Royal jelly

I have recently gained a new beekeeper friend, from Bandırma, Turkey. He posted some pictures of odd looking frames in which he harvests royal jelly. Does anyone have experience of this? I'm not planning on trying it lol, not for a long long time anyway, but I was just wondering, how much royal jelly can you get? Does it not affect the colony in other ways? It's the first time I've come across this.

The usual amount is around 300mg/cell. China has six universities devoted to apicultural research. By selection and breeding they have managed to push the average annual production in the last 30 years from around 1,5kg/hive to around 10,5kg/hive

I suppose they mix it with their powdered rhino and tiger.

Norton said:

The usual amount is around 300mg/cell. China has six universities devoted to apicultural research. By selection and breeding they have managed to push the average annual production in the last 30 years from around 1,5kg/hive to around 10,5kg/hive

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Wow!! Would honey production suffer? It must take an awful lot of work on the bees behalf to produce it in great amounts. My friend doesn't speak much English, so my many questions are kind of lost in translation lol. Very interesting though, I have a few beek friends from other parts of the world and watching them work is fascinating! I had one US friend comment on the 'extended frames' my son was holding in one of my pictures. It was a 14x12

erichalfbee said:

i suppose they mix it with their powdered rhino and tiger.

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lol

Shame they don't up their hygiene levels instead of harvesting... (bu.g...ng about ) with royal jelly

I have noticed some really dark comb on some of the pics, like, black!! I have another beek friend in Turkey, so watch their videos and they fair throw those frames around. Both have considerable amounts of hives, so wondered if it was a commercial thing? The dark frames too?

Are the beekeepers in the west of Turkey?

With the price of royal jelly, I would think that honey is (virtually) a waste product.

Same as if you listen to the fatbeeman - he isn't interested in honey, but queens and other products of the hive. (Which is his business model, and he does it well, and he makes good videos - just to be clear, I am not knocking him at all, but he is not in it for the honey )

Erichalfbee said:

I suppose they mix it with their powdered rhino and tiger.

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They probably mix it with any old cr*p and just forget to say it's not all royal jelly - same business model as their honey really

True... I recently saw 'Manuka Active' honey on the supermarket shelves. This meant it was the weakest Manuka (Sun protection Factor 5) mixed 50:50 with normal honey...

Now, surely, if just one flower of the Manuka half was not from a Manuka bush then less than the majority of the honey would be Manuka... wouldn't that be a breach of the labelling regulations?

I tried it during season when breaking down some queen cells.

Powerful stuff taste wise ! Does anybody eat it during queen cell reduction or am I mad ??

Hey All

Excuse my ignorance. Why would a beek want to harvest royal jelly ?

I presume it has some commercial value, maybe an aphrodisiac ?........

Cheers
Matt

It will make you look 10 years younger !.

Make you irresistable to the opposite sex. !

Give you the ability to learn multiple languages in one day and guarantee you 1st place in the 3.30 @ Chepstow, if you enter without a horse.

Apart from that, might be good for Piles !!

BrianO said:

Apart from that, might be good for Piles !!

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Who the heck would want to induce piles?

Dusty

Royal Jelly is the only food known to increase longevity. For that reason is in a great deal of health foods and health supplements. It commands premium prices.

The thing that they don't point out on the labels is that it only works for bees. (A bee fed consistently on royal jelly lives 3 to 5 years, a bee that is only fed on royal jelly for the first part of its life only lives 4 to 8 weeks... but you knew that already.)

Norton said:

Are the beekeepers in the west of Turkey?

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Northern Turkey if I remember rightly.

BrianO said:

Apart from that, might be good for Piles !!

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Maybe you misunderstood the context of the original comment, I cannot recall who said it, it might have been my grandfather but it went along the lines of: ' manmooka honey, pollen supplement!!! - you can eat both until it comes out of your ears but for all the good it'll do you , you might as well stick them up your *rse|!'

Charming! But off topic to say the least.

Maybe you misunderstood the context of the original comment, I cannot recall who said it, it might have been my grandfather but it went along the lines of: ' manmooka honey, pollen supplement!!! - you can eat both until it comes out of your ears but for all the good it'll do you , you might as well stick them up your *rse|!'

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Here Here !! Whatever happened to a good auld gob full of Broccoli or some Cabbage, it's all Chia seed this and Goji Berry that.... Has to be a latest and greatest !

Sitting here with a bottle of Erdinger and a plate of Pasta ... Now that's what you call Healthfood !