Ramirez and Marin-R. tried something relevant. In Amer Bee J Vol 129 (12) Dec
1989 p 821 there is a summary of a comparison of royal jelly, distilled water
and cola as Q-cell "primers" (there was apparently a story going around, of cola
being beneficial). They report no statistical differences in quality of queens,
but report a difference in percentage of queens produced (royal jelly better
than dist water better than cola). All the values for emergence are low (57 %,
46 %, 26 %). Discussion at the meeting as I recall, indicated that reduction of
drying was the most important function of priming. If humidity was high and time
out of the colony short, priming was considered not necessary.