Effect of Different Honey Bee, Apis mellifera L. Colonies Strength on the Quantity of the Produced Royal Jelly

The effect of honey bee colony strength on the quantity of the produced royal jelly was studied during spring season of 2015 using three categories (weak, medium and strong) of honey bee colonies at the apiary of Honey Bee Research Center, Faculty of Environmental Agricultural Sciences, Arish University., Al-Arish, North Sinai, Egypt. The results showed that the strong colonies recorded the highest number and percentage of accepted queen cells that mean the highest amount of royal jelly (12.22 gm / colony), moreover good rebuilding in short time (after two brood cycles) which increased by 7 % for combs covered with bees (ccb) and 2.7 % for worker brood cells (wbc) than that of the initial state. The medium colony strength appear to be balanced either for royal jell production (9.86 gm / colony) or rebuilding which increased slightly by 3.4 % for ccb and 1.1 % for wbc than that of the initial state. On the other hand the weak colonies produced lowest quantities of royal jelly (6.1 gm / colony) moreover, it failed to reach the original status after two brood cycles (it decreased by – 5.5 % for ccb and – 15 % for wbc).