Beekeepers will be given training on how to make this ‘queenly’ food as Pune-based Central Bee Research and Training Institute (CBRTI) has perfected the art of developing royal jelly. Researchers at the CBRTI — Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Government of India — have now devised a system that involves the management of bee colonies, grafting of larvae and storage of royal jelly.

Royal jelly that turns the queen bee into a long living super fertile animal is known for its therapeutic uses - as an anti-ageing agent, hormonal stimulant and energy enhancer and costs Rs 8000 a kg in the international market. Imported from countries like China, Taiwan and Korea this product is sold in the form of capsules and is found in various beauty products.

M T Wagode, Deputy Director, CBRTI told The Indian Express that the project to produce royal jelly was taken up two years ago on an experimental basis. Royal jelly is produced by the worker bee – from its hypopharyngeal glands to feed the larva. When fed lavishly it hatches as a queen bee.

To produce royal jelly, bee colonies are stimulated with movable frame hives so as to produce queen bees. Then it is collected from each individual queen cell when the larva is about five days old.

Efforts are taken to graft one-day-old larvae in the queen bee cells and introduce the frame in the bee colony. More jelly is fed by the worker bees into this larvae as they think it is the queen bee that is emerging. However the cycle is interrupted here and after 72 hours the frame is taken out and the royal jelly is scooped out, explains Wagode. He points out it is an extremely tedious process but this technique can now prove to be additional source of income for beekeepers.