Brian R Tucker wrote:
>
> I have a story then a question.
>
> I have this hive that I requeened the other day. The queen was still in the
> cage after a few days so I went ahead and released her. As soon as I let her
> out she went straight to an open cell of honey and started eating.
 
 
The assertion that the queen is always fed by her court, with the
implication that she cannot feed herself, and sometimes that she is fed
only Royal Jelly, I believe, is false.  I have watched a good many
Queens hatch from their own Queen cells, and they quite often go
promptly to a honey cell nearly full, and drink long and hard with a
"pumping" abdomen.  They are *not* exploring the cell before mime
laying, although even virgin queens often do that.   Subsequently, I
have watched mature queens feed themselves from honey cells, even come
out of a cell just layed in, proceed immediately to a honey cell and
eat, again with "pumping" abdomen. .  The frequency with which her
"court" does feed the queen (royal jelly I presume) is quite necessary.
This food, produced by younger nurse bees capable of making it, must
either deposit it into building queen cells, into 1-2 day old larval
brood cells, or feed it to the queen (As far as I know, it is not stored
elsewhere).  Obviously, the queen needs a great deal of this material to
help enhance production of certain necessary pheromones, and especially
she needs its high protein content, from which she builds a thousand(s)
eggs each day.  Thus, while it *appears* that she is being exclusively
fed, I am certain that she feeds herself honey at least part of the
time!  I shall be interested to know others have made such observations
on this.   Thanks for a timely observation, Brian.
 
Bob Barnett, Birmingham, Ala