Pete, the way that you are phrasing your claim is making it difficult to
discuss.

Bees clearly need to consume pollen or another source of protein, lipids,
sterols, vitamins, and minerals in order to develop many if not all of
their glands.  I doubt that anyone disputes this.

You recently refined your claim by citing Hepburn: " Once developed, the
glands may well function without additional pollen."  That helps to clarify
your question.

Your reference to Taranov's claim " influx of fresh, field pollen into a
colony stimulates wax production" is certain to engender debate, since many
of us observe pollen flows that do not result in any noticable wax
production.

Your reference to Kurstjens may also be misleading, since he? was
apparently referring to salivary components added to the wax.

One thing that I did find of interest was the Fig. 8 of Hepburn
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00890889/document

Oddly, the figure was accidentally reversed in the paper, and needs to be
flipped to read.  It indicates the the mode for wax production is at Day 9
after emergence (at least for the Cape bee).  This is of interest, since it
is earlier than that interpreted in Winston's review in The Biology of the
Honey Bee.  At that age, workers would be expected to be performing nursing
behavior, and exhibiting nurse physiology, as well as consuming large
quantities of pollen.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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