Fertility of Bees and Vitamin E

Abstract

THE question arises as to how in the bee colony certain larvae are turned into queen bees with extraordinary powers of fecundity while the larvae which become worker bees normally are sterile. The larvae start equal, for both queen and worker larvae are incubated from fertilised eggs, and it is known that a worker larva not more than three days old can be converted into a queen. The suggestion was made by one of us that the larva destined to be a queen bee was given a diet rich in vitamin E which is necessary for fertility, while this vitamin was withheld from the worker larva. The queen larva is fed solely on what is termed ‘royal jelly’, and when the queen is actively laying (for example, 2000 eggs a day) she is fed by her attendants with the same rich food. Royal jelly is generally accepted as being a secretion from the pharyngeal glands. Worker larvae are supposed to be fed on royal jelly up to the age of three days when they are weaned on a diet of honey and pollen. According to von Planta (Cowan's “Honey Bee”) the larval foods of the bees have the following average composition :