Pollen and honey are present in the food of older worker larvae. Honey bees use two systems of feeding larvae. Young larvae are fed amounts excessive to their needs and older larvae are provided small quantities of food as needed. A female larva fed continuously on lavish amounts of royal jelly and provided a large, peanut-shaped cell will become a queen. Another larva given a mixture of honey and pollen during the latter half of its larval life and kept in a worker cell becomes a worker.
Drone larvae grow larger than either workers or queens and, therefore, require more food.
The food given older drone larvae also is higher in pollen content than that given older worker larvae. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative differences distinguish the lar val food given queen, worker, and drone. The developing honey bee larva is a helpless creature whose principal function is eating. In this way, body wastes are stored internally and the food surrounding each larva is protected from fecal contamination. The feces are expelled and pushed down to the bottom of the cell about the time the cocoon is made and after the larva has finished eating.