royal jelly, looks like white snot. Another name for it is “bee milk” – the half of it made of water and the other of proteins and sugars. The worker bees have royal jelly in the special glands of their heads, and they feed it to their babies. So, one developing queen bee is being fed royal jelly only. All the other bees are fed pollen and honey which was collected from the plants. This is the nutritional castration for the worker bees. Accordingly, their ovaries do not develop, and they cannot become a queen.
However, recent studies came to a different conclusion. It is actually vice versa. The fact that the immature queen does not get pollen and honey is what makes her a queen bee. It is not the royal jelly that only she has access to.
The same genetic material can be the source of very different animals. It is only important which genes get active. The genes make proteins and they define our body afterwards. In the case of bees, it is the nutrition that defines their body. So, royal jelly is surrounding queen larvae, and she enjoys a huge amount of it. On the other hand, worker bees eat fermented pollen (bee bread) and honey. They do not get to eat the “good stuff”. This is the existing known explanation.
Why worker bees cannot become queen bees?
The recent research that Dr. May Berenbaum made can give us an answer to the question about what do bee babies eat. Previously mentioned worker bees’ food is made from plant materials, and they contain phenolic chemicals. Queen bee’s royal jelly does not contain any phenolic acids. Flavonoids are the chemicals that give plants their specific flavors. It also helps bees detoxify pesticides faster. Additionally, flavonoids increase the immune responses of adult worker bees.
To do the research, scientists fed two groups of bee larvae different diets. They gave to the first one a diet that contains p-coumaric flavonoids. The second one got a diet without any flavonoids. The ovaries of the first group of bees were drastically smaller than the other group’s ovaries. This study discovered why queen bees live longer and are bigger than the worker bees. This is because P-coumaric acid is changing the expression of half of the genes involved in the organ size regulating system.
The research discovers the reason why worker bees cannot become queen bees. The thing is, not giving worker bees royal jelly and saving it only for the queen is actually protecting queen’s ovaries. It is not only a nutrition castration as it was explained in the previous studies. Thus, not getting pollen and honey is protecting the queen bee from all the potential toxic effects from the plants‘ chemicals.
Read more about 5 facts about queen bees you probably didn’t know!
What about all the other species of bees? Shouldn’t flavonoids in pollen and nectar have the same effect on them as on honey bees? Something makes no sense to me.
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