Apitherapy is the medical and cosmetic
use of honey bee products, such as royal jelly, but what does it take to make these health and beauty products?
Royal jelly is made
by first destroying or segregating the queen in a hive. At the same time young bee
eggs are taken from the hive and inserted via a needle into multiple
rows of artificial queen cells, which have been smeared with starter
royal jelly or honey to help adhere the eggs to the cell walls.
As many as 40+ of these artificial queen cells are then inserted
back into the agitated, queen-less hive, and the bees start to raise
replacement emergency queens. As part of this process hundreds of
nurse bees produce royal jelly from mandibular glands in their heads,
and cover each larva in a thick layer.
After 36 hours the queen cells are removed, the young queens
picked out and thrown away, and the royal jelly bottled. In a
repeated production line process a bee farmer can force a hive to
produce 500g of royal jelly per hive a year. Often the weakened hive normally becomes unsustainable.
Who thinks of the welfare and stress of bees when they are
producing or buying royal jelly products, not to mention propolis
and bee pollen? So much of what is wrong with humankind is due to
habitulization; actions are taken without thinking.
In obtaining royal
jelly, bees are placed under repeated survival stress. We do not need
these supplements, face creams or specialty honey made with added royal
jelly. In a world that supports such heartless business, is it any
wonder the bees are dying.