What is royal jelly?

Royal jelly is a milky white food that is secreted by glands in the throats of worker bees and fed to bee larvae. It’s named as such as it was once believed that this was only fed to those larvae in the colony destined to become queens. We now know that this protein-rich food is fed to all bee larvae in the colony, but larvae that are to become workers are fed small amounts and those to become queens are given an excess of this food.

Stuart Hine, Manager of the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, National History Museum